Short & sweet - after a few day s of intense thunderstorms, I thought I’d offer a water-themed digest. Anyone remember Kevin Costner’s fairly grim ‘Waterworld’? Here’s a sunnier take on things:

Portugal is launching Europe’s biggest floating solar panel array.

Floating cities, developed by Dutch architects in cooperation with the Maldive government.

Solar by day, bioluminescent street lamps by night - seems an obvious combination to me...

Off you go and write your story about innovative dwelling places powered by solar and illuminated by acqua critters!

A day early - trying to make of for all the omissions over the past weeks... 

I posted about this as ‘in the making’ a few months ago. Well, now it’s made! The Playbook for 'Good Energy Stories'. I've only dipped into it but it seems to offer vast amounts of information and tips for writing climate-positive (my term) stories.

Crows drop rocks on solar panels, falcons chase them off. How is that not a story?! PS apparently no crows are harmed in the making… the falcons merely establish who’s boss.

Mapping plastic waste in the world's ocean - via satellite. A step towards a solution for how to deal with this ghastly problem?

From oceanic problems to solutions:  listen to this beautiful encounter between human and baby whale… nature protection in action. 

Keep going. #ClimateActionNow

Part of me feels I should rename this 'monthly update'... I still find it difficult to pull myself together for positive action rather than just cope with the barrage of bad news, Putin's War still drowning out everything else. But these are days when we cannot give up, and so I will start with:

Something that yanked me out from my mood of gloom and despair. Christiana Figueres shares how Late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh helped her through her own troubles and made her work on the Paris Climate Agreement possible in  an episode of the Plum Village podcast 'The Way Out Is In'. It's a long listen (and a warning: there is mention of suicidal thoughts at 00:25) but at the end of it I was smiling and ready to pick up the fight again.

I see a lot of climate anxiety and despair around, and it seems warranted. If that's you, too, then check out @brittwray on Twitter - her upcoming book 'Generation Dread' as well as her blog offer help in dealing with this. Also, focus on finding beauty in a broken world - @MikeHudema tweets a lot about solutions.

Thanks to fellow Ecotopian Marc BJ for this link listing solutions: from CO2-trapping pellets serving as plastic replacement to (my favourite) coffee clothes. Take your pick and integrate them in your near-future-solutions story!

More solutions: the Japanese town working towards 'zero waste' - and it’s getting close!

And, for some motivation (if you can access the BBC iPlayer) 'Women on Fire', the Oscar-nominated documentary about women journalists in India. Watch the trailer here.

So - don't give up the good fight, and I won't give up on my attempts to return to weekly updates! #ActOnClimateNOW !