Why would you bother to think of how to keep cool?
Few would ask why bother with a question like that, and those would be the ones that are very sure that drinking a cold drink and using air-conditioning and so on will do. Enough doubt has been cast on the concerns of global warming by the lobbies of vested interests, using the techniques known for long about how to falsify and cast doubts on something that is not only true but staring you in face. So scientists might shout and warn all they can, and most do agree on the issue too - but people won't take heed because there are always those on the opposite side shouting louder and with one or two "scientists" on their side who do this for the love of taking the contrary side, or just for the huge piles of money on that side.
Putting that aside for a moment ask yourself if it is relevant to worry about it before adopting some ways to manage with less expense of fossil fuels or even nuclear energy for everyday life. Especially if it personally going to save, not cost, you more of your money. Of course adapting to some measures like solar energy and CFL light bulbs might - in fact certainly will - save money forever after the initial expense, so it would be good if you could do it.
But there are other problems that need solutions and keeping cool is one; fortunately there are ways to deal with that too - so let us look at a few other solutions to this and some others of the questions that can have more energy efficient solutions which in fact are good for your pocket as well. Foremost is the question of keeping cool - it is easier to keep warm with less fuel expense, one can always use warm and warmer clothes. But that won't be the problem in near future, and keeping cool is not that obvious - wearing minimum often makes it hotter if you are in the sun, for example.
Keeping cool in the ever rising temperatures of today and that too without air-conditioning is not easy, and using air-conditioners everywhere is going to make it worse for global warming. Most of homes with use of energy to make it easier for the inhabitants are in developed nations and most of them are in nations that typically had to deal with how to keep warm to keep alive. Even in the warmer parts of the world, often those homes that were constructed in an era when oil was not assumed to be a problem were not constructed with a view to keeping cool, either. That makes it even more difficult to change to keeping cool when necessary.
Of course if you construct a new home you might have these concerns and they might - could easily - be taken care of. But if not, what do you do to avoid air-conditioning and still keep cool is not easily answered.
Unless you know some old traditional techniques.
............................................ x ...........................................
There are two major parts of this problem with three separate solutions - how to keep your home cool, how to keep your body cool are two major parts of the problem, and the second part has solutions to do with food and clothes.
The first is obviously dealt with in elementary stages by opening a window to begin with - and then there are more intelligent ways. Create a draft in the house that will take out heat and bring in cool air, by having a window at a higher level opposite or at least at another angle at a distance from the one that is bringing in cool air. In northern latitudes for example use a north window to bring in cool air and keep the window on the side where sun comes in well draped. Use venetian blinds or even better, shutters of the sort in France, if possible, the kind that will let you switch the angle so air comes in and heat is blocked, on the side where sun is.
In countries where heat has been always a problem for last few centuries and millennia, they have more solutions of organic nature. Apart from using drapes and keeping windows at normal level closed - which works well with homes that have few inhabitants, but not when you need air to breathe - there are special curtains that are hung on the windows kept open, that help by the very nature of these curtains. These curtains are made of a special grass, which helps in keeping cool in more than one way. For more cool they are sprinkled with water, and then the air coming in through cools even more - and it is fragrant too. The particular grass is called Khus in most of northern India, and has other names in the southern parts. Apart from curtains it is used to make a traditional oil-based perfume - most of eastern perfumes are oil-based - that is very popular.
............................................ x ...........................................
Khus is also used for another category of solutions, that is to keep the body cool personally. It is one of the many ingredients that can be made into a cool drink, others being lime or lemon, yogurt and a few more. (Don't experiment to begin with - take the old well known and tried and tested recipes of over a few centuries. Don't mix indiscriminately, above all.) These drinks should have a little salt and some sour ingredient possibly but very little or no sugar, if you make them fresh, to help with being cool. Recipes can be sourced from northern India, most often from homes that have kept on the traditional ways. Ask a friend to ask his mother or grandmother how to make Kaanjie, if it is difficult to find the recipe on the internet.
There are two or three ingredients of southern food that keep the people of south cool generally - and since the south is more tropical it is a weather that is generally warm most of the year, and very hot in some parts, so these ways obviously work. The two important ingredients are yogurt and fresh coconut. They are used not only in food but also in other ways - chiefly for example using coconut oil to massage your scalp and letting be for at least half an hour allows the coconut oil to seep through into your system and cool it, before washing hair. Using the same coconut oil to season food instead of any other oil or fat brings down your general heat as well.
In north where in fact summer is far hotter people wash face, body and hair too with yogurt, after a general massage of head with yogurt and leaving it on for a while. Yogurt is used as addition to or alternative to soap, and while it cleanses far better it cools too. It is not necessary to use too much - a half teaspoon will do for face, a tablespoon or two for head depending on quantity of hair, and another couple of tablespoons or so for the whole body - you are not coating yourself, but only scrubbing with yogurt.
Needless to say these are part of an integral solution - if you go on eating heavy non-vegetarian food these will help but not as much as if you switch to more vegetarian food for as long as you need to keep cool. These solutions are not pills but more of parts of integral lifestyle, and the more you do to help yourself the more the solutions work.
Bananas and other foods that grow in summer climates are another part of all this. Eating local foods in season is the general idea. and local does not mean what has always grown where you are but also what can. For example if you live in southern parts where bananas can grow behind your kitchen let them have that spot to grow and flourish. In all likelihood then your yard can grow coconuts and papaya too, but the latter produces heat for the body.
Foods that give or produce more heat in the body are for example sesame, mustard, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, garlic, and other such spices or herbs that go into winter foods. Including sugar, and fried foods generally. Wheat - hot, rice - cool, as a general rule. Water - cool, oil - hot, in general. So the use of coconut oil for summer to keep cool is limited to a very small quantity for seasoning; for winter to keep warm you can use mustard oil to fry vegetables or season foods.
............................................ x ...........................................
As for clothes it is better for summer to wear loose and fully covering apparel to escape sunburn when going out, apart from sunshades, and using a hat or a parasol helps, but walking in shade of trees or even buildings is good too. No amount of lotion will do as well as just escaping sun will do - and the converse is true too. In winter just being in the sun is of more help and letting in sun heats houses more efficiently too, but most people of northern latitudes do know this already anyway.
A loose and long dress or a long full skirt keeps one cooler in summer - men can always try the Scottish kilt (or Indian Dhoti) - and covering your head or neck with a long cotton scarf does help a lot too. As for the fashions today a cool denim or cotton jacket over a short top will serve the purpose of covering while in sun to avoid sunburn.
Most cars today are not constructed with an idea of keeping cool without air-conditioning - one can open windows and let air flow, unless it is too hot for that. The metal body of the car heats with sun and there is no escaping the heat that is gathered in without AC or opening windows, but there are now a few things made from Khus available in a few places, a car seat accessory that can be used to support your back or to sit on for example. It would be better to have a Khus curtain covering the top just under the car roof, but that has to be devised, it is not yet readily available.
............................................ x ...........................................
Someone on Greenopolis asked about a biodegradable hair dye, and that reminded me I had forgotten that part of how to keep cool. This is the answer I gave.
Visit an Indian (meaning of those that come from India) grocery store nearest to you or find one that can supply this by mail or courier - there is a plant called Henna or Mehendie, of which the leaves are dried and powdered and this powder is used for colouring hands and feet (for beauty as well as cooling effect and it is a fun activity as well, and most often north Indian brides and other girls / women have it done for weddings) and also hair (mostly done for cooling effect).
The latter needs no instructions more than what you might find on packages, or ask the person at the counter of the store. You generally have to take a certain quantity, start with small, and mix it with water and apply to your head and leave it for a while before washing - use something gentle to wash, a teaspoon of yogurt rather than shampoo, I would think. None of these are likely to cause harm as far as I know, old people - mostly men - do this often in north India (women and young people prefer the natural beauty of dark hair and not wish anyone to think they are prematurely grey) mostly for coolness, but it does give a colour that can range from pale gold to deep dark red, depending on the quality and quantity of Hennaa (Mehendie) used.
