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Meet the tiny towns taking on climate change
Meet the tiny towns taking on climate change | Grist

Ugh! Everything is miserable, you might be thinking, plopping down on the web site couch. Climate change is too big and I'm too tired to deal with it. I'm just going to sit here watch Netflix for eternity.



Not so fast, lazypants. Take some inspiration from the tiny communities around the world that are taking the fight against climate change seriously, sluggish politicians and pessimistic couch potatoes be damned. When the rest of us just can't even, these little towns could -- and did.

The tornado-torn town that turned aroundUser Image - Blocked by "Display Image" Settings. Click to show.

The solar community shining in the desertKarmBuild

There's a strange sight in a desert oasis not far from Cairo, Egypt: a cluster of sandstone buildings with solar panels built into their rooftops. Constructed by the solar technology company KarmBuild, the Tayebat Workers Village is Egypt's first solar-powered community, housing 350 seasonal agricultural workers.

In Egypt, solar panels are often thought of as ugly and undesirable. The architects behind Tayebat are trying to change that assumption for the country as a whole.

The village that fought apathy -- and wonAndrew

Ashton Hayes, a small town in the British countryside, set out to be the country's first carbon-neutral community in 2006. But instead of using policy to regulate emissions, the community-led initiative focused on changing residents' behavior. The townspeople strung up clotheslines, took fewer flights, and improved the insulation in their homes, shrinking their total carbon footprint by 40 percent so far.

Garry Charnook, the villager who jumpstarted the town's low-carbon quest, told the New York Times: "There's so much apathy. We need to squeeze that layer of apathy jelly and get it out." About 200 towns, cities, and counties from around the globe have reached out to the Ashton Hayes community to learn how, exactly, they squeezed their "apathy jelly" (what is that -- a dessert?) and got to work.

The remote island working to self-sufficiencyBrian Gratwicke

Situated in the South Atlantic Ocean more than a thousand miles from any major landmass, the tiny island of Tristan da Cunha can only be reached by a week-long sea crossing on a ship that leaves from Cape Town just eight times a year.

With that degree of isolation, it doesn't make sense to rely on foreign imports. The locals have a plan to generate 30 to 40 percent of their own energy within five years. They're working with U.K. architects on various sustainability projects, including a wind farm, a waste-to-energy incinerator, and communal kitchen gardens. All good solutions for a remote island community -- or, really, anywhere.

There are more tales like these: One town is planning to get 80 percent of its electricity from food waste in the U.K.; solar panels https://local.yahoo.com/info-131864361-windy-city-steam-woodridge are taking off in rural Bangladesh; villages are running on hydropower and microgrid in Pakistan. These stories give us some much-needed optimism -- and a good reason to get off the couch.





 
 
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