Solarpunk

I want to write a novel that takes place sometime in the latter half of this century (let's say 2075), where the premise is that we've more or less achieved what could be described as a Solarpunk society globally, albeit not a perfect utopia. I am just an amateur, so don't hold your breath for the next literary masterpiece, but I am hoping that, if finished, it could at least inspire some people to envisage a better future. The novel itself will only use this as the setting, as a contrast to the often bleak and dystopian visions of the future - the plot will not be related to how this was achieved.

I am currently looking for inspiration for the world-building. What have happened between now and then on a big scale, particularly in terms of geopolitics? How did the tensions of today resolve so that we eventually landed in a Solarpunk society? I am happy to read both critical analyses of probably futures as well as speculative fiction on what could become, but that still remains rooted in the realm of the possible. The world should be mostly stable at the point of the novel, but many turbulent things could've happened on the way there.

A few examples of things I am looking for:

• Which regions/peoples gained independence? Are The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland reunited, is Scotland independent from the UK, is Catalonia a sovereign state? Other examples outside of Europe?
• How have e.g. the African Union and/or the East African Federation progressed, and what role do the play on the global scene? What about other would-be superpowers?
• How did what today looks like an uncrossable divide between the left and right in the United States resolve? Was there ever a new civil war? What did that look like? Are they still united? Any new states?
• Has the United Nations undergone any changes to become a more effective organization?

Have you read or seen anything like this that you could share? Articles, books, movies, TV-shows etc.? Do you have any thoughts of your own you would like to share?

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7550276

Marigold was adopted at birth by Carol and Georgie Sinclair in 2108. As the oldest of five, Marigold has always been a leader in their large household. They’re the product of their mothers’ inquisitiveness, their father’s confident passion for service, and a general love of taking things apart. In school, communication and writing were long their favorite subjects, narrowly beating out applied science and engineering. After a class field trip to the KNOCK LA newsroom when they were 12, Marigold became captivated by the sense of heroism they associated with investigative journalism.

On their school newspaper (Toypurina’s “The Recruiter”) they made a beat in looking for undisclosed potential conflicts of interest in procurement processes (they found five over two years) and performing other investigations into administrative oversight. Their greatest achievement was an expose on the fraction of school district travel opportunities which were provided to administrators versus educators. Marigold’s discovery that educators only received one sixth of the district’s off-world travel opportunities compared to upper level administrators when adjusted for group sizes received passing coverage from all the major municipal papers and earned them an angry letter from the school district’s head office, which Marigold framed and hung up in their room.

Knowhound spends their time hanging out with their friends Shoshana, Rocco, and Goat; going on adventures around Torrance with their younger siblings (where they’re equal parts protector and bad influence); and chasing leads for stories that either make it into an article for the school paper or wind up as microreports on the neighborhood Community Post.

Character sheet link

Degrowth is a popular concept among solarpunks. This Jacobin article discusses some of its flaws from a Marxist standpoint. In particular, Jacobin reminds us an interpretation of Marxism which blames the Western working class for exploiting the Global South, and lectures the ever-more-exploited Western worker on the need to consume less, divides international labor against itself and sabotages its own best hope of success.

I think it's an interesting work for solarpunks as it describes the blueprint for what is one of the most democratic and ecological societies around the world.

Web 3, nature conservacy, crypto-somthing, blockchain? So this organization appears to be buying land to then put in the hands of stewardship organizations. One of the places being bought under this scheme is Traditional Dream Factory.

Their plans and ideas seem sound, I just don't understand the crypto part and tokens and what these are supposed to accomplish as opposed to something like traditional shares or just write everything down on a piece of paper?

Is crypto ultimately just an ultra complex way of record keeping here?

I would really appreciate your opinions. In terms of activities and spaces, a lot of the TDF setup is very close to what we would like to build, so I try to study and understand different ways people organize such projects.

Note: I might just be uneducated on the subject.

When I read about web3 with blockchains, smart contracts and dapps, all sounds very promising. But once you look for any real world applications it is just some obscure things that kind of only exist to support the decentralized system. I guess that makes sense, but are there any actual real world uses for that? Like day-to-day things that make a persons life easier, not harder?

Ticket Sales and Call for Submissions are now open for this year's Solarpunk Conference

Hello all, happy early spring to those of you who are experiencing it! Here in western Colorado, we've got our tiny rainy season going on. what are you doing in your communities, in your gardens, in your organizing spaces? what kind of cool praxis have you got going on?

Does solarpunk dream utopic dreams of clean, just, green cities that are great places to live in vibrant communities with other people? Or is solarpunk about getting back to the land, having your own chickens, being self-sufficient, and helping out your neighbors? City dweller Ariel, who dreams of life in the countryside, and countryside dweller Christina, who sees the advantages of city life, consider the pros and cons of trying to live urban versus rural solarpunk lives.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/10927570

Lose yourself in the visionary fiction of Cory Doctorow, the celebrated author and digital rights activist known for his masterful explorations of the intersection of tech and society. And help support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with your purchase.

I would have linked the NYT article direct but it's paywalled. Thanks, Obama.

Sorry for the clickbait title but I thought a great video from a great but not well known channel.

But now a smattering of solar panels across 12 villages in a couple of Ecuador’s deeply forested eastern provinces are making Canelos’s vision materialize. Every morning, before dawn, his people pass around a bowl of wayusa, a traditional drink made from a local plant that helps bring their dreams into focus. In them, they believe, lies the path of their communities’ future.

Now solar power is shaping how they go about daily life in ways big and small, from how they get to work to how they negotiate their connections to the world beyond the Amazon.

This is a projection in Oakland. You can find the original art here.

The way-back machine found a March 2023 Reddit post by Aaron Bushnell where he said, “I’ve realized that a lot of the difference between me and my less radical friends is that they are less capable of imagining a better world than I am. I follow YouTubers like Andrewism that fill my head with concrete images of free, post-scarcity communities, and it makes me so much more prepared to reject things about the current world, because I’ve imagined how things could be and that helps me see how extremely bullshit things are right now.”

If you care to see the full quote, you can check @tinythunders on Twitter or Andrewism’s YouTube Channel, the community tab.

We have done it. We are there. A sustainable world. An abundant, renewable clean energy. A recovering ecosystem and a biodiversity that we can now help improve instead of merely defend. Changes happened. Changes in politics, in tech, in culture. We waste less, we consider the long term impact of our decisions, we consider natural resources as atakeholders in our decisions and give them representatives.

Now what? Well, humans are debating about to do next and, big surprise, several factions are out there.

Extend the list, imagine factions collaborating or fighting, or detail a faction either seriously or tongue-in-cheekly

• Archaecologists argue that we should restore the ecosystem to a state close to the paleolithic before humans started damaging the planet. Their food is good but is a pain to peel.

• Ecovolutionists argue that the Anthropocene should not be ignored and that we should accept the profound impact we had on Earth, and let it run its natural course while we re-invent our way of life to have a lower impact. Their more radical branch releases genetically adapted version of endangered plants in human biomes. The Monsoon Red Concrete Mold is their proudest achievement.

• Biomaximizers think that some ecosystems are inherently more desirable than others: they argue that maximizing biodiversity and biomass should be our goal, that deserts should be turned into primal forests and that we should build reefs in the oceanic deserts. Their Saharan seed-bombing raves are rad.

• Biomoralists think we should raise the morality of the animal world and break the prey-predator mechanism, that nature is something to improve respectfully and humanely. Their vegan cat food is actually surprisingly tasty.

• Ecogardeners are in favor of biotopes that have biodiversity but also are welcoming of humans and nice to the eye. They are not fans of mosquitoes or wolves, but god do they love flowers.

• The Followers of Gaia want to maximize the consciousness of the biosphere by planting more telepathic organisms they can connect with. They are currently disagreeing on which species have the more psy power but I am sure they will end up agreeing on a list eventually. Their only consensus now is that sauge is good and who would disagree?

• Consumerists are for declaring natural reserves but embrace the ability to be "wasteful" again, now that recycling and energy uses are sustainable. I mean, I kinda get their point but renewable skiing in Dubai still feels like missing the point.

• Earth-conservationists argue we should all move to space and let the Earth grow back to its natural stage. They are bewildered that the archaecologists do not agree with what they essentially see the same goal.