Building a Solarpunk world- non-fiction with solarpunk ideals
part 1 http://brightblackbird.tumblr.com/post/137584589975/building-a-solarpunk-world-non-fiction-with
To start with, thanks to anyone who’s sent in ideas! My messages are not allowing me to view them (?) but I’ll try to fix that.
A book I’ve just been reading is The once and future world: nature as it was, as it is, as it could be, by J.B. Mackinnon. As its title suggests, the book deals with the natural past and the terrible loss of animal and plant life caused by humans. But this isn’t a sad or hopeless book. Instead, the author looks at why humans cause this type of ecological collapse in a way that isn’t condescending or panicky. He deals with the idea of ‘change blindness’, the fact that humans can easily adapt to new situations and quickly forget old ones. Change blindness is why we don’t notice the diminishing of a species, and why we easily forget how abundant our ecosystems use to be. The idea of Re-wilding areas is something I’ve seen a few times, and here the author details several plans for re-wilding/restoring areas, as well as bring back almost-extinct species.
I really enjoy how the book is written, the style is poetic and descriptive, and sometimes moving. Ideas are mostly illustrated through anecdotes and the author’s own experiences, which some people may not like, but I liked it.
If you’re interested in the reasons why we continue to make the same environmental mistakes, and what we can do to fix them; or if you like well-written, sort of Solarpunky books, then you should read this one.