We’re heading for climate breakdown – but a vision of a way out which is also ‘utopian’ is not only very SolarPunk, but is being seriously considered as one of the only realistic ways out.
Prof Gregory Claeys is chair of a group which studies utopias:
Utopian Studies Society – Wikipedia
The Society for Utopian Studies
He’s just brought out a book:
Claeys contends that the current global warming limit of 1.5C (2.7F) will result in cataclysm if there is no further reduction in the cap. In response, he offers a radical Green New Deal program, which combines ideas from the theory of sociability with proposals to withdraw from fossil fuels and cease reliance on unsustainable commodities.
An urgent and comprehensive search for antidotes to our planet’s destruction, Utopianism for a Dying Planet asks for a revival of utopian ideas, not as an escape from reality, but as a powerful means of changing it.
Utopianism for a Dying Planet | Princeton University Press
This follows on from a TED Talk last year:
Gregory Claeys – After Consumerism: Utopianism for a Dying Planet – TEDxGoodenoughCollege
After Consumerism: Utopianism for a Dying Planet | Gregory Claeys | TEDxGoodenoughCollege – YouTube