PLANETWISE.APP - JUNE 2026 NEWSLETTER
Last week, the Puerto Rico Senate proposed two
pieces of legislation to "simplify" our development processes. The vote is
expected. The outcome, unfortunately, is not in doubt.
In it, 72 laws are diluted to
irrelevance. Most of the Land Use Laws that took eleven years to write. Laws that
protected the Zona Marítima Terrestre - the strip of coast that belongs to all of
us since the Conquistadors. Laws that preserve 7% of our forests, when the norm
is 25% and the best conservation measures require 50%. All important natural
resources are threatened now. Our mangroves, which are the ocean's nurseries and
the best buffer against hurricanes our coasts have; the karst region, which
filters the rainwater that feeds our aquifers; our interior mountains which hold
copper and other mineral deposits and will now be available for strip mining or
open-pit mining. The laws that outlawed or penalized toxic discharges in the
ocean, the rivers, and the air, are now cut up for kindling.
132 months of
scientists, community leaders, lawyers, and ordinary people who showed up to
meeting after meeting because they believed that to conserve, even a small
little bit of our natural riches, was worth the effort and inconvenience, and
that our patrimony belonged to everyone, not just a few. A time when all our
newspapers discussed the cost benefit analysis of keeping a very small
percentage of our land, air, and coast untouched by development, and fighting
the abuse that made some wealthy and others sick, over the same parcel of land. All to make room for foreign
investors seeking to invest outside the now volatile, blind, and unfeeling stock
market. Sales that will bring in money one time only, and which will not even
make a dent in the debt we owe.
This is not gentrification. Gentrification is a
poor neighborhood bought out piecemeal by a moving-up middle class in a decade.
What is happening here is on another level entirely. Whole cities overrun by
millionaires in one year, in a land where median household income is under
$20,000 a year. As harsh as US colonization was, it came with token benefits -
infrastructure, medical care, education. This brings none of that. Only housing
prices that have made 100,000 households homeless. The government is not just
corrupt. It is stealing the only things we have left of value - ecologically,
socially, economically. It is actively stealing the future it owes us.
I feel
the changes before I read the headlines. I feel it when I walk out of my
air-conditioned bedroom and the rest of my house is an oven. I feel it when I
fill up the tank of my car and there's little left for sandwich at the Deli. I buy
groceries that are now so expensive I can only buy half of what I used to buy
last April. I feel it every time I read or hear the news. The sheer amount of
chaos happening around the world feels abusive and deliberate - and aimed at
focusing our attention elsewhere as an obscene amount of wealth concentration
takes place. When families cannot feed their children, the social fabric starts
to disintegrate. If you are feeling it too, and you are not alone.
Here is what
I know after fifty years of watching systems fail and communities survive the
failures: The people who come through it best are the ones who are self-sufficient
and connected to their communities. They have skills and they can fix what is
broken instead of replacing it. They keep enough cash outside the banking system
to survive for a month if the power goes out. They have knowledge that can
either help others in need, or be exchanged for bartering materials. Rising
prices are not a blip. The chaos in Washington and in San Juan is not a phase.
The heat is not a bad summer. These are the early signs of a hard transition,
and the single most important thing you can do right now, today, is start
building a life that works inside that transition instead of waiting for the old
one to come back. That old life is not coming back.
So here is the practical
part.
For money anxiety: Stop buying anything that doesn't feed you, fix
something, or build a skill. As a strategy. Every dollar you don't spend on
something forgettable is a dollar that buys you a month of independence. Start a
cash envelope. Label it FLOOR. Put $100 in it every week and don't touch it.
Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do it for one week. Just don’t stop doing
it.
For climate heat: Your body acclimates faster than you think, but it needs
electrolytes, not just water. Add some sea salt to your water or drink coconut
water. Limit coffee, highly caffeinated energy drinks, and alcohol before
heading out, as they accelerate fluid loss. Put a wet cloth on your wrists or
around your neck when you go outside - it cools you down. Use sunscreen and
consider wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Use sunshades to stop the sun from heating
the inside of your car. In fact, there are now "car umbrellas" that you can
install on your car roof that will shade the car wherever you park. Always have
a battery-powered fan that charges from a solar panel the size of a tablet.
Carry a hand fan, if you don't have a battery-powered fan. Always carry a
reusable water bottle - insulated or stainless steel - with cold water in it.
For political grief: Channel it. Every law the legislature passes that takes
something away from the common wealth is a reminder that community is the only
way to fight this abuse, if you build it now, before the new reality becomes
entrenched. And fight for your rights and the rights of nature to exist in all its
biodiverse splendor, right now. Step up politically for the things we know are
irreplaceable and are currently being threatened. Begin consciously doing as
much as you can to not bring plastics into your home, and make sure you compost
all food wastes. That is one of the strongest political actions you can take.
For the karst, the mangroves, the rivers, the oceans, the skies and all the
birds and animals that live in them: Study them. Visit them. Learn their names.
Love them. Teach them to your children and grandchildren. Fight for them. Save them.
What is named is
harder to erase.
What is loved by people who will fight for it is almost
impossible to steal.
This is exactly why I built PlanetWise.app. As a response
to fifty years of watching this pattern repeat - each time having less and less
life, more and more damage, more and more blind laws, the community caught in a
vise of powerlessness, the long painful war of attrition, and the next law that
inevitably reopened the wound.
With PlanetWise.app you can become stronger so
the next thing that happens hurts you less. And the thing after that, less
still. The first level of PlanetWise.app is always free. Come try it. This is the
most defiant, most practical, most loving thing you can do for yourself and for
the people and pets who depend on you.
The world we planned for no longer
exists. Let's build one worth living in.
Monica Pérez Nevarez Founder,
PlanetWise.app
P.S. If this makes sense to you, do me a favor and forward it to
the people you love. That's who we're building this for.
