With Summer cropping up in Spring (including 80-100 degree days in June), it’s time to address the heat!

So, without further ado. Or hot air. Green in BKLYN presents…

TEN WAYS TO STAY COOL (while being kind to Mother Earth):

1. Plant some green: Houseplants absorb warm carbon dioxide and replace it with cool oxygen. Plus they’re nice to talk to.
2. Open up: Even if the wind is only blowing 1 mile per hour, cracking the window at night can cool your home 3 to 4 degrees.
3. Lighten up: Fluorescent  bulbs (CFLs and LEDs) use up to 75% less energy and put out much less heat than incandescent bulbs.
4. Join the fan club: Installing a ceiling fan costs only a fraction of what it takes to install and run an AC. Plus, using fans instead of an AC can lower home cooling costs by as much as 30%.
5. Wet yourself: Place a cool, damp cloth around your neck or wrists or hold a cloth-wrapped ice cube against your pulse points. You’ll experience an immediate cool-down effect of as much as three degrees.
6. Give it a rest: Don’t use your dishwasher, clothes washer, dryer or oven during the heat of the day. Use a clothesline to skip the dryer altogether and the microwave to bypass the oven.
7. Sleep it off: Try breathable bamboo sheets that wick away moisture and are cool to the touch and wet your sheets (with water) for a cool rest.
8. Take it off: Show some skin when you get home. Peel off the layers. Go au natural, if you dare. Less (clothes) is more (chance for the air to cool you off).
9. Get wet: Drink, shower and spray H2O all in and over your self. Cool water in your belly, on your body and coming out of a spray bottle will hydrate and cool you. Icy loveliness!
10. Slow it down: No need to rush. Give yourself a little more time to get where you’re going, do what you’re doing and be who you’re being. Slower moving means less energy expenditure. Less stress. Less heat!

Seasons and the inevitable changing of them are an awesome natural occurrence. Adjusting accordingly makes our interaction with those changes an awesome natural occurrence as well. Here’s to change!