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In this episode, Christina De La Rocha talks to Dr Hélène Jacot Des Combes, Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation Advisor to the National Disaster Management Office of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. They discuss sea level rise, infrastructure that can adapt to climate change, and land reclamation and protection. Dr Des Combes speaks passionately about reparations (for decades of colonialism, the US’s testing of atomic weapons on the atolls of the Marshall Islands, forced relocation of the Marshallese people, climate injustice, and much more) and advocates for the Marshallese peoples’ right to their own lands.

You can read more about the Marshall Islands’ unique position at the forefront of sea level rise at PacificaRisa.org. For further reading, check out the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ Climate Change website here, you can read up on the Government of the Marshall Islands’ Adaptation Communication (Dec 2020) here, and the World Bank’s page on the Marshall Islands has some informative visuals.

Here is the transcript for the episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/transcript-for-3-132375124

In this episode of Solarpunk Presents, Ariel sits down with John Okhiulu from the Decolonizing Wealth Project to talk about the role of philanthropy in addressing racial capitalism and reparations, and how the DWP is working to change the narrative around charitable giving and wealth-transfer. Also, John tells us about how he personally found himself in the world of philanthropy, as well as his vision of a solarpunk future.

To learn more, visit decolonizingwealth.com, read about its founder Edgar Villanueva on his site, or follow the organization for updates on their Twitter @decolonizwealth.

You can download the full transcript here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/124123344

In this soft-launch of Solarpunk Presents, the companion podcast to Solarpunk Futures, hosts and Solarpunk Magazine nonfiction editors Ariel Kroon and Christina De La Rocha tackle the question of “Must Solarpunk Should”? This is a dilemma that unconsciously or consciously comes through in a lot of the nonfiction submissions that we receive in our slush pile, and we have thoughts about it. So many thoughts! Possibly controversial one! But one of the best things about solarpunk is the space that it gives us to explore and think through new paradigms, new systems thinking, new ideas – some of which maybe we don’t necessarily love, but that are part of our world regardless of whether we like it or not. We’re learning and growing with every new day as solarpunks – come join us!

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Hey friends and followers, Ariel dropping in here with a quick note to let you all know that we’re working on a new website! We’re very excited about it; so excited that we transferred our domain name a wee bit early before the site was ready to publish. Whoops!

For now, you can find us at solarpunkpresents.wordpress.com until we’re ready to roll out our brand-new, excellent site at our non-wordpress domain name.

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The podcasts will continue to upload to your podcatcher / the Acast site / RSS feed without change, though, and we’re still solarpunkpresents over at Patreon, where Christina and I are uploading dispatches and bonus content weekly. If you can, join our little community – we’re having a good time.

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-new to the genre / idea / movement, energized, want to do everything now

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-beneficial to take a pause and reflect on what’s going on already

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-look at what has gone on

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-(shortened version of looking to past to cast into future)

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-short article here recc – simple ways to connect to the present, ack influence of past, to move into the future in a good way

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-often criticize we are not looking out for future world – indigenous tradition of looking forward six generations into future – this means thinking six generations into past – do you know who those people were? what kind of decisions they made? were they thinking about you? how can you live up to their expectations /

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be better than they were?

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-often told millennials are first generation where life isn’t going to get better for us – based on material conditions / economics – but what about the immeasurable things that solarpunk values? are we capable of more justice, lateral thinking, acceptance, anti-racism, gender understanding, gentleness, earth-knowledge, acknowledging of other humans, animals? that’s progress.

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I’ll be the first to admit that I romanticize the idea of winter, beginning right after Hallowe’en.

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-softly falling snow lead-up to december

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-beginning to look a lot like xmas

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-this year didn’t end up decorating for xmas because it snowed once and that was it

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-earth hard as iron / water like a stone – understand christina rosetti

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xmas break in st albert – like going back in time to my childhood

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-drifts of snow, crisp sunny cold days, snow plows, snowmen in yards, having to wear actually cold things but then being warm inside

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-now back to a drippy, dreary january

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-glenn albrecht solastalgia