Here’s a stirring piece from last year looking to a positive, sustainable future – which some would call ‘solarpunk’:
Do you believe in climate solutions? You just might be a solarpunk.
What started as an idea for a new approach to science fiction has evolved into a worldwide community.
by Sarena Ulibarri
The term “solarpunk” first appeared in 2008 in an anonymous blog post that proposed a new literary genre focused on sustainable technology. Four years later, Brazilian editor Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro published the first anthology of solarpunk fiction, which was subsequently translated into English. But the idea really caught on in 2014 after a Tumblr post by the blogger and artist Miss Olivia Louise, who suggested combining solarpunk with an art nouveau aesthetic. More artists and writers began creating works in this style to give life to the idea, and the term also caught the attention of other movements with a similar vision. Solarpunk quickly grew beyond art, integrating with real-world activism and praxis as a paradigm to envision real futures as well as fictional ones. For practical inspiration, solarpunk looks to permaculture and Indigenous agriculture, sustainable architecture like Earthships and Arcosanti, as well as the maker movement and DIY culture. The future-focused inspiration has roots in the work of science fiction writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Octavia E. Butler, all of whom explore climate change, alternative economies, and equitable community in their work...
So, what is solarpunk? An aesthetic, a movement, a genre of art and fiction, a belief system, a lifestyle?
Yes. All of the above. It’s a shared vision of a future world, and a community in which everyone contributes in whatever way they can. A label is only as valuable as its ability to communicate and organize. Use it if it resonates with whatever steps you’re taking to reimagine the future. The more voices that join this chorus, the more likely we are to collectively imagine a world that serves the needs of everyone who lives there.
Do you believe in climate solutions? You just might be a solarpunk. | Fix
To finish, here’s the Fix page looking at the latest in SolarPunk fiction:
The Secrets of the Last Greenland Shark | Fix
With the audio on the Grist website:
Climate fiction audio stories from Imagine 2200 | Grist
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