Ocean Side Cities
Clean up ocean side harbor cities using
Sea Cucumbers buy farming ocean side, other sea cucumbers are free to continuing cleaning ocean sands, all the while creating income for shore dwellers.
Oysters Planting Sea Grass Coral Rehabs such as Keys Marine Lab, Coral Restoration Foundation
microplastic removal using magnets - adapt it to capture microplastics as boat or freights cross oceans - adapt it to be places in harbor areas, creating a cleaning spot that brings in microplastics with the tide and storm. Adapt it to for humans, removing microplastics from the body.
River Side
Floating solar farms? Huge benefits for aquatic life, save water evaporation, water cools the panels making them more effective - but what we don't know is the ecological effects of shade on aqua life and differences of water evaporation on the water table in general - also, placing things in the ocean obviously changes it! So what should we do? Could we add solar farms to already existing overwater structures like bridges?
Wetlands, Marshes, Mangroves - carbon sinkholes that need to be protected and restored. Chilean Patagonia's national park
Micro Meadows how to City Micro Meadows - reconnect people and nature Lawnstrip mini meadow with Andrew-the-Arborist
Storm Water Garden Beds Philadelphia with Andrew the Arborist
Cityscapes
How we think about WATER moving through our city. The main way we think about water in the city is how to move it away from the city to avoid flooding and structural and consumer damage. What if instead of just thinking of water as a force of nature that comes to destroy, we considered it as an opportunity to practice motion, cooling, filtering and repurposing. The means to move water has always been complex - but a new generation is coming onboard, and they may find a better way. If buildings actually considered ways of moving water (from the ancient waterducts to more modern waterways) we could process out forever chemicals and microplastics, cool cityscapes, grey water the cities plants and return the water to the water table. This challenge has multiple purposes and would take a collaborative effort.
Changing the way we see our sewers
Take the Challenge
Start your own journey of seeing your city as a place that is not there for your convienience of buying goods and getting services, but as a part of who you are. As such, consider taking the challenge of changing it for the better - joining a co-op, creating a bike lane, travelling in ways that contribute and finding means of doing so can be very difficult for young children. No one expects you to want to do it - it is hard and uncomfortable. However, if you want to see the change - you have to be the change. Maintaining your current way of life means not complaining later when the water is undrinkable and the prices start to go up up up and become unattainable. It is NOT all gloom and doom. If you become part of your city and let your city or town become part of you, you will grow in unexpected ways and meet unexpected wealth, unheard of and unseen in film or television or shorts or vines or memes. It will be an actual experience.
How to start?
- Build a bike - you don't have to make it from scratch, but instead of buying a used bike or a new bike, consider going to the dump and getting a frame, seat and if possible a wheel or two. You might need to buy a chain or get some other things. If you have a bike co-op join and learn how to fix up your new friend. Give your friend a name.
- Find the trails - it is not safe to ride! That's what we are told, and it is true. The layout of the city, the traffic and the way we think of bicycles currently all make it unsafe. Consider starting small. Get to school and back. Get to a friend's house and back. Get up a mountain and back. Start tracking the best trails. Create a bike group. Give your gang a name. Meet new people.
- Approach City Hall - politics are complex. Hiding away from that complexity, leaves others to do what we assume we can't. Talk to your school teachers and ask for help understanding what it would take to put a bike lane __ here. Come knowing where you want to the trail to be, potential problems there might be and potential solutions. Don't just create a bike lane that benefits you - create a lane in the place you think it is needed the most. If the school doesn't want to help - go to the library! One of those librarians is going to help you! They are some of the most amazing people.
- Consider - No one wants you to think about it. How did this change you? How did it change your relationship with your town or city? How did it change your relationship to being outside? What will you do in winter or when it rains? What kind of transportation can you get if you can't bike and there is no car? Start thinking about the shoes in your closets. How many pairs do you have? How many can get you across town? Consider what would you see, if you did walk across town? In the car, going fast, you pass everything by without a thought... but what would change in your city and in you, if you did look at it. If you actually saw where you lived, for the first time.
