February

"What if we could fashion a restoration plan that grew from understanding multiple meanings of land? Land as sustainer. Land as identity. Land as grocery store and pharmacy. Land as connection to our ancestors. Land as moral obligation. Land as sacred. Land as self. (..) Land as home." Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. 

Weaving roots to a better world. Photo of tapestry (86 x 78 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

September

"The demand for urban nature-based solutions can be expected to rise exponentially, as greening cities is the best measure to address the accelerating urban heat island effect". European Investment Bank, Hudson, G., Hart, S., Verbeek, A. (2023). Investing in nature-based solutions – State-of-play and way forward for public and private financial measures in Europe.

Photo: Temperate part of, probably, the smallest garden in the city. Taken in august 2023 by Monica Pinheiro. Free to use if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

Some people say “let’s invent a machine to sequester carbon” but “we already have a fantastic productive system to sequester lots of carbon. And beyond that, it produces food, timber, creates biodiversity, gives dignity to peasant labour” and promotes life in Syntropy (excerpt from short film made specially to be presented at COP21, Paris). 

So, what is this invention? 

It’s a Terrestrial invention, refined and matured along billions of years, that intelligent people are replicating, known among humans as «Agroforestry». 

Want to spend billions in carbon capture? 

Spend in agroforestry. And while capturing carbon, you will also be feeding the world, saving biodiversity, recovering our soils, creating local jobs, lowering the temperature, bringing moisture to soils, reducing inputs, among many other great things. On top of all the benefits, you do not need to use any rare materials for building expensive technology, only what’s available in each place, making it a resilient and strategical solution for any country.

Photo by Monica Pinheiro, free to use if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

February

"A renewable power system is not dependent on foreign energy imports nor vulnerable to fuel price manipulations – which are the main worries in an energy infrastructure that is largely based on fossil fuels." Kris De Decker (2018). Keeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security. [text inserted in 2022/03/07]. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

Mycorrhizal network

"Mycorrhizal networks (also known as common mycorrhizal networks or CMN) are underground hyphal networks created by mycorrhizal fungi that connect individual plants together and transfer water, carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients and minerals." Mycorrhizal network, Wikipedia. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

strings

It all started with a string (a) and pieces of wasted biomass (b). Then creating little tensions (c), expanding one bit (d) at a time (e), and allowing infrastructure to grow (f) to shape natural (g), negative carbon shading for my home (h). Unlike artificial shading infrastructures (i), nature-based solutions become better with time (j) and go on sequestering carbon dioxide, cooling (k) the environment (l), and greening our cities (m). If they cease to live, they are still precious as colour pallets (n), compost or biomass for energy (o). Thinking (p) how can I expand the platform to this city balcony small forest... Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

August

 

European Environment Agency (2021). Nature‑based solutions in Europe: Policy, knowledge and practice for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).