Introducing Our Shiny New Logo
We have a new logo, after much deliberation and back and forth. This is a post about the journey from our previous iteration to this one.
Is Solarpunk the Hippie Movement Redux?
Christina here with a confession. Sometimes when people talk solarpunk, I can’t help but wonder if solarpunk is just this decade’s version of being a hippie. Solarpunks want to wear natural fiber clothing, listen to groovy music, eat organic food, grow their own veggies, shop at co-ops, and peace out in a world full of social justice, sustainability, and community gardens. It’s easy to think, well, how is this not just the 1960’s all over again? Or for that matter, how is solarpunk not just another resurgence of the same old ideas about alternatives to the prevailing society that have been going in and out of style since even before the Cynics of Ancient Greece?
Thoughts on a solarpunk “canon”
Is there a solarpunk canon of must-read books? Or should there even be a “canon” at all?
Eating Like the Ancestors (Some of Them, at Least)
All those years I stared at the huitlacoche galls on the corn and thought EW! What an idiot I was. I could have been eating this amazingness instead. Three cheers to the person who first got hungry (or curious) enough to give the fungal galls on maize a good chew. They're totally now my hero.
A Self-Driving Auto Dystopia
Never mind the autos of the future, the cars of today are already a privacy nightmare. As in, if your biggest fear of a self–driving car future is of the hacker who takes over and crashes the car you’re riding in, guess again. Our biggest fear should be of the car companies themselves and the future they're aiming to create for us. And the present they've already got us corralled in.
"Solarpunk and Sustainability: Towards a Better Future"
unsustainable magazine recently profiled us as part of a larger article about solarpunk - read it here: https://www.unsustainablemagazine.com/solarpunk-and-sustainability/
Ariel's Land Story: A Sneak Peek into some Patreon-exclusive content
This is an excerpt of a post that I (Ariel) made today on our Patreon. It's members-only content, but I thought I'd give our blog followers a bit of an idea of the kind of content we post there. To read more, head over to our Patreon, where you can subscribefor just $3 a month.
Can Solarpunk Have Visions of Organized Religion?
As an atheist scientist myself, I (Christina) assumed all scientists are atheists; my vision of a scientific, solarpunk future did not include faith.And yet, as I eventually realized, there are tons of religious scientists out there (of many faiths and traditions!), many of whom were my colleagues. I have no interest in becoming religious personally, but I wanted to hear for myself how self-identified religious scientists grapple with some of the issues that are deal-breakers for me.Maybe it is solarpunk to explore religion in our visions of a good future. Being so community-oriented, I bet solarpunks could come up with satisfying alternatives to organized religion. But what would that look like?
Getting Ready to Get Rid of the Solarpunk Cave to the New Tunes of Lana Del Rey
Today, because it was too dismal and rainy to finish digging the evil ground elder roots out of my strawberry patch, I started ripping the wallpaper off of the walls of the Solarpunk Cave. This meant saying goodbye to the cave paintings I started to make a couple of years ago, because they were exactly the sort of thing that belonged on the grungy old walls of the grotto.
#Solarpunk (& -adjacent) YouTube Channels
I (Ariel) watch a lot of YouTube – it’s for research purposes, I swear! Here are some of my favourites, in no particular order.
My First Peek Into the Pandora's Box That Is Text to Image
I was working in Canva today, producing the cover for the upcoming Episode 6 of Season 2 and, whoa, there was suddenly a text-to-image option. Setting aside, for the moment, the issues associated with using AI to generate images, of course I had to put it through some paces. Know thine enemy, I could say, but to be honest, I was just curious and the text box was just sitting there, waiting patiently for me to type something in.
What If We All Stopped to Look at Everything With Wonder?
What If We All Stopped to Look at Everything With Wonder?
Should Meat Be Expensive?
What is solarpunk to you, anyway?
It all begins with an idea.
2022 Analytical Laboratory Finalists
Christina's article "Evolving Brainy Brains Takes More Than Living on a Lucky Planet" got voted in as one of the finalists for one of Analog's reader favorites award.
My Friend Don
When Ariel and I were kicking around ideas for topics to interview people about for Season 2, the role of libraries in their communities came right up. And I knew just the librarian to interview—because Don is not only one of the best human beings ever made, he had literally just retired from his post as a librarian with the Salinas Public Libraries. As you can hear in the interview, Don's got lots of thoughts about libraries serving as the beating hearts and blood vessels of communities. Like any librarian worth their library card, he's super enthusiastic about the subject.
Season 2 Has Launched!
Is the solarpunk life all about peaceful living in harmony with your neighbors, your garden, and your chickens away from the thrum of the city, or is it all about taking up less space (by living in an apartment), helping out in the community garden, and riding the bus? Have a listen and let us know what you think on Twitter @SolarpunkP, or Mastodon @solarpunkpresents@climatejustice.rocks, or leave us a comment on this post or a review on your podcatcher of choice!