Solarpunk

I think this story is a solarpunk seed, where communities come together to face environmental disaster, against a predominant narrative of hate.

A street university for solarpunks, dreamers and activists is launching in the UK this February. The London School of Solarpunk (LSOS) is a space to invent new ways of urban living and find positive responses to the many crises we're facing.

Facilitated by the Idea Factory, it’s a 4-week programme taking place in Hackney for up to 15 participants. It will feature lectures ranging from social art to energy humanities as well as cooperative economies and creative activism. Those taking part will also co-design group readings, discussions and social experiments.

Bonus: what aspects do you want to change in the future to be more solarpunk

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

The beautiful open vistas and bountiful plants and animals described by early European explorers were not an untouched wilderness in which humans played no role. (...) Native people created the landscape that Europeans encountered: “Lands adapted to them as they adapted to landscapes.”

Fires, many of them intentionally set, also shaped much of California’s vegetation before European colonization.

Native communities treated fire as an ally to increase biodiversity, improve basket materials, encourage healthier berries, control pests and diseases, enhance the growth of grasses and bulbs, germinate seeds, encourage mushroom growth, and reduce the chances of high-intensity fires.

According to Hankins and other experts, Western methods of fire suppression are largely to blame for California’s catastrophic fires that are becoming increasingly common every summer. The removal of Indigenous people and their land-tending practices, such as intentional burning, went hand in hand with misguided fire-suppression policies.

Last June, Pasadena, California — about 11 miles from downtown Los Angeles — decreed that June 22 was Octavia E. Butler Day, in honor of the science fiction writer born in the city on that date in 1947. The Pasadena middle school Butler attended was renamed for her in 2022.

Butler, who died in 2006, has in the past few years been celebrated nationally, including posthumous profiles in the New York Times, New York magazine, and more. Particular attention has been paid to the prescience of her Parable series of books. Organizers and artists, like adrienne maree brown, spent the 2010s calling attention to Butler’s work — and her warnings.

The first book in the series, Parable of the Sower, published in 1993, begins on July 20, 2024, the 15th birthday of Butler’s protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina. Olamina grew up in the fictional LA suburb of Robledo, described by Los Angeles journalist, essayist, and author Lynell George as “a struggling walled suburb… besieged by severe drought; class wars; violent, fire-setting scavengers; and a long-embattled population seized by political apathy.” In the second book, Parable of the Talents, published in 1998, a candidate runs using the slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Economic consolidation is killing us. Robbing us of value, dismantling the financial fabric of our society, and disconnecting us from one another. From Walmart to Uber to Amazon and beyond, everyone loses: consumers, workers, and ultimately even the heartless profiteers orchestrating this disaster.

I'm not going to write a full review here but I really enjoyed it. It looks incredible, had strong Solarpunk and Half-Earth implications. It's emotional yet honest and mature. Animals look and act great as well. You should watch it.

Kia ora! I'm just another solarpunk in Aotearoa looking for other like-minded friends, inspiration, and advice on other ways I can green up my life.

I live in an off-grid tiny home I built with my partner in 2016 out of wood and second-hand windows/doors/appliances. We run off solar power, rain water, a composting toilet, and try to repair, mend, make, borrow, and buy 2nd hand or local. Our meat is all hunted, which here in Aotearoa is a huge help for our environment as our only native mammals are seals and bats. Everything else is a pest. We also grow a lot of our own fruit and veggies, but the garden is still a work in progress.

I'm looking at irrigating the garden and automating the process. I saw something about https://www.home-assistant.io/ online but would love any advice you might have. I'd like to automate and chart my watering as well as integrate moisture monitors and a weather monitoring system.

I have an electric bike and an old 1996 honda crv. I'd like to switch to an electric vehicle, something like a Pickman 4x4 or another small farm vehicle, as I only need to get to the village bus stop, neighbouring farms, and the occasional trip into town via back roads.

Clothes are me-made with 2nd hand materials, mostly from the dump shop. I've helped start a collection point for alternative recycling like bottle lids and tetrapaks, a library of things, and a community workshop. We are working towards a bike repair hub and time bank but it might be a couple years before they are operational.

Please share all your inspiration, book recommendations, and thoughts around other ways I can make an impact in my community 😊

Albert Tomanek CC Attribution

We outlive capitalism. In a post-scarcity society, people do things not out of desperation but for joy. Xavi loves nothing more than putting on a silicon tail and swimming as a mermaid. She performs for children. Xavi encourages them and their parents to protect the clean water of the city’s canals. A community treasure, she is the first person who comes to mind when excited doctors develop a surgery to turn someone into a merperson. Xavi pioneers it, pushing the boundaries of transhumanism.

Then the mermaid goes missing.

A local citizen detective discovers Xavi had texted them “help” the night before, when their devices were silenced. The Citizen Detective Society mobilizes across the globe. They hope to crowdsolve the mermaid’s location and soon. Every passing hour reduces the probability they’ll discover her alive.

You can discover the ebook lots of place and the paperback here.

Minecraft is a great tool to visualize what Solarpunk architecture and design could look like in the future. I thought this video was pretty cool.

It's got little instructive explainers worked into the story. Good art, too.

Pretty cool animator, pretty cool animation that reflects solarpunk. An interesting take on the living in/after the apocolypse like a solarpunk. Library Socialism ftw!

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/16150990

The 1982 edittion can be found in the anarchist library

This is the playlist with the full audiobook.

Consider using FreeTube, an open-source program for YouTube, and/or Libredirect, because your pricacy is important.

I was buying some second hand furniture and they just had a box of new potatoes that were destined for compost because they were supermarket surplus. But, they had a sign saying to help yourself, they’re free, etc.

Obviously it’s great that they were going to be composted, but you know what’s better?

I took a bag home. I planted them in my garden, discarding any not-great ones for my compost. Only two plants worked out, but… today I pulled up a bunch of big ol potatoes that are going to be made into roasties this holiday season.

I’ve never successfully grown potatoes before, so finding success when I planted them super late and had to pull them up early (we had our first frost) feels really good. Especially because they are entirely free.

Anyways, wanted to share that as it’s the most solarpunk I’ve felt in some time!

Let me know if you have suggestions for short phrases that could excite people enough to investigate solarpunk.