Arca tierra chinampas in Xochimilco

It's time to regenerate our hearts and brains

Evening eco-nnecters,

This week we invite you to embody the famous axolotl. It’s time we regenerate our hearts and brains as well as our ecosystems. Below a story to set the tone straight from the axolotl’s home: Xochimilco Mexico City.

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🗞️ In Climate News

• 🗽High Seas Treaty negotiations happening in NYC this week.

• 🇮🇹 Venice canals dry up, as Italy faces its second year of drought.

• 🇺🇸 Part of US sees earliest spring conditions on record.

• 🌀 Cyclone Freddy hits Mozambique with dangerous rainfall.

• 🇫🇷 France announces ‘unprecedented’ water rationing scheme amid driest winter in 64 Years.

• 🇦🇺 Australia to make area the size of Germany a marine park in Southern Ocean.

.📈 Cool Trends

• 🍫 cocoa-free chocolate.

• 🎣 feeding fish plastic eating insects.

♾️ eco-stories

✨ arca tierra’s chinampas

“Here we sow water and harvest the sun.”

On a quiet Monday morning, Anton and I took an uber to meet with Joahna Hernandez, the director of marketing of arca tierra, a project rehabilitating chinampas in Xochimilco. As we headed south from the center of Mexico City at 7am we were both pleased and surprised to realize that it only took us 30 minutes to reach the famous channeled wetlands.

“The idea behind arca tierra is two-fold: to collaborate with local farmers for the recovery of agricultural production in Mexico City and for the preservation of the ancestral knowledge behind the chinampas. And let me tell you, it is not an easy job when the country is dominated by industrial agribusiness.”

11% of Mexico’s biodiversity can be found in Xochimilco and this town once fed the citizens of Tenochtitlan (ancient Mexico City). Yet if you’ve ever traveled to Mexico City these facts might never reach your ears, rather you might recognize Xochimilco as a must-hit tourist attraction when visiting the capital. The main activity the town provides is to scuttle tourists on coloured trajineras (wooden rafts) and entertaining them with cocktails and traditional music along the last surviving traces of the Texcoco lake that once flooded the Anahuac valley.

💩 WTF? news

• 🏦 World bank leader accused of climate denial.

🌏 The Culture Club

📺 What we’re watching:

📸 Profile of the week: @arca.tierra

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📚What we’re reading: The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
🤯 Fun fact we learnt this week: axolotls are salamanders that can regenerate their organs, including their hearts and brains.