The "punk" part of solarpunk is, of course, defying societal norms and governmental laws in the name of building a better future.

Isee a lot of great things happening, such as community gardens, climate protests and more and more people going vegetarian/vegan etc. I took a walk around my neighborhood yesterday to find things that I like about my town. I love to see people planting fruit trees in their garden. I love the little shops in their driveway/front yard with their harvested crops, homemade jam, fruit juice etc.

Public art

I love this artist, who, every few weeks, puts up a new string art piece. It's weird and I doubt the local government likes it. I'm friends with the artist's neighbor, and she says that they want to "decorate the town with art". That's a pretty punk statement that I definitely can get behind. It certainly is fun to see what the artist has come up with every time I walk past.

Mini libraries

Mini libraries can be found in every neighborhood. People place them in their front yard. This one has a little bench with it too. I love it so much. Access to free books, all day, everyday, almost everywhere. Tell me that isn't such a solarpunk initiative. They've sprouted up the last decade like weeds and I couldn't be happier.

Give & take cabinet

What's a better way to show your community you care about them than a give & take cabinet. Clothes, shoes dishes, menstrual items, shampoo and more. I'm planning on tidying up this cabinet soon and adding some stuff of my own. As someone who is pretty tight on money myself, I'm very happy to see a way I can get stuff I need if I'm in a pitch.

If you want you can give it a twist, you could consider making a tools library or a food cabinet as well.

Let's take care of each other and take care of our planet! We can build a kinder, better future if we tried. Love and Peace💚☮🌍

oh nothing, just daydreaming about accessible public transportation

When I tell that I LOVE solarpunk

Oh, I remember this, the edit was done by youtuber Waffle to the left.

They didn't just cut out the parts with the oat milk, they skillfully edited over all the god-damn branding and replaced the audio.

But what I still find most hilarious about this whole commercial is the fact that everything they show in this solar punk world seems to be made with sustainable, zero waste and reusable materials.

Everything EXCEPT THE FUCKING CHOBANI BRANDED STUFF! The only plastic you see in this whole commercial is all the straight to the landfill packaging made by the very corporation that tries to sell how sustainable and "green" they are. Unintentional self satire at its finest.

They couldn't even show their yogurt and milk in (basically infinitely reusable) glass containers because they pretty much only sell their shit in plastic

It is such a perfect example of the true face of "green" capitalism, it's hilarious.

The punk in this solarpunk comes from cutting the corporation out of the picture

ALSO

Another really interesting thing about this edit is that they changed the label on the side of the apple-picking machine.

From "donations" to "commons". It's a subtle change, but it makes a huge difference in the world-building of the video. The former implies that this big orchard belongs to an owner and that they're donating the fruits to "the less fortunate" (and, by extension, that poverty is still a thing); the latter implies that the orchard belongs to everyone and that the fruits are free to take in the spirit of solidarity.

Waffle To The Left brought out the potential in this gorgeous video and made it an actual solarpunk utopia — without brands and without corporate pandering, complete with true common ownership over land and resources.

(this one escaped containment to FB)

Characters co-owned w @_magic.stardust_ on IG 😌✨

I'm not a very positive person, i have a LOT of doomer tendencies. I feel everything like it's cranked up to the max, and as you can imagine it doesn't feel great. Every day throws more atrocious things in my face, and i can't ignore it 🥲

I see other people feeling the same way. We dissociate and numb ourselves by watching, playing, buying stuff. Hateful movements are gaining traction and climate change has its foot in the door

And it's all happening either way, to some degree. I feel like shit, and i'm sick of that. I might as well have a little bit of hope, otherwise i'll go bonkers 😭 Do we continue doomering our way through life or ignoring things altogether, or do we choose to hope a little?

That's why i'm looking into Solarpunk and am thinking of taking any readers (and myself) on a little journey through a better world, and how it might work. I don't have all the answers (no one person ever does), and i don't hold any pretenses that this kind of world is going to be our future. But i often hear "You love critiquing the status quo, but what do you propose instead?" I'd like to find out too. Here's to something we can hope for, no matter how slim the chances are! Because as I said, i might just lose my mind otherwise ☠️

P.S for new peeps: this is an AU with me and my friend's OCs, so all characters are genderless and go by they/them. It's not identical to our world in that regard, but other than this fact we try to keep it more or less realistic 🤙

Solarpunk doesn’t often get a winter take. Here’s a Solarpunk greenhoused city.

We have the technology damn it! 

That said, “-punk” subgenres aren’t inherently progressive narratives about people fighting oppressive power structures; I think they’re most interesting and use the setting to its most power when they ARE, but like, the original cyberpunks of the 80s were writing about techno-losers who are just kind of surviving and also sometimes doing crimes in the oppressively corporate-controlled future; they sure weren’t fighting it. “-punk” meant counterculture lowlifes, but didn’t necessarily imply anything about opposing oppression—William Gibson’s OG cyberpunk was frequently about people living within it, suffering under it, succumbing to it, or enacting lateral violence to survive it. Cyberpunk has ALWAYS been equally, if not more, about the aesthetic than the politics.

Personally I’m fine with “-punk” subgenres indicating setting/technology aesthetic and relationship to that setting/technology, rather than a specific political positioning or call to action. But I do think that to be even remotely INTERESTING about it it needs to be engaging with questions of the way technology interacts with politics and power structures. Which solarpunk at least has!— an aesthetic, a technology base, and a political philosophy baked in. Cyberpunk at least says “unchecked corporate power/technocracy bad”; steampunk says “imperialism/colonialism and classism bad”; solarpunk says “eco-conscious tech and socialism good.”

(Hopepunk has no aesthetic and says nothing in particular.)

When I tell that I LOVE solarpunk

Sun City~By Nusa Stiglitz via solarpunk

I’m new to the movement and finding lots of hope in solarpunk. I hope this is okay to post here! via solarpunk

— Max Ajl, A People’s Green New Deal

no, listen, when I say I want to integrate more specific solarpunk stuff in my life, i don’t mean to ask for yet again new “aesthetic” clothes that now you have to buy or make to show your support of the movement (screw that i’m consuming enough as it is), or more posts about impossible house goals, or whatever, I’m asking you what my options to build a portable and eco friendly phone charger are, im asking you viable tiny-appartment edible plants growing tricks on a budget,  im asking tips to slow down when my mind and society tell me im not fast enough, i don’t need more rich art nouveau amateurs aesthetics or pristine but cold venus project, okay, i know i should joins associations where I am tho i’m constantly on the move, thanks for that, just, you know, can we get a bit more practical ??? how do I hack my temporary flat into going off the grid for the time i’m here

Hello! ☀️ Here are a few practical suggestions for stuff you can do: 

Hope you find something useful in there! I post stuff up from time to time under my diy tag. Feel free to drop me a message if you have any requests!

These are great! But I don’t recommend the avocado one for growing avocados to eat because growing an avocado tree from a seed gives wildly varying results in terms of fruit quality - you might even not end up with edible avocados at all. That’s why commercially available avocados are all grafted clones from a relatively limited number of original trees. But if you want a young avocado tree for ornamental reasons go ahead.

“TECLA,”   Massa Lombarda region, Italy,

The World’s First 3D Printed House in Raw Earth!

Built in situ using locally sourced materials, Tecla is an exemplar of a zero-waste product. Local soil was used for the 3D printing’s raw material and on top of this, the sriking, tactile shell is wholly biodegradable – demonstrating how smart architecture can look good but also be in the technological avant-garde and support a low-carbon approach at the same time.

The composition of the earth mixture used in the build was created in direct response to the local climatic conditions. 

WASP and Mario Cucinella Architects

Greenhouse made of recycled glass bottles

It will be extremely interesting to see how well this works, and how well it ages. It is made from recycled glass bottles collected from the community, including used and cleaned out nail polish bottles from salons and clear gorilla glue. How much heat it will actually retain, and how hard it will be to keep the clear jars clean of dirt and dead bugs remains to be seen.

Location: just outside of Seattle, Washington

Source

So super cool! Back around the late 90s there was a park for children made of glass bottles. I rememver feeling I was stepping into another world.

This is a lovely and really cool project! 🌻 I love the idea of using differently sized bottles. I really hope it works out. 🤗

Some more IRL solarpunk:

Colorful windows that function as solar panels!

AuREUS Solar Panels were invented by Carvey Ehren Maigue, an electrical engineering student in the Philippines. The panels are made using recycled fruit and plant matter from crop waste, and because they react to UV light (instead of only to visible and infrared light like other solar panels) they produce power even on cloudy days☀️✨

yearly reminder that solarpunk must stand up with indigenous peoples both in their techniques AND in their politics. indigenous people aren’t here to teach you how to best garden for your cottage/commune and then be ignored because the politics of decolonization make you uncomfortable.

if we don’t do this, if solarpunk turns into a green capitalist homesteading aesthetic without any teeth, then it’s failed as a punk genre. 

here are some links for the holiday:

if you live in any of the settler nations, find whose land you inhabit here https://native-land.ca/

what “land back” means http://4rsyouth.ca/land-back-what-do-we-mean/

what “land back” looks like https://civileats.com/2018/02/08/returning-stolen-land-to-native-tribes-one-lot-at-a-time/

US/Canada news outlet for resources, orgs, and support http://www.indigenousaction.org/ 

decolonizing ecology https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/decolonizing-ecology

Pan-Africanism is also about decolonization https://decolonizeallthethings.com/2017/05/30/what-is-what-ought-to-be/

a list of books about worldwide decolonization and anti-racism https://www.versobooks.com/lists/4384-decolonization-and-anti-racism

Remember kids: decolonization doesn’t only need to happen in the USA!