A criticism of Solarpunk is that it’s just ‘pure fantasy’. Maybe, but here’s a closer look, from last month:

What does a sustainable civilisation look like and how do we get there? A burgeoning movement of artists and activists is seeking answers.

“It is 2050. In most places in the world, the air is moist and fresh, even in cities. It feels a lot like walking through a forest, and very likely this is exactly what you are doing. The air is cleaner than it has been since before the Industrial Revolution. We have trees to thank for that. They are everywhere.”

In the current moment, these words from Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac’s 2020 book The Future We Choose might seem like pure fantasy. The world they describe seems so far from the present, where over 90% of the Earth’s population breathes air deemed unsafe by the World Health Organization, scientists warn that humans are causing “irreversible” changes to the climate and nature is declining globally at an unprecedented rate.

But a burgeoning artistic and political movement known as “solarpunk” is trying to bring this lush, verdant world closer to reality.

Solarpunk: Visions of a just, nature-positive world – Lynxotic