By+Mila+Luleva

Summer is finally here for most of us in the Northern hemisphere1）. Jackets go safely in storage， and we all start dreaming of that beach holiday and cocktails. Unfortunately， summer is not so pleasant when we are stuck inside behind a desk， with a non-working air-conditioning system. In this moment， suddenly， all these daydreams disappear， and the anticipated2） season becomes something that no one wants.

Now， if this is a problem for us sitting in our comfortable offices， imagine how people in a bit less fortunate places must feel—like in Bangladesh for example. The temperatures and humidity during the summer months over there can be hard to bear， while air conditioning is not really an option for the majority.

But as one smart person has said once， where there is a will， there is a way. A creative inventor from Bangladesh designed a new type of air conditioning system called the Eco Cooler. One that does not require electricity， and it is made of the world&apos；s most common waste item—plastic bottles.

The Eco Cooler is super simple to build—no prior3） engineering or construction skills are required. The size of the system depends on the size of the windows in a room； as to mount4） it， a window should be removed and replaced by it.

So， a regular board should be cut in the size of the window. A grid5） of bottle-neck sized holes should then be cut onto the board. Then， the funnel6）-shaped bottlenecks， cut from the plastic bottles， should be fit into the holes. The next step is to fit the design onto the window frame with the wider side facing outwards. And this is it.

The Eco Cooler then works by capturing the winds and sending them inside the building. It can reduce the temperature of a room by as much as 5 C—a difference that can be quite significant when looking at comfortable 25 C versus7） sweaty 30 C.

The idea of the inventor， Ashis Paul， was to show his great product to as many people as possible， and help them build one themselves. For this purpose， he received help from the Grey Group， a multinational advertising firm， who volunteered to advertise the Eco Cooler for free. Another group of volunteers from the Grameen Intel Social Business （a Dhaka-based IT company） also provided free assistance to local people， helped them build and install the units8）， as well as taught them how to make them themselves.

Yes， the Eco Cooler is not a super high-tech air conditioning system， but it is one that can make a big difference.

夏天又到了，對(duì)于家里裝有空調(diào)的人而言，炎炎夏日可能并沒(méi)有那么難熬。然而，在孟加拉國(guó)等南亞國(guó)家，其夏天最高氣溫可達(dá)45°C，許多生活在鄉(xiāng)村的窮苦人民都居住在沒(méi)有電的鐵皮棚屋里，買(mǎi)不起電扇、空調(diào)，只能在酷暑中苦苦掙扎。幸運(yùn)的是，該國(guó)的一位發(fā)明家用舊塑料瓶設(shè)計(jì)出了一款生態(tài)空調(diào)，給大家送去了福音，一起來(lái)看看他是怎么做的吧！

我們生活在北半球的大多數(shù)人終于迎來(lái)了夏天。夾克被妥妥地收了起來(lái)，我們都開(kāi)始?jí)粝胫呛┻叺亩燃俸碗u尾酒。不過(guò)，要是我們只能窩在屋子里伏案工作而空調(diào)系統(tǒng)又出了故障的話(huà)，夏天可就沒(méi)那么愜意了，我們可就倒霉了。這個(gè)時(shí)候，所有那些幻想突然都消失不見(jiàn)，翹首期盼的夏天變得誰(shuí)都不稀罕了。

不過(guò)，如果上面的情況對(duì)我們這些坐在舒適辦公室里的人來(lái)說(shuō)都是一個(gè)問(wèn)題的話(huà)，那想一想那些生活在條件沒(méi)有這么好的地方的人們會(huì)是什么感受吧，譬如住在孟加拉國(guó)的人。夏天的幾個(gè)月里，那里的氣溫和濕度可能會(huì)令人難以忍受，而使用空調(diào)對(duì)于大多數(shù)人來(lái)說(shuō)又真的是想都不敢想。

不過(guò)，正如某位智者曾經(jīng)說(shuō)過(guò)的那樣，有志者事竟成。孟加拉國(guó)一位很有創(chuàng)造力的發(fā)明家設(shè)計(jì)了一種名為生態(tài)空調(diào)的新型空調(diào)系統(tǒng)。這種空調(diào)不需要電，并且材料用的是世界上最常見(jiàn)的廢品——塑料瓶。

生態(tài)空調(diào)的制作方法極為簡(jiǎn)單，無(wú)需前期工程或施工技術(shù)?？照{(diào)的大小取決于房間窗戶(hù)的大??；安裝的時(shí)候需要拆掉一個(gè)窗戶(hù)，然后再換上空調(diào)。

因而制作時(shí)，需要先將一個(gè)普通板子裁成窗戶(hù)的大小，然后在上面打出塑料瓶瓶頸大小的一個(gè)個(gè)小孔，使其成網(wǎng)格狀。接著從塑料瓶上切下漏斗狀的瓶頸，將其塞入小孔中。下一步是將這個(gè)板子嵌進(jìn)窗框里，瓶口較大的一面朝外。然后，生態(tài)空調(diào)就做好了。

制作完成后，生態(tài)空調(diào)就可以工作了，其工作原理是把風(fēng)吸過(guò)來(lái)，再輸送到屋子里。它最高可以將房間的溫度降低5 C——如果是拿舒適宜人的25 C和讓人汗流浹背的30 C相比的話(huà)，那么這5 C的改變可以說(shuō)是意義重大了。

生態(tài)空調(diào)的發(fā)明者是阿希斯·保羅，他的打算是向盡可能多的人展示自己這個(gè)很棒的產(chǎn)品，并幫助他們自己動(dòng)手制作一個(gè)生態(tài)空調(diào)。為此，他接受了跨國(guó)廣告公司葛瑞集團(tuán)的幫助，這家公司自愿免費(fèi)幫他宣傳生態(tài)空調(diào)。來(lái)自格萊珉英特爾社會(huì)商業(yè)公司（一家位于達(dá)卡的信息技術(shù)公司）的另一群志愿者也伸出了援手，免費(fèi)幫當(dāng)?shù)厝酥谱鞑惭b生態(tài)空調(diào)，還教他們?nèi)绾巫约簞?dòng)手制作。

沒(méi)錯(cuò)，生態(tài)空調(diào)并不是什么超牛的高科技空調(diào)系統(tǒng)，但它卻能讓這個(gè)世界大為不同。

1. hemisphere [?hem?sf??（r）] n. （地球的）半球

2. anticipate [?n?t?s?pe?t] vt. 期盼；期望

3. prior [?pra??（r）] adj. 先前的；事先安排的

4. mount [ma?nt] vt. 安裝

5. grid [ɡr?d] n. 網(wǎng)格

6. funnel [?f?nl] n. 漏斗

7. versus [?v??s?s] prep. （比較兩種不同想法、選擇時(shí)）與……相對(duì)；與……相比

8. unit [?ju?n?t] n. 裝置

Eco Cooler宣傳視頻中的降溫原理說(shuō)明圖