Building A Solarpunk Future (The Power of an Aesthetic)

By Sanjay Bhagwandeen

The world is falling apart. At least according to the headlines in mainstream media. From record breaking heat waves, scorching wildfires, melting ice caps, a biodiversity crisis, intense and extreme rainfall events, (and I can go on), it is hard not to feel like we are on the verge of an apocalypse.

But what if we imagined something different? What if we imagined a world where nature, humanity and technology not only coexist but thrive together. Worlds that are rich in the greens and blues of abundance. Utopias? Maybe… But certainly utopias that are worth striving for.

This is what Solarpunk is all about. A burgeoning genre of art and a movement that casts off the dystopian technology heavy future of cyberpunk and instead strives to build a world where people not only live well but live well with nature. Solarpunk is an exercise of the imagination but is also a call to action. There are very real solarpunk solutions that already exist or are currently feasible and can unearth a bright new future for us.

How can we build a Solarpunk future?

Firstly, what is the role of technology in all of this? Just because households in your community slap on solar panels, does not mean they are harnessing the features of solarpunk. It all depends on context. As plundering the imperial periphery to build electric batteries is not solarpunk. Solarpunk without abolished capitalism is just greenwashed cyberpunk. Thus, solarpunk and its solutions and applications should be seen as one piece of the struggle to do away with capitalism and employ more ecological and ethical ways of being. So employing solarpunk with the political ideologies of eco - socialism and eco anarchism is essential to actually realizing those visions in the real world.

The worlds of solarpunk envisions technology applied appropriate situations in order to foster harmony between people and the environment. The applications of these technologies can be diverse. In one town, this could be passive cooling housing while in another it could mean communal living decked out with solar panels. It could mean mechanized apple pickers or it could mean shovels and hands in the dirt or it could mean both at the same time.

What matters is that those relationships work to strengthen the relationship between communities and the land around them as well as lessening the work needed to live a comfortable life.

What would some of these technologies look like?

Rebuilding flourishing communities is core to the philosophy of solarpunk. We cannot rely on individuals to make it through climate collapse nor can we rely on governments or corporations to help us survive in the midst of compounding crises. Humans are social species and the recognition of such is a key aspect of solarpunk. However, common spaces are infrequently present in our communities. Thus, developing Makerspaces could help develop and strengthen our community ties. Empty classrooms and schools, unutilized rooms, existing libraries or even unused spaces in homes can be easily transformed into places where people can come together whether with divergent or common interests, such as woodworking, coding, sewing, arts, science, cooking, etc. Makerspaces can easily blossom as people come together to share their knowledge, resources and just have fun.

While a solarpunk world will look local that does not mean that global travel will cease to exist. Travel in a solarpunk world is zero carbon without all of the fossil fuels to boot. Imagine a world where travel does not have to be rushed or stressful but where the transportation method could be the destination. Airships with their low zero emissions potential could very easily be implemented into a solarpunk world. These are 21st century blimps and airships that are already being tested across the world. There are a plethora of benefits to these. For one, they don’t require any new infrastructure because they can take off from almost anywhere. Thus, it can be used to reach far and hard to reach places. Additionally, current designs require 90% less fuel than commercial jets with future designs requiring none.

In a solarpunk world, these are not constructed by multi - national corporations but by work co - ops and collectively shared by a network of communities. Thus, they will be free as it should not cost you anything to visit your family if they live far away.

Nonetheless, makerspaces and airships are just one piece of the puzzle in a solarpunk world with other solutions such as ships equipped with sails and solar panels, free and electric public trams, earthships, solar ovens, etc that all fit into the decentralized nature and human centric futurism that is solarpunk.

Solarpunk presents a radical hope to an otherwise despair-filled movement. But this is not the blind hope where the world will turn out fine with capitalistic business as usual practices. It is a hope that encourages resistance and transformation. The dismantling of capitalism to build a new economy and culture. A hope that we have to work towards.

A hope worth fighting for!

References

Climate, Our Changing. Why This Gives Me Hope for the Future (ft. @Saint Andrewism). In this Our Changing Climate climate change video essay, I look at why solarpunk gives me hope for the future in a world ravaged by climate change and climate chaos. Specifically, I answer the question, what is solarpunk? 24 September 2021. YouTube,

Our Changing Climate, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3aauiR9M88. Accessed 31 July 2022.

Climate, Our Changing, and Andrewism. How We Can Build A Solarpunk Future Right Now (ft. @Andrewism). In this Our Changing Climate climate change video essay, I look at ways in which we can build a Solarpunk future right now. Solarpunk envisions a world in which nature and humanity are seamlessly intertwined, and it does this through a combination of low a. Our Changing Climate, 20 April 2022,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twGcjDnOb_U . Accessed 31 July 2022.

Perlstein, Jessica. “9 Reasons Why Solarpunk is the Future – Solarpunk Magazine.” Solarpunk Magazine, 24 October 2021,

https://solarpunkmagazine.com/9-reasons-why-solarpunk-is-the-future/ . Accessed 31

July 2022.