Solarpunk

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Inspiration towards a life more aligned with solarpunk values (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 week ago by thorwiththehammer@slrpnk.net to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net

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Hi all!

Long time lurker here on slrpnk.net and just signed up to participate more. I have myself been moving on a fairly slow but steady trajectory towards a life aligned with solarpunk values (although not with zeal or even the knowledge of solarpunk for most of this time). I still have a good distance to go, but I also have some concrete ideas in mind going forward.

So I thought I'd make this post where people could share their stories to inspire each other to take bolder steps: what steps have you so far taken and what do you plan to do going forward to live more true to a real solarpunk? What turned you onto these ideals in the first place? If not all ideals speak to you, which do and why? etc. etc. Anything goes!

I'll post my story in a separate comment.

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[–] Global_Liberty@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 week ago (10 children)

Here are the steps in our journey over the past five years:

Subscribed to solar power for 100% of my electricity
Drive an electric car when I have to, but bike exclusively within a two mile radius
Bought a laundry line and line dry clothes
Eat a mostly whole food, plant-based diet with lots of legumes to maximize my health and wealth while cutting my climate impact
Slashed my single use plastics consumption as well as durable to reduce microplastics breathed and consumed
Visit a library once a week
Grow simple plants (green onions, basil)
Keep air conditioning to a minimum (live in Florida)
Buy used/refurbished preferentially
Pesticide-free outdoors to encourage native insect predators and now my backyard is filled with butterflies
Recycle maximally following all guidelines and produce less than 1/10th the waste stream of my neighbors for a family of four with two pets
Replaced older, less efficient air conditioning with newer, high efficiency

I'm proud of what we've achieved, but there's still more to do. In the next five years we will:

Replace our other, less driven ICE vehicle with an electric
Transition to full pesca-vegetarianism
Install balcony solar as hopefully it will become legal (or I will smuggle a system in from Utah or Vermont)
Plant fruit/shade trees
Paint our home a lighter, high albedo color
Blow in additional insulation in the attic
Install a home car charger
Replace the last of our plastic clothing with natural fibers

2 tonnes CO2eq/person without carbon offsets for everything but travel is our end goal.

[–] MonkRome@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This as a pretty awesome list, I'm gonna save it.

One thing you could add is e-bikes, depending on how good the bike infrastructure is where you live. We were able to completely eliminate a second car because I can bike much further to work without getting sweaty. 9 miles each way. Also bike to some other local things like farmers market. Unfortunately my dad got old and we got a hybrid for free since he can no longer drive, to help him with appointments. But it was working in concept until that point.

[–] Global_Liberty@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

We thought about an ebike, but we don't really have intermediate distance driving to substitute that would be safe. As our careers already require two cars, there was no reason to add a unnecessary device. For shorter distances, I'd rather get the exercise anyway and cycle.

[–] MonkRome@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Makes perfect sense. I do get some light exercise on the e-bikes. If you're familiar with zone minutes, I get between 15-75 each 18 mile round trip, depending on how hard I peddle. It's usually enough to cover my exercise for the week. I can always peddle harder on the way home when I'm not worried about being sweaty.

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