Eutopian

We don’t need to dream of an impossibly perfect future world; we can build a messily real, good world in the present. 24-year-old dyspraxic transsexual anarcho-pagan faggot from Prydain, working full-time in environmental advocacy (they/xe)

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Pls send me questions you have for me, or submissions with news or info about solarpunk, optimism and building a better world! They can be about anything I just want to learn and make connections 🌻

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Hellooooo, would you mind if I used your list of SolarPunk media (with you cited as the source) for my SolarPunk Zine? Do you have a preferred way of referencing yourself? Looking forward to your reply! p.s. this is the post that I'm referencing

https://www.tumblr.com/justalittlesolarpunk/750167321497239552/ive-teased-it-youve-waited-ive?source=share

Hope it isn't too late to say absolutely yes go for it to this!

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Thinking of posting on here a bit more often again. I have a lot of climate and nature thoughts (sometimes quite radical ones - ask me about my hot takes whoops) and nowhere else to put them. I don't know if you folks want to hear them, but I might give it a try.

[nudityandnerdery]

[vaspider]

Look. The way you ask for a refill?

Sometimes, what you need to do is literally ask for a refill. I know that can be scary and upsetting and requires you to be willing to be vulnerable, but please consider two things:

One: if what you want to do is be able to fill other people's cups, you can't fill from an empty cup. You literally can't do the work if you're emptied out. You need to do this so you can help.

Two: for the people that love you, the people that really matter, you aren't imposing on them by asking for a refill. This is one of the things I really internalized from coming home to Judaism: when someone asks me to help them, they're giving me the opportunity to perform a mitzvah. No matter your belief system or outlook, I think we can probably all agree that being given an opportunity to be more awesome is pretty great.

So ask. Here are a few scripts you can try.

"Hey, I am...

... having a bad day.

... really struggling.

... really hurting because of the state of the world.

... having a hard time focusing on positive things.

... feeling emptied out.

Could you please help me? I could really use...

... some company.

... to hear about something beautiful you saw today.

... to hear some good news.

... to see a picture of your pet.

... to be told something you like about me.

... to be reminded of something I do that you like.

... your silliest new meme.

... to go for a walk with you.

... to hear about your favorite show.

... a hug."

I have genuinely never asked my friends to love me a little bit louder and gotten anything but an outpouring of support.

People love you and want to take care of you. All you have to do is give them an opportunity and maybe tell them the best way to love you right now.

[cincoflex]

I need to share this.

I need to remind people they too can ask me for a refill.

We are stronger together.

[werewolf-transgenderism]

[crippled-peeper]

I got this extremely snotty angry reply to one of my gardening related posts once that was to the effect of “the only people who garden are wealthy because it’s entertainment and you don’t have to survive off it” from a communist catgirl anime icon haver and I just looked at my foodstamps-funded collection of garden vegetables in the back yard and fucking screamed at the top of my lungs

[moniquill]

Fellas, is to bourgeoisie to ::checks hand:: till the soil to grow food crops?

[beatrice-otter]

Considering how many people I know who garden intensively because they're poor and it's a lot cheaper to grow and home can fruits and veggies than to buy them ... yikes.

[mamoru]

yes I DO live under a rock and her name is the Moon and she is always smiling but she teaches me nothing

[naamahdarling]

She teaches you the peace of loving something wild without the expectation of its return.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

2026 is off to a hopeful start for these critically endangered whales

At least 18 new baby North Atlantic right whales have been spotted swimming with their mothers.

We could all use a little good news, couldn't we? North Atlantic right whales were heavily hunted for commercial use from the 16th to mid-19th centuries; they gained their name "right whale" because they float after they die, making them easier to harvest and therefore the "right" whale to hunt. By the mid 1900s there were likely fewer than 100 remaining in the entire world, and only then did they gain any international protections (proving once again that industry-minded humans cannot be trusted to not drive species to extinction without regulations.)

Today the population of these long-lived, slowly-reproducing mammals is estimated at a little under 400; fewer than 100 are females of reproductive age. It is quite likely that their eastern population is functionally extinct. Therefore, the news that there are at least 18 new calves this season is amazing! It's likely not all of them will survive to adulthood, but it's a better number to start with than we've seen in recent years.

While it is no longer legal to hunt these majestic animals, they still suffer significant injury and mortality from ship strikes and entanglement in both active and abandoned fishing gear. In fact, half of all known right whale deaths since 1970 have been caused by these two anthropogenic sources. Any reduction in mortality gives this critically endangered species a better chance of avoiding extinction, and in recent years efforts have been made to change shipping routes to avoid areas where right whales are common, and restrict usage of types of fishing gear particularly prone to entanglement.

With continued conservation efforts and education, we may just get to see North Atlantic right whales continue to grow their numbers over time. May this year's new arrivals live long, healthy lives!

[catholicapothecary]

[justalittlesolarpunk]

This is the foundation of all hope btw. In the words of Tolkien, 'despair is for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.'

[vernetic-energy]

In my time being concerned and stressed about climate change and the state of the world in general the rampant misanthropy found in climate concern spaces pisses me the fuck off

You’re letting the rich get away with it when you blame humanity!! We are not a virus!! It is not our fault for living!! It is capitalism it is exploitation it is the few not the many! Cynicism and hatred is getting us nowhere and we are not evil for existing!! Misanthropy is a fucking fascist trick!!

Hating humans as a whole feels like “boys will be boys” shit, saying humanity is inherently greedy and evil just makes it seem like the rich and soulless people in charge are just doing what humans do but like with boys will be boys that’s not how it should be! Humans are lovely and wonderful and we are failing ourselves by writing ourselves off as evil and failing to hold those of us who are acting poorly culpable by saying it’s just in our nature! Instead we should love ourselves as humanity enough to call out the bad actors because we are capable of better!

I hate bigots, I hate CEOs, I hate abusers, I hate exploiters, I hate the rich and I hate the powerful, but I will never hate humanity. We can do better, we are capable of more, and nothing will change if we write ourselves off as a lost cause

And to clarify I’m not saying there’s no responsibly for climate change or any kind of world crisis on the hands of us average people but I’m trying to say is the blame is not equal, I’m saying your small contributions to fighting these causes matter. DO consume less, DO boycott, DO protest, it all matters but maintaining a hateful outlook on humanity will never provoke change the way we want it to and we all need to recognize the amazing beautiful and kind things we as humans are capable of because we belong on this earth like any other creatures, the ones who don’t belong are the ones exploiting it all until everything implodes and that is the FEW NOT THE MANY. Love humanity because we can and we will be more

[justalittlesolarpunk]

thank you very much for the work you do ❤️ just reading through this blog for five minutes before I go to bed has already made me feel better :)

You're welcome, friend! Glad I could help!

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Just a kind reminder to all my northern hemisphere family that you are a mammal, and resting, saying no, eating more, prioritising fun and comfort and feeling low energy and even a bit sad are all normal natural responses to winter. Take care of yourself and your community and remember that the days are getting longer - every dawn will be a little earlier and every dusk a little later until June now. Prydeinig folks: soon the crocuses will come up, then the hawthorn will be in blossom. Hang in there.

[aloeverawrites]

I've been thinking about solar punk and it's kind of made me think, what if there was a similar aesthetic but focused on humanity and community?

Something like, community core.

The idea would be like instead of mostly being about sustainability (although that would be a huge part of it) it'd be about creating a support system in our communities where people can rely on each other. Especially if they don't have a family and aren't getting government help. You know that kind of mindset you sometimes see in small towns where everyone knows each other, you can ask for a cup of sugar and drop off from veggies from your garden for your neighbour?

We organise donations for people in extreme poverty, and that is really important. In this aesthetic though, this kind of community fundraising is normal and everyone benefits from it.

It's basically about seeing your community as a sort of extended family and taking care of each other because we're all human.

It would be about helping everyone to live a beautiful life and do what they want with their time. Not just stopping the world from becoming a worse place but trying to make it wonderful for all of us. It helping others not because you're expecting something in return but because we want to, because it's just what you do.

I imagine the aesthetic would be like,

Picnics- common to eat outside with members of the community

Gardens and the abundance of nature, (low cost food)

Markets and handmade goods

Music and community events

mixed art and architectural styles- appreciation and love for a lot of different periods and cultures of humanity. Like hand prints on a cave wall mixed with A Starry Night

Art and personalisation of things and community owned places- murals, that sort of thing. Signs that people live here

Mix and matched aesthetics to show how different things can come together to make something beautiful

Old items, vintage clothes, antiques

Reaching a hand out, lifting others up

Circles, connection, cycles in nature

[aloeverawrites]

So some more aspects of this are

Love for humanity

Encouraging creativity - if someone wants to start a new hobby or business their community supports them

Respect for rest, and avoiding burnout.

Prioritising happiness over money. Putting the wellbeing and safety of people and the environment over everything else

Reusing and trading before buying and buying second hand where possible

A strong commitment to basic human rights and providing basic needs, always

Eclecticism- in architecture this mixes a lot of styles from different time periods

Love for diversity

No tolerance for bigotry- any racist, sexist, antisemitic, anti lgbt, ableism or any other kind of hate speech isn't tolerated

Rejection of misanthropy

A preference for peaceful conflict resolution when it comes to disagreements

The belief person's value isn't based on what they can do

Donations are seen more like taxes, a necessary aspect of keeping the community functioning and healthy

Less individualism and more recognition of how we're connected and our problems are shared

Appreciation for native plants

Environmentalism

Kindness

[bumblebeeappletree]

I’m sorry but isn’t this just Solarpunk? Solarpunk isn’t just fighting an unjust system, it’s helping bring people together to rely on each other. A lot of this is what current Solarpunks are doing.

[aloeverawrites]

No need to be sorry, you're right honestly. Solar punk is the original and I think a lot of things like hopepunk and Lunarpunk were based on it.

I'm trying to make this another subgenere like those but I'm kind of struggling to define it.

I feel like solarpunk, is also about sustainability, because that's the thing you think of first. Solar energy and the environment.

For community core I wanted it to be centred around humanity, and wanting everyone to have the resources to reach their full potential and be who they want to be.

It's about the connections between people, thinking about the people who came before us and those who will come after. It's about eliminating poverty, like solar punk, but it's also about helping every human to have a rich life. I've been thinking about how important every human being is, and how it's unjust that people have to spend their lives working jobs they don't like or being excluded from their dreams by bigotry or systemic problems.

I also considered calling it starpunk, based on the idea that almost every human being in history has looked up at the night sky and this is one of the many experiences that connect us.

It is hard to define so I'm like to hear what people think

[bumblebeeappletree]

Ahhhh okay that makes sense. (Side note I do like the name Starpunk with that idea behind the name.)

I suppose Hopepunk would be a great sibling subgenera in that aspect if we’re looking at the hope and building each other up rather than despair and tearing each other down.

I think there’s a lot of people who would want to do community building and are pacifists so they would probably align to this subgenera rather than Solarpunk itself should you get this up in the air.

[aloeverawrites]

Thanks and I agree starpunk sounds a bit nicer lol. I'm definitely going to try to learn more about hopepunk and solarpunk so I can understand them better and see what starpunk needs to be in order to be helpful.

I really hope this can support the other solarpunk movements and be a useful term :)

[aloeverawrites]

I also think that Starpunk should help us feel more comfortable with giving away things. Yes I do think tool libraries and other borrowing systems are really important, we need that in a solarpunk/starpunk world.

But I sometimes really rich people just get things given to them for free, complimentary food, free merchandise from sponsors, upgrades. Our social structure is extremely generous to the wealthy. People with lower incomes are sometimes given things after they prove that they "really need it" and middle class people are often seen as not needing any free things at all.

We have so much stuff, and we have to do something with it if we don't want it ending up in landfills. I would like to live in a world where governments and organisations don't really think twice about handing out free things to people. Without artificial scarcity from funnelling all our resources to the one percent, there will be a lot more to go around and we should feel comfortable with distributing it.

Also essentials like food, housing, clothing, education and healthcare should definitely be free, automatically.

I'd love a society that exchanged goods in a way that was more like a caring family as opposed to a business. I'd like us to be more generous to everyone. I don't think cost should ever stop someone from living their lives the way they want to. So yeah, in addition to making things more affordable, it would be nice to normalise gifts to all classes, not just the wealthy.

[aloeverawrites]

I definitely feel like "no coerced work, no forced work" is a large part of starpunk. We need people to volunteer and work in the future yes, but there shouldn't be negative consequences for not working.

[aloeverawrites]

Like with medicaid cuts in the US, forcing people to work under threat of losing the benefits is wrong, it's wrong to do to able bodied neurotypical people and it's especially wrong to do to disabled people. They're saying that if these cuts go through it can kill tens of thousands of people.

The idea that we should force people to work under threat of death or through any other means of intimation, should be seen as the anti human argument that it is. It's not a belief that can coincide with a belief in human rights and in cases like this, it's a belief that can be used for eugenics against the most vulnerable groups in our communities.

[aloeverawrites]

"'The work requirements are a particularly worrying part of the bill. 

“They sound reasonable for folks, if you’re able to work, you should be working,” said Shepherd".

The fact that this sounds reasonable is the Trojan horse that allowed these work requirements to be put on the bill. We should not be bullying civilians into what we think they 'should' be doing with their lives, especially as those who don't do paid work are often doing unpaid work that can be more important.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

I'm back!

So the continually disappearing and reappearing should be a thing of the past now, I finally gave in and got a new phone (but don't worry, it's a fairphone and I'm sending the old handset to backmarket) so I should be able to post more regularly now. I hope I can continue to bring you joy and optimism in these strange dark times.

[despazito]

Sooner or later leftists will have to deal with the issue that capitalism has made many people used to wanton excess and sooner or later we'll have to legit tell everyone we can't have plastic treats and luxury produce or cruises instantly available year round and it's gonna make so many people mad and call you a big meanie worse than stalin over it. It will not be popular at all but someone's gotta hold a firm no or the planet will never stop collapsing. We can't save the planet by living exactly how we do now just with a communist banner over it we have to take a loss sorry, shein product cycles shouldn't have been normalized to begin with.

[despazito]

The banana discourse really separated the wheat from the chaff of which "lefties" actually want a global workers revolution and which ones just want more stuff to be free

[toothbrushunicorn]

It helps if we address why most people want these frivolous trinkets. Because I honestly think it boils down to "I work so much and get so little in return that I am in a constant state of despair and depression. It's difficult for me to find meaning in this, and I am one missed paycheck from homelessness or suicide. My brain is in survival mode and to keep me from checking out, it needs dopamine. Right now, this labubu is giving my brain its dopamine spike. I'll buy 20 more."

Basically I think the desire for those things will wane once people are out of the system that has them thinking/surviving that way.

It is disappointing though, the amount of leftists who refuse to give up Amazon and defend their Amazon Prime memberships like they need it to breathe. If a person can't break out of consumerism as a way to cope, then how can they expect that of others? I know it's kinda cliche, but you have to be the change you want to see, lead by example, etc and whatnot.

[peppermintsolarpunk]

This is why I treat all my personal-scale climate action as a Dress Rehearsal. We learned years ago that a personal carbon footprint is just propaganda from BP oil. Companies and governments are doing the actually impactful polluting, but a corollary to this is that the stuff companies and governments do also impacts our lives directly.

I got a privileged enough roll of the dice that I can afford the time, money and energy to say “what would my world look like without X or doing Y differently?” So that when discussing a more sustainable future where X is no longer offered by companies, I know what my other options are for meeting my wants and needs, so I can provide a good-faith vision of the future to others who just had the rug pulled out from under them and aren’t going to be sold a solution this time.

Some examples:

1. My family traveled a lot when I was young. The idea of a family trip is part of my family’s culture. So I started pushing for more local camping trips, or places we could get to by train or car rather than airplane. Turns out the part that was important to my family was the time together somewhere novel with cool nature to admire.

2. I’m not vegetarian or vegan. But I’ve added a bunch of veg/vegan meals to my repertoire and that teaches the people in my life that there are delicious, complete-feeling meals that include little or no animal products. This meant that I cared a lot less when egg prices spiked because I knew how to make alternatives that I like. I made succotash for my D&D crew and it was such a big hit they started actively requesting it!

Final note: one huge tripping point is the pervasiveness of virtue ethics. People aren’t arguing about whether banana production has an ecological or human impact. Nor are they arguing about how to meet the wants/needs bananas currently fulfill by being so ubiquitously available. Most people argue about whether they deserve to be categorically judged for liking/wanting bananas (as a conscious or unconscious analogue to the Christian idea of finding which things are Sins). Respectfully OP, even you fell into this with your comment about “separating the wheat from the chaff” when referring to actual human people. Wanting free stuff isn’t a Sin, and there is no Perfectly Virtuous set of leftist beliefs to hold. I have to catch this constantly in my own thought patterns, so if you want a good primer on unlearning this, I highly recommend Innuendo Studios video “The Alt-Right Playbook: I Hate Mondays” (length: 15:35).

So yeah, we live in extreme consumerist excess here in the US, and most folks are going to struggle with the sacrifices and radical changes involved in reaching a better future. You and I included. But while we must revamp our systems as quickly as possible to build a better world, we must also have compassion for the people having to learn this new world real-time, and not judge ourselves and each other for being new to all this.

It will be scary, unfamiliar, and uncomfortable. But we can do it together.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Sorry to Britainpost but I’ve been thinking a lot about national identity bc the fascists are back yayyyyyy (I swear they come out every summer now like mosquitoes).

If you don’t know about it, the far-right in the UK have launched an initiative called ‘Operation Raise The Colours’, which is as stupid as it sounds. Basically it involves people flying an intimidating number of British (🇬🇧) and English (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) flags in as many locations as possible around the country. It’s worth mentioning that unless there’s an international sporting event on, our national flags are almost exclusively associated with racism and anti-immigrant sentiment in the mainstream consciousness, so despite claims of ‘patriotism’ this is literally just designed to make people who were born outside the UK or who aren’t white feel unwelcome. People have even been painting red crosses onto white roundabouts. Most of us are laughing at them because it’s so stupid, but it has real, dangerous and violent undertones and is directly correlated with the mobs that have been attacking hotels housing asylum seekers.

I honestly think we need a whole new approach to our culture and national discourse because our country is a fucking disaster but on a smaller scale? I think we need new flags, too. It’s good for cultures to have unifying symbols, but our current ones aren’t just ruined by association with racism - they’re overly Christian in an increasingly secular and multi faith society, their colour scheme is kind of ugly and they feel very institutional and tied in with state power. I think we need grassroots flags.

I’m literally just spitballing here bc it’s my blog and I can, I have no authority to just decide what they should look like but my suggestion for the overarching UK one would be very simple, just like a brown tree on a green background. It could have deep wide roots, to symbolise connection to the land and our long rich history, and high branches spreading right across the cloth, sheltering everyone regardless of where they come from. It could symbolise always reaching higher, towards the sun, seeking to better ourselves and become kinder, wiser, gentler, more welcoming and more free. Plus, trees are ecological and grounded in nature. My disability means I literally draw like a child so I can’t bring my vision to life satisfactorily I’m afraid. You’ll just have to imagine it. But I like the idea of a flag that represents the landscape and all the people on it, rather than the apparatus of a nation state, which like, obviously I don’t think should exist.

For England specifically, I’d advocate a return to our pre-Conquest flag:

This isn’t for political reasons. It’s because I fucking love dragons.

[tgirl-subway-the-dark-ages]