Overwhelmed by Climate Change? Here's Five Solutions Hiding in Plain Sight

Rachel Bailleau
5 days ago
7 min read

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by climate change. It seems like floods, fires, and overflowing landfills are just going to keep getting worse. But what if the "problems" we face could also be solutions in disguise?

This doesn’t mean pretending the crisis isn’t serious. It means looking at things differently. Instead of just reacting to what’s going wrong, we can start creating new systems that work better for people and the planet.

One idea that helps with this shift is the circular economy. Rather than taking resources, using them, and throwing them away, a circular economy keeps things in use for as long as possible. "Waste" becomes a resource. This isn’t just theory. Across Europe and around the world, people are already putting these ideas into practice. Cities, farms, and homes are finding creative ways to turn today’s problems into tomorrow’s resources.

Here are five real-world examples of that mindset in action.

family plays on rainy track with bikes and muddy boots

1. Too Much Rain, Then Not Enough? Capture It

In many places, the climate crisis manifests in extremes. We see torrential rain for a few months, followed by prolonged drought. But instead of trying to force old systems to cope, what if we designed new ones?That’s exactly what happened in the Spanish city of Zaragoza.

Having trouble with rainwater flooding the city, local engineers and planners transformed the challenge into an opportunity. They created Parque del Agua Luis Buñuel, a 120-hectare public park that doubles as a stormwater reservoir. During heavy rains, water flows out of the city and into the park, where it’s filtered naturally through gravel, soil, and reed beds before filling the pond, which is the size of about four Olympic swimming pools back to back.

By giving excess rainwater somewhere safe to go, the park helps ease pressure on the city’s drains and streets, slowing the flow and reducing the risk of flooding in built-up areas.

This park is a peaceful green space where people walk, cycle, and enjoy nature. It’s not just functional, it’s beautiful. And wildlife benefits too. Birds, insects, frogs, and even small mammals find refuge in and around the water. These temporary wetlands serve as a lifeline in urban areas.

2. Urban Flooding? Remove the Pavement

Just like Zaragoza turned a flooding problem into a public park, other cities are finding creative ways to deal with heavy rain. One simple but powerful idea is to take away some of the pavement.

Cities flood more often now because rainwater has nowhere to go. Roads and pavements cover the ground, so the water can’t soak in. This can quickly turn a normal rainstorm into a flash flood. But if we remove some of that hard surface and let the ground breathe again, we give water a place to go.

Some towns are lifting paving slabs and replacing them with gardens, grass, or gravel that soaks up rain. This helps stop flooding, and it also brings more nature into the city. Wildflowers feed bees and butterflies, and green spaces make streets cooler and more pleasant.

In the Netherlands, people even compete to do this. The NK Tegelwippen, which means “tile flipping”, is a friendly contest where people remove tiles from their front gardens and plant things instead. Cities compete to see who can take out the most tiles. Some councils even send vans to collect old tiles and hand out free plants in return. Since 2021, people have taken away over 11 million tiles. That's enough to cover 200 football fields!

What looks like a flooding problem turns into a chance to bring nature back to our streets—and make our towns healthier, greener places to live.

family feeds spotty pigs in a muddy field

3. From Farm Waste to Poop Power

Agriculture produces a lot of waste, especially from animals. Manure from chickens, pigs or cows can cause serious pollution if it’s not handled properly. It can wash into rivers, harming water quality and wildlife. But the same waste, if managed differently, can become a valuable resource.

Across Europe, biogas plants are being built on farms. These systems take organic waste such as manure and food scraps and break it down in sealed tanks. This process produces methane gas, which can be used to generate electricity or heat homes. What’s left over, called digestate, can be spread on fields as a natural fertiliser.

This helps farms reduce pollution, cut energy costs and make better use of what they already have. It’s a smart way to turn a messy problem into something useful. The same poop that pollutes a river can also heat a home and grow food, if we put it through the right loop.

4. Waste Not, Want Not

It's not just farms that produce waste, we see rubbish everywhere! From old clothes, packaging, broken gadgets. It might look like a problem, but waste is really just stuff waiting for a new use. That’s the idea behind something called the circular economy.

Right now, most of the world still works in a linear economy. That means we take materials from nature, use them to make things, and then throw them away. It’s a straight line: take, make, waste. But this way of doing things creates a lot of pollution and uses up too many natural resources.

A circular economy works differently. Instead of throwing things away, we find ways to repair, reuse, or recycle them. Waste is seen as a useful resource, not something to get rid of. This helps reduce pollution, protect nature, and save money, too.

Take old clothes, for example. Fast fashion means huge piles of clothes are thrown away each year. But some people are turning that waste into something useful. In the Netherlands, a company called Greenful is using old clothes to make strong insulation panels to keep homes warm.

Plastic is another obvious contender. But in Kenya, a social enterprise called Gjenge Makers has already turned over 200,000 kgs of plastic waste into building bricks. What once ended up in the bin is now part of a house. And more than 600 jobs have been created!

A true circular economy means there is no waste at all, just materials moving in a loop, always finding a new purpose.

a couple warm their feet by the fire with hot coffee and checked pyjamas

5. Wasted Heat Can Warm Homes

Sometimes the answers to big problems are right in front of us.

Factories, data centres, and even supermarkets give off a lot of heat as they run. In the past, this heat was just released into the air and wasted. But now, more places are finding ways to capture that heat and use it.

For example, some cities in Sweden and Finland have built systems to collect the heat from large buildings or data centres and send it through pipes into nearby homes, schools, or swimming pools. This is called a district heating system. It means people can stay warm without burning as much gas or using as much electricity. It’s cheaper, cleaner, and more efficient.

In the Netherlands, greenhouses growing tomatoes or flowers are now being heated by nearby factories. This helps farmers reduce their energy bills and lower their carbon footprint. By reusing heat that used to go to waste, we can cut pollution, save money, and make better use of the energy we already produce.

Overwhelmed by Climate Change? Try Going Circular at Home

You don’t need to be an engineer or city planner to go circular. Start small, at home. Ask yourself: What am I throwing away that could actually have a second life?

Here are a few concrete ideas if you feel overwhelmed by climate change:

Got food scraps? Turn it into compost! For a garden with neighbours, you'll probably want a closed compost bin to reduce smells, but you can make a simple one from pallets if you live in the countryside. If you don’t have much space, see if your town collects food waste for composting. Or try a worm bin on your balcony to turn scraps into rich soil for your plants. It’s a small change that helps reduce landfill and grow healthy gardens.

Rainwater running off your roof? Collect it in a barrel or bucket to water your garden or clean your car. You’ll save on your water bill and reduce the amount of water rushing into storm drains, which helps prevent flooding and keeps local rivers cleaner.

Clothes got holes or stains? Before tossing them, try fixing with colourful iron-on patches or turn old T-shirts into cleaning rags by cutting them up with a pair of scissors. Repairing and reusing keeps clothes out of the bin and cuts down on waste.

Only use tools or appliances sometimes? Instead of buying new, share or borrow from a neighbour or join a “library of things.” It saves money, reduces clutter, and makes sure stuff gets used more, not wasted.

Struggling to park on the way to work? Try switching to a second-hand electric bike from gum tree or EBay. You’ll skip the traffic, get some fresh air, and stay active. And because it’s reused, you’re keeping it in the circular economy too. One simple change, three big wins.

None of these things will “fix” climate change alone. But they’ll start shifting your mindset, and the people around you might be inspired to make changes, too.

Shift the Story, Change the Future

The problems of climate change are real, but so is our ability to see them differently.

By shifting from linear, fix-it thinking to systems thinking, we stop seeing problems in isolation. Drought becomes an invitation to capture rain. Waste becomes fuel, shelter, or soil. Pollution becomes a prompt to redesign entire systems.

We start asking better questions: What can this “problem” teach us? What can it give us, if we listen? And how can we build solutions that nourish both people and planet?

The climate crisis is scary. But it’s also full of untapped potential. When we open our minds to nature’s logic and think creatively, we may find that some of our biggest challenges are the seeds of something better.

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