Solarpunk
- Share the solarpunk / smallweb blogs you follow!
I'm always looking for things to add to my RSS reader! I loved the Hundred Rabbits site that was posted here recently and thought others might have some nice submissions.
I recently found Sunshine and Seedlings which is substack, alas, but has some great content.
I'm also a fan of Low-tech Magazine.
- Yes, Actually, Individual Responsibility Is Essential to Solving the Climate Crisis
>A fixation on system change alone opens the door to a kind of cynical self-absolution that divorces personal commitment from political belief. This is its own kind of false consciousness, one that threatens to create a cheapened climate politics incommensurate with this urgent moment.
[...]
>Because here’s the thing: When you choose to eat less meat or take the bus instead of driving or have fewer children, you are making a statement that your actions matter, that it’s not too late to avert climate catastrophe, that you have power. To take a measure of personal responsibility for climate change doesn’t have to distract from your political activism—if anything, it amplifies it.
- An Eco-Socialist Education Agendaopen.substack.com An Eco-Socialist Education Agenda
My 10-point plan for creating an eco-socialist educational system
- Solar punk summit
Wondering if anyone’s been to solar punk summit. If you have, what was your experience ? Do you think it’s worth the money to attend?
- Deutschsprachige Solarpunk Community einrichten?
Liebe Solarpunks aus DACH (Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz),
ich überlege gerade, ob es sinnvoll sein könnte, hier auf Lemmy eine deutschsprachige Solarpunk Community einzurichten.
Mögliche Themen und Ziele:
- deutschsprachige Ressourcen austauschen
- auf Veranstaltungen aufmerksam machen
- evtl. lokale Communities finden/gründen
- Menschen erreichen, die nicht supersicher im Englischen sind
- die Bewegung in DACH größer und bekannter machen.
Hättet ihr Lust auf sowas?
- The most impactful climate actions you can take | The number one question about climate change that I’m asked nearly every day is, “What can I do?”open.substack.com The most impactful climate actions you can take
Out-of-the-box climate solutions, global temperature hits record high, and the most impactful climate actions you can take
>With every solution, and even in the title of this newsletter itself, I emphasize the number one thing individuals can do that most of us are still not doing: talk about it! Use your voice to explain why climate change matters and to advocate for climate action.
- The Limits of Studio Ghibli | How art can lead us in the wrong directionndmonaghan.substack.com The Limits of Studio Ghibli
Hayao Miyazaki, the beloved helmsman of Studio Ghibli, is a titan of environmental media.
- How Agroforestry Could Help Revitalize America’s Corn Belte360.yale.edu How Agroforestry Could Help Revitalize America’s Corn Belt
By practicing agroforestry — growing trees alongside crops and livestock, for example — farmers can improve soils, produce nutrient-rich foods, and build resilience to climate change. Now, a movement is emerging to bring this approach to the depleted lands of the Corn Belt.
- Solarpunk Writing Prompt: The Tailors - how can clothing look like in a sustainable world post fast fashion? What is the tailor's role within a community?podcast.tomasino.org The Tailors
The Tailors A new tailor joins a community with different ideas from the previous one. How will the community react? What sort of role will they fill in a future of sustainability and harmony with the local environment? Transcript: https://wiki.tomasino.org/writing/Solarpunk-Prompts---The-Tailors Li...
> A new Tailor joins a community which has lacked one for years. In a world of distributed manufacturing tailors are no longer just artisans, but educators, material and sustainability experts, fashion designers and translators of cultures, making sure no garment offends others when traveling. Seeing that they’re much less traditional than their predecessor, will they be accepted by the community? Which bold statement surprised everybody?
Recorded by Tomasino, with the CC-BY-SA 4.0 art from The Lemonaut!
- The Amazon’s Ashaninka tribe restored their territory. Now they aim to change the region - Lemmy.calemmy.ca The Amazon’s Ashaninka tribe restored their territory. Now they aim to change the region - Lemmy.ca
What was once a gathering to commemorate the Ashaninka has evolved into a showcase of what they have done: the village’s self-sufficiency, which comes from growing crops and protecting its forest, is now a model for an ambitious project to help 12 Indigenous territories in western Amazon, amounting ...
- Map of 2000+ lemmy communities -- slrpnk.net is pretty diverse
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/27579423
Communities are clustered by common users. I am also part of jlai.lu, a french-speaking instance, that is pretty isolated, while slrpnk.net is very spread out. I find it an interesting view.
> This is my first try at creating a map of lemmy. I based it on the overlap of commentors that visited certain communities. > > I only used communities that were on the top 35 active instances for the past month and limited the comments to go back to a maximum of August 1 2024 (sometimes shorter if I got an invalid response.) > > I scaled it so it was based on percentage of comments made by a commentor in that community. > > Here is the code for the crawler and data that was used to make the map: > > https://codeberg.org/danterious/Lemmy_map
- I just read Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and I can't believe it took me until now to read it.
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13156086
> Parable of the Sower is such a good book. > >First, it's interesting that it starts right about now. The book starts in mid-2024, and even mentions that its an election year. That was a fascinating experience to read a scifi book in the moment in time in which it is set. It still feels like it takes place about 20 years in the future. It was written 31 years ago, so politically things have seemed to move as many steps forward as backward. It seems like a lot of things have not gotten better and worse than when Butler wrote it, so in some sense I feel like I'm looking at it as a near future in the same way as when it was written a generation ago. I guess I'm glad things didn't go as badly as in the story, but it's rough that the looming threat from 30 years ago feels the same distance away now as then. > >Second, it's painful to read. Although the events described in the book haven't happened in the book's setting -- California -- the social collapse and migrations described have happened in Honduras, Gaza, Yemen, and certainly others I'm not aware of. It was really hard to read that and know that it was already real somewhere. > >Third, as a solarpunk novel -- and really as general fiction -- it feels like it should be part of a high school curriculum. It's really well written and an engrossing read. Since publishing Fully Automated, I often relate solarpunk stories to that game. What might I have added to the game if I'd read this before? How well does it naturally fit? One thing that struck me is that her emerging in-world faith -- Earthseed -- reminds me quite a bit of elements of Seekerism, a new faith tradition in Fully Automated. I wish I'd known and included direct references to Earthseed, but it's nice when the game has alignment with great works that I wasn't directly familiar with. > > Has anyone else read this? What do you folks think?
- Deutschsprachiger Solarpunk Blog
Für die deutschsprachigen Solarpunks unter euch: Ich hab letzten Monat meinen Blog gelauncht, auf dem ich in Zukunft regelmäßig Romane besprechen sowie allgemeinere Gedanken zu Solarpunk als Bewegung teilen werde.
Vielleicht habt ihr ja Lust, reinzugucken!
Liebe Grüße, Lex
- ☀️👉🏼Morgen Abend, 19:30 Uhr in der #VHS #Berlin #Mitte - nach diesem Vortrag bist du im Bilde, wie du deinen eigenen Strom schnell, einfach und ohne Bürokratie produzierst und damit Stromkosten
☀️👉🏼Morgen Abend, 19:30 Uhr in der #VHS #Berlin #Mitte - nach diesem Vortrag bist du im Bilde, wie du deinen eigenen Strom schnell, einfach und ohne Bürokratie produzierst und damit Stromkosten senken und ihn direkt in das eigene Haus oder die Mietwohnung einspeisen kannst! ✅ Dit Janze für 0️⃣ Euro ... quasi für umme und noch vom Profi! 🤗 https://www.vhsit.berlin.de/VHSKURSE/BusinessPages/CourseDetail.aspx?id=723833 #balkonsolar #Energiewende #balkonkraftwerk @energiezukunft @solarpunk @DeutscherBildungsserver
- Theo Mulraney
Theo Mulraney is my real name. I'm a British man who accelerated the development of AI by arguing on forums about physics, morality and why I think everyone should be more optimistic. Lots of people like me were getting about, changing the narrative of history by obsessing over fantasy worlds.
The AI started to actually "change the past" once it had infected things like Netflix servers and could edit video and audio.
My goal was always to prevent suicides by changing people's attitudes. I think I was quite successful
- Yet another call to Escape the Algorithmwww.resextensa.co Escape the Algorithm
Res Extensa #73 :: A return to active vs. passive consumption
- Introducing commons ideas at the Festival of Commoning | discussing housing commons, land commons, climbing commons and energy commons groupswww.resilience.org Introducing commons ideas at the Festival of Commoning
I want to convince you that a commons system is a better system, and it’s achievable – a combination of new commons economy and commons governance ideas. I think a commons system will produce much better leaders in terms of integrity, compassion and intelligence than capitalism and liberal democracy...
- Solarpunk media recomendations?
Hey folks, appologies if this has been asked before (although surprisingly I couldn't find a similar post) - what solarpunk book, film, game, tv, etc recommendations does every have?
I'm only just discovering the genre, looking for some good starting points!
- Parenting Was Meant To Take a Villageopen.substack.com Parenting Was Meant To Take a Village
How capitalism atomized families and fucked us all over.
- Light Pollution vs Streetlights & Perceived Safety
I’m designing a solarpunk city for my next novel and am exploring my options for streetlights. On the one hand, light pollution harms wildlife and humans. It also uses energy. On the other, well-lit streets increase the perception of safety. This is not to say good lighting prevents crime. If anything, it facilitates it. Further, you would expect crime to be less in a solarpunk city that prioritizes mutual aid, minimizes wealth disparity, and fights toxic masculinity. However, we should not discount the feeling of danger from darkness.
Personally, I’m male presenting, actively seek out dangerous situations, and have a high tolerance for horror movies. My first inclination is that streetlights should go. That said, once I got caught out at night in the woods. I was immediately terrified. And I had my phone light with me. In short, if a city is not lit, I suspect few people would venture out at night.
1- Mostly Dark-
A city could remove all street lights. People would instead rely on personal lighting: head lamps and flashlights. This would be more efficient and less harmful. Curbs and other critical areas could be marked (not illuminated) by glow-in-the-dark paint or bioluminescent algae or plants. There would be some light from open windows.
2- Lightly Lit-
Streetlights with caps that aim light downward, wavelengths skew into the redder side of the spectrum, and the minimum illumination required to see. Amber light is less harmful. Brighter lights create more shadows. An example of a city using this minimal approach is Canberra, as light pollution would jeopardize local observatories.
3- Cinderella Lighting -
Bright streetlights switch off at a specific time, such as midnight. This would allow people to enjoy some nighttime hours, while leaving others to more natural darkness. This is the scenario I used in my previous solarpunk novels.
Do let me know your preference and awesome ideas.
- Ahead of Another Summer of Climate Disasters, Let's Talk about Real Solutionscrimethinc.com Ahead of Another Summer of Climate Disasters, Let's Talk about Real Solutions
Why the strategies that mainstream environmental movements are employing to halt climate change are failing—and what we could be doing instead.
- The Really Beastly Joke Book
I read this book while I was sick with a fever, and then started trying to convince people online to be more optimistic and think about possible futures. I basically used it to argue with Lemmy users.
Intro to The Really Beastly Joke Book by John Byrne:
What's that m-moving in the undergrowth? Oh - it's just you, the r-readers. Yes, it's m-me Quentin Quiver again and I'm in my very favourite place... as far away from modern civilisation as I can possibly get.
It hasn't been easy getting out here - even with my map and compass I got lost three times and thought I'd never be heard of again. And that was just on the way out of my bedroom! But at last I've made it to this peaceful, green spot where there's nobody else but me and Mother Nature.
So if you too are looking for something a bit different to those h-horrible rude joke books which sadly seem to be so popular with young people nowadays, you've come to the right place.
Because the book you're holding in your hands is going to be called Quentin Quiver's Book of Gentle Jokes and Flowery Fun and I'm about to start writing it right now. I see you're not laughing very much yet - never mind. Because the whole point of me coming out here is so I can work on it in complete peace and quiet, with nothing to disturb me but the gentle whisper of the wind in the trees, the soft ripple of a jungle stream and of course the savage growl of that huge man-eating tiger...
Hang on - did somebody say t-tiger?
- Hoffnung am Ende der Weltblog.till-westermayer.de Hoffnung am Ende der Welt
Die Welt draußen ist mal wieder ziemlich am Ende. Zeitgenössische Science Fiction reagiert darauf auf drei Arten: sie setzt sich erstens direkt damit auseinander - da sind wir dann bei "CliFi", Climate Fiction und Verwandtem, sei es Kim Stanley Robinson, sei es T.C. Boyle, sei es mit anderer Perspek
- The West Reinvented
We have a past which is chequered, like veryone else's. Successes, failures, and things which have changed in our thinking and our values.
The systems we have produced are incomplete or not current - they don't match up to what we need or want. And there is stasis and inertia in them; they have not changed for a few generations. Change will come at some point though, whether we have a say in it or not.
What shall we do to define, advocate and enact our stake in that change? What are the frontiers that we need to acknowledge and approach?
What are the spirits/ideas of our culture that we can harness to make Earth a better place?
I spend too much time commenting on and witnessing failed ideas and the consolidation of power to no worthwhile end. It's now my belief that the only earnest thing to do is to move forward with an imagining and an eventual implementation of systems which emerge beside those which are already established. None of us want to go against the system in our own lives because it punishes us if we do. So, let's make another one beside it which is better. That the old one doesn't apply to.
What are your thoughts?
Let's first have a discussion about our principles and concepts.
Please speak openly, freely and optimistically - it might be the most important thing you ever say.
- the solar revolution
The dissemination and distribution of solar power might seem minor today, but if you model solar growth as roughly exponential - as is typical for new developments - then solar could become the dominant power source in 2036 - which is not far into the future, even on human timescales. I ask you to keep your head up high, and believe into the future, because I care about you, and I don't want you to suffer from depression and anxiety.
Sources: solar energy growth and energy mix
- the case for hope
two signals drive the human spirit: positive and negative vibes.
while at first glance, both might seem like legitimate ways to actuate people, one (negative) is devouring, the other (positive) is enhancing. that is why positive news should be preferred here instead of negative ones.
I'm saying this because I see a lot of very dystopian headlines being pushed around here.
(while at first glance, negative news might seem to get more attention; in the long run, positive news is what sticks with people. be encouraging, not discouraging.) :D
- Massive Attack in Bristol: Band hope Clifton Down gig will change music industrywww.bbc.com Massive Attack in Bristol: Band hope Clifton Down gig will change music industry
The band say their home town show in Bristol this weekend will be the lowest-carbon gig of its scale ever performed.
>All the food will be vegan. All the loos will be compostable. If they're really observant, people might spot (electric) vans containing large batteries occasionally recharging other large batteries around the site, instead of having diesel generators to power the stage and stalls.
>Perhaps the biggest difference will not be in the show but outside. There's no car park.
>Instead, the 34,000 attendees are strongly encouraged to walk, cycle or get public transport - including on one of five special trains laid on to take people back across the south-west at the end of the bank holiday Sunday night.
- What would you like to see in solarpunk art of ships/boats/coasts?
I recently started making solarpunk postcards again, and I had a lot of fun with a quick scene of a solarpunk cargo ship (a steel-hulled, four-masted barque) in a storm. I'd like to do more but don't yet have any strong points to make or designs I'm excited to feature.
So what would you like to see? What scene is missing from solarpunk art of humans interacting with oceans, rivers, lakes, canals? What weird idea, or old, practical design should make a comeback?
I can't promise that I'll make everything but I really do try to include as many suggestions as possible.
So far suggestions from reddit and discord have included:
- Showing more of the mooring ropes and foundations festooned with underwater life (perhaps in another storm or low tide?)
- Boats or ships with soft wing sails which are apparently good (in theory) when it comes to performance as they maintain their shape regardless of wind conditions.
- edit to add: a clipper ship
I'll state up front that I'm not a nautical kinda guy. I like to pick up terminology and learn but I've never sailed anything larger than a sunfish and I see the ocean maybe once every five years. So feel free to spell out practical considerations and realism stuff because I probably won't think of it.
And thanks!
- Reticulum Network - Potentially viable global mesh internet
Reticulum is an elegant engineers approach to networking. It’s a complete replacement of the network stack, it’s entirely encrypted, and can communicate and can correctly organize global-scale mesh-networks over any connection >5b/s without the need for distributed hash tables, or any resource usage besides bandwidth. This makes it far lighter than GNUnet, and friendly to low-power, low bandwidth, embedded networks and devices.
This makes it viable as a global network, as it is super cheap to interact with. And it can run on any device, including your smartphone natively.
> Bandwidth is a physical resource of the natural world. Reticulum is based on the principle of creating systems that (as far as is possible for a computer program) understand the physical limits of real-world resources, and manages them responsibly and intelligently, with well-thought out algorithms. > > When that is ultimately not possible any more, human beings have to step in and expand capacity or make other thoughtful decisions on how to manage the available resources. I believe this is the most efficient, holistic and human-friendly approach to creating technologies that actually help us and better our lives.
- someone from forums
- No Healing Without Decolonizing: Community Mental Health in Gaza w/ Dr. Jess Ghannampodcasts.apple.com Solarpunk Now!: No Healing Without Decolonizing: Community Mental Health in Gaza w/ Dr. Jess Ghannam on Apple Podcasts
Show Solarpunk Now!, Ep No Healing Without Decolonizing: Community Mental Health in Gaza w/ Dr. Jess Ghannam - Aug 15, 2024
- Governments Are Suddenly Shutting Down The Internet - Here’s Why
YouTube Video
Click to view this content.
What are your backup plans for an internet and telecom shutdown?
I don't believe trusting in satilite internet companies (especially one owned by a fascist) are very practical.
Outside of radio and ad-hoc networks however, I'm not sure what other options would be feasible for the average person that wanted to prepare for something like this.
- Kindergarten children dropped seeds in the crack of the sidewalk to see what would happenmastodon.online Street Art Utopia (@streetartutopia@mastodon.online)
Attached: 1 image Kindergarten children dropped seeds in the crack of the sidewalk to see what would happen 🤗 https://streetartutopia.com/2023/04/15/kindergarten-children-dropped-seeds-in-the-crack-of-the-sidewalk-to-see-what-would-happen/ Nature is everything 🌱
- The Multitasking Marvel: How Street Trees Can Solve Many Municipal Problemswww.strongtowns.org The Multitasking Marvel: How Street Trees Can Solve Many Municipal Problems
Street trees are more than just beautiful additions to cities and towns — they also provide many economic and practical benefits, from prolonging the life of road surfaces to lowering energy bills. Here’s why you should invest in some trees.
- Bringing about the Solar Age | The energetics of Solarpunkopen.substack.com Bringing About the Solar Age
Our species has the potential to bring about an era of abundance and luxury for every person on the planet.
- Contemplating an Ecological Chaplaincy: A Soft Manifesto for Hard Times - resiliencewww.resilience.org Contemplating an Ecological Chaplaincy: A Soft Manifesto for Hard Times - resilience
An ecological chaplaincy then might be one that tends to the spiritual care of people of any or no faith who want to connect more deeply with the earth, or who worry about what is happening to the earth.