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@winstoncontinental
Task complete! Taught myself to weld and successfully installed solar panels on the rooftop of the community center annex 💪🏾
Just need to get a few more cables and we’re all set to connect it all! https://www.instagram.com/p/CZOsPQ7OzxG/?utm_medium=tumblr
Garden for CLIMATE RESISTENCE.
And don’t forget that native plants have co-evolved with native pollinators of all sorts, most of which are in huge trouble at this time. Not only are they providing critical food as part of the reproductive cycle for many many many many native critters, they also provide nectar to an even larger group. Birds, whose populations are also crashing, rely on these insects to feed their young. Those ugly eastern tent caterpillars you’ll see here in the East? Are just ugly, don’t harm the tree, and provide crucial baby bird food.
Native plants, properly placed, are better adapted to local conditions than non-native ones.
Yes, it’ll get worse
I’m always a bit annoyed when some ecoactivists are are all “Hope! Degrowth! The planet can heal!” without giving an honest time frame for that.
Like, even if we manage to end capitalism and degrow an all of that, the CO2 that’s already in the air will continue to heat up the planet for decades and the results of that will be with us for this century at the very least.
Yes, ecosystems can heal, yes, that’s worth fighting for. But it’ll get worse before it gets better and most of us won’t be there for the good parts. You can leave that out to spread “Hope”, but all that will do is make people optimistic for a short time only for them to feel hurt and betrayed when they figure out the truth.
An worse then feeling cheated our of a bright future, people acting on this false optimistic worldview won’t build the kind of support networks that we are going to need to survive our real future. Preparing for a more ecologically unstable earth must be part of our work, even as we continue to strive for the end of capitalism an a shift to a far more sustainable way of living.
Basically, if you’re trying to boost your movement this way, your eco-activism strategy is…ehhh.. unsustainable?
What are ways we can prepare for a more ecologically unstable Earth? I honestly don’t feel very hopeful that we’re going to overthrow capitalism in time and even if we do, like you said, the Earth is going to continue to heat up. Trying to find ways to cope with and prepare for that reality actually feel more hopeful and realistic to me and I’d love to learn about them.
There are a lot of things you can do, here’s a few:
Get into the habit of sharing stuff for free with others. We’re probably going to experience some forms of scarcity and when that happens, all we have is each other. Self-sufficiency is a myth, community self-sufficiency isn’t. Create neighborhood resources. A tool-sharing shed or a water filter for ground or rain water could make a difference here and now, but will also matter in the future. Advance mode: Start Mutual Aid collectives.
Learn first aid and other emergency medical skills. Whether your region is vulnerable to heat waves, wild fires, flooding, drought, extreme cold or electrical failures, there will be people in need of help an medical systems are unlikely to be able to cope with it all. Learning to take care of others is always useful, even if you’re lucky enough to not experience any disasters at all. Advanced mode: Start a DIY medicine collective or learn an advance skill like growing medicinal herbs or physical therapy.
Learn to break the law. As the crisis deepens, governments will let more and more people fall through the cracks. Refugees and undocumented people are likely to be the first targets but other minorities can be targetted too. Those people won’t be able to survive unless people are willing to break the law to get them housing, food, etc. Advanced mode: get experience breaking the law together and put it to work actually helping undocumented people.
Learn to support each other. Our mental health is as important as our physical health and to truly support each other we need more than good intentions. Learn psychological first aid, learn how to structurally support trauma survivors, people who are mourning, people struggling with depression and more. Advanced mode: start a Support & Recovery collective.
Work on building a community without discrimination and systematic injustice. All of the things to come will hit the most marginalized harder. We can only get through it together if our communities truly value everyone in it and we understand that an injury to one is an injury to all. Learn about systematic oppression, learn about privilege, learn about conflict resolution an mediation and put that to work in your community. Advanced mode: start a transformative justice collective.
… and more.
Important: don’t take on every burden, pick a few things you enjoy doing. None of us can do all of the above and none of us can single-highhandedly prepare our whole community for what is to come. Find a way you can support your community and trust that others will do the same.
@spidersleipnir Does this say that people become dismayed when they find out that the bright future they hope and work for may not happen in a short time frame and they may not live to see it? Doesn’t that suggest that the solution is to hope on behalf of future people who will be around to see it? It seems like forgetting those future people is kind of one of the various things that got us into this in the first place. Obviously it’s not as exciting but it doesn’t mean you should stop?
Valid question. My incomplete imperfect answer:
1. Yes, we should do things for the sake of people who live in the future, even hundreds of years from now, and when those things are ‘go vegan to the extend that your health allows’ and ‘stop flying’, those are reasonable things to ask. But activism tends to be a much bigger part of our life than that and very few people can really dedicate their whole life to a future for people they will never meet. And that’s sensible. We are not of less value than the people who come after us. We are allowed to consider the well being of ourselves and our own generation as well as the well being of people in the future.
2. When we are doing things for the sake of people in the future, we should be honest about that. Presenting life on a healed planet as something we can experience in our lifetimes - as some of the solar punk branch of climate activism does - is going to keep people motivated for a bit, but disillusioned later on.
3. We can not have a sustainable movement when we are overwhelmed by unprocessed climate despair. We need to process what is happening to our lives and mourn the safe stable future that we will not have. We can only do that by facing the reality of what our future is going to look like.
4. Probably the most important point: future generations won’t benefit from the better future if they’re dead. We can’t skip the challenge of surviving climate collapse and focus only on the far future. We have to prepare for surviving and minimizing suffering in the decades/century immediately in front of us. We have to prevent fascists from taking hold of a divided society or allow collapsing states to drag each other into a new world war. The better future for next generations can only become a reality if we build the kind of supportive and resilient communities that can make it through the dark times in front of us.
Call for Submissions: Open Through 11/14/21
Good day, everyone! Solarpunk Magazine is currently open for submissions in the categories of short fiction, non-fiction, art, and poetry. Please visit our Moksha portal to submit your finest solarpunk works.
We are very excited to start reading potential Issue 01 works! Our submission window will close at the end of the second week of November.
We pay the standard rate as defined by SFWA. See our rates below:
$.08 per word for fiction
$40 per poem
$75 for for nonfiction
$100 for reprint cover art, $300 for original unpublished cover art
$50 for reprint interior art, $150 for original unpublished interior art
Thank you, and shine on! 🌞💚
Garden for CLIMATE RESISTENCE.
And don’t forget that native plants have co-evolved with native pollinators of all sorts, most of which are in huge trouble at this time. Not only are they providing critical food as part of the reproductive cycle for many many many many native critters, they also provide nectar to an even larger group. Birds, whose populations are also crashing, rely on these insects to feed their young. Those ugly eastern tent caterpillars you’ll see here in the East? Are just ugly, don’t harm the tree, and provide crucial baby bird food.
Native plants, properly placed, are better adapted to local conditions than non-native ones.
Urban Hacker Bench (uHbench)
A beautiful and sturdy public/garden bench from a standard euro pallet in 8 easy steps using only common tools. Almost no wood pieces are left out. You could also reuse the nails.
This project is totally free (as in freedom) and follows the principles of OSHW (Open Source Hardware). The first design, released in 2012, was published under The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. The actual version (v1.5) is now under the Free Art License 1.3
Read more…
The removal of seating is one of the primary ways capitalists turn public spaces into places of consumption, rather than socialization, play, relaxation, reflection, etc. By leaving no spaces for people to simply sit and exist, we’re forced to buy things to fill our time instead
It seems simple and insignificant, but reintroducing seating can be a radical act of reappropriation. Plus, they can be a place for rough sleepers, or make bus stops more comfortable, and open people’s eyes to the potential of direct action - it’s your community, and no one should be able to stop you from improving it
And, it’s free! Pallets are easy to find, building this takes like 15 minutes tops with a friend, and all you’d need to buy is maybe some nails. Easy praxis!
I would LOVE to see benches in more places!!! I have nerve damage in my ankle, and other chronic pain in my lower back/legs that make it really hard for me to go anywhere by foot (despite the fact that I love going for walks) A good walk can quickly become infuriating when I NEED to sit down and cannot find one /anywhere/ The most recent example of this is when I went to PA to visit my partner for Christmas. We took a walk down town to visit his favorite game shop and get some tacos, and half way through the trip I REALLY needed to sit down. I think we walked for about 20 minutes before we were able to find /anywhere/ for us to sit down.
I dont want to have to sit on the ground everytime I need a break, but I’ve done it, and gotten a ton of nasty stares.
We should really start doing this.! I think it would be a lovely idea for everyone, even if they aren’t like me and just want a place to sit to people watch or wait for the bus
it was a hard and fun job
and im loving the end result
do note that you are probably gonna fuck up a board or five when doing this, especially if you’re unexperienced with crowbarring, so prepare multiple pallets so you dont run out of parts
An artificial mangrove device developed by environmental engineers at Yale University mimics tree's ability to desalinate water.
A recent invention replicates the passive reverse osmosis found in mangrove trees to desalinate salty water without the energy-intensive pumps used in traditional reverse osmosis. This process could also be used to remove dissolved particulates of all kinds, not just salt.
In the future, this invention could be utilized to make cities more water-sensitive.
“It has the potential to be used for flood reduction by incorporating it into ‘sponge cities’. These are metropolises with buildings designed to absorb and catch rainwater and reuse it, helping to reduce flooding and make cities more sustainable.”
Overall this is a great advancement for climate change resilience, sustainability, and water security.
Allotments - David Inshaw
1988
Most Efficient DIY Solar Water Heater - 20th The Cost Of Evacuated Tube
This is done by Open Source Low Tech, who I’ve highlighted on this blog before with stuff like their $30 wind turbine and long-range wifi dish. Tons of sustainable, ultra-low-cost, off-grid, DIY tutorials for super useful stuff, definitely worth a look
ways to tie knots on pendants and keychains
Potato patch 🥔
6/5/21
renamonkalou:
The family home of architect Sami Angawi, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Holy shit….
Real life solarpunk.
I just read the links, and omg this is even better.
So I looked at it and knew it was using the open courtyard and the pools and fountains to do a lot of the work of cooling the house, but it’s also got drip irrigation for all of those plants (which adds more moisture to the air and also helps cool it in addition to being an effective and efficient way of watering the plants), it’s got a roof garden and other eco-conscious stuff. It combines modern construction techniques with classic Arabic art and architecture.
And his home is a cultural center.
He holds lectures, concerts and salons in his home, with guests and speakers from around the world. He’s founded multiple institutions to preserve Islamic history and architecture. He’s an activist against the extremist factions he says are trying to hijack Islam.
His home is going to be part of an international institute offering degrees in Islamic history and science, as his legacy, housing a collection of over one hundred thousands of his photos, drawings and writings about Islam and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
This is serious real-life Islamic solarpunk for real.
Tumblr likes the idea of solarpunk, even if there’s not a real body of work about it yet. Well, we’re missing that people are already doing this for real, and have been for a long time.
I am not generally an architecture fan. It’s nice and all, but it doesn’t do a lot for me, especially modern American stuff. But I am totally bowled over by this and must now go look at everything he’s ever designed.
Holy fuck
This works best if you keep windows closed.
Another design is using 2 20x25x1 filters, taping them to the sides of the box fan and then to each other so they sort of make a triangle, then cutting cardboard to make a top and bottom to the triangle.
This was discovered as a more effective design during the 2020 US west coast fires.
https://tombuildsstuff.blogspot.com/2013/06/better-box-fan-air-purifier.html
A better more efficient and odor eliminating homemade air purifier than just taping a 20x20x1 filter to a box fan. Sometimes you need to
quarantine boredom anarchist masterpost
Videos:
Utopia on the Horizon: Documentary on the Greek Debt Crisis
International Volunteers of the Rojava Revolution
Intro to Anarchy: Power & Violence
Living Utopia (The Anarchists & The Spanish Revolution)
Class War founder Ian Bone talks about seven lesser-known revolutionaries from 1919
Video from subMedia on technology and surveillance
Podcasts:
Greek Anarchists Fight Back in Exarchia
Radio Evasión—dispatches from Chile Part 1
Radio Evasión—Dispatches from Chile Part 2
Radio Evasión—Dispatches from Chile Part 3
Radio Evasión—Dispatches from Chile Part 4
Who Let the Frogs Out?: A Round Table Discussion on the Far-Right in 2020
An Anti-Colonial Anarchist Analysis on the Rise of Far-Right Hindu Nationalism in India
Black Socialists of America on Building Dual Power in an Age of Crisis
Peter Gelderloos on the Changing Terrain of Revolt and Empire
The Greek Anarchist Movement Responds to Assault on Exarchia
Mark Bray on Anarchist Revolution In Spain & Lessons for Today
Raw Deal: Why Statecraft Won’t Solve the Climate Crisis
Dual Power Beyond the Local: A Conversation with Symbiosis
Reading:
First Revolutionary Measures - Eric Hazan & Kamo
Insurrectional Anarchism: a reader
Bullshit Jobs - David Graeber
The Conquest of Bread - Pëtr Kropotkin
The Murray Bookchin Reader
[essay] The Tragedy of Darth Commons
Against the Logic of the Guillotine: Why the Paris Commune Burned the Guillotine—and We Should Too
1919: When the Bolsheviks Turned on the Workers
Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell
Greek December 2008 Revolt Revisited
To Our Friends - The Invisible Committee
Let’s Destroy Work, Let’s Destroy the Economy - Alfredo M. Bonanno
Music:
When Fine Society Sits Down to Dine - Chumawamba
The World Turned Upside Down - Billy Bragg
The Hymn of Acxiom - Vienna Teng
No Leaders for the Free - P.A.I.N.
Burn it Down - David Rovics
No Borders - Conscious Youth
You Are Not Alone - Culture Shock
Go Wild (my son) - Culture Shock
Joli Mois de Mai - Psycho Squatt
Dissident Dub - Black Star Dub Collective
Tottenham Three - AOS3
The Battle of Trafalgar - AOS3
Joe Hill - John McCutcheon
Does the U.K. have a group we can join, I’ve only heard of American groups and whenever I hear of a march it’s already too late. 🖤
There are plenty of groups in the UK which I’ll link below. But I wouldn’t recommend getting involved by only joining your local branch of AFN or some other organization or network. Honestly the best connections I’ve made have been with autonomous individuals and affinity groups you can’t just join.
If you wanna get involved start turning up to events, like and follow loads of anti-fascist groups and pages so you hear about more events and meetings. Follow other groups in your region even if they’re not local to you, you’ll find out about more demonstrations and general knowledge. Meet people at these events, nothing builds friendship like stopping Nazis or successfully running away from the cops! The more antifa you meet the more people you can securely organize with in a decentralized trust-built network. There are more lefties in your area than in your local antifa group.
The best way to get involved in anti-fascism in your area is to find local activists or people who share your ideas, if you don’t even have a local group or events maybe you should organize them yourself. I will provide some brilliant resources from Crimethinc on how to form groups, plan direct actions or events, and how to adopt the perfect security culture. We need to find eachother and come together when we are in need, so we can take actions and attend demos together.
You should defo check out your local group, but just be aware that they are a fixed entity and you may do better outside a closed rigid organization. Because networks are made up of individual cells their size, experience, knowledge, connections, and abilities are different. Some groups may have more active members, or regular actions they may want help with, or they’re difficult to contact and closed off.
UK Antifa networks
Anti-Fascist Network, the UK’s largest antifa organization with chapters in most cities.On the website are some long lists on branches of AFN and useful links and page to follow. Honestly if you wanna find a local group look on Facebook or Twitter “[Town/region name] Antifascists” they have loads of group all over. (Website)
Feminist Anti-Fascist Assembly, who did a lot of good demonstrations last year against Tommy Robinson and the DFLA. (Twitter)
London Anti-Fascist Assembly (LAFA), a more recent group based in London doing grassroots community work to oppose racism and demonstrate worker solidarity, they recently helped to shut down TERFs crashing the London mayday rally. (Twitter)
Plan C, an anarchist and anti-fascist group that has been present at anti-tory, anti-Trump, and anti-fascist demonstrations, as well as opposing Tommy Robinson and the pro-Trump march in London. They do lots of leafleting and postering from what I’ve seen. (Website)
Antifa Intel, they give valuable resources about UK fascists and anti-fascist events, generally useful information to have. (Twitter)
There are a load of UK groups you might be interested in like Anarchist Federation, Antihomophobe Action, Scottish Anti-Racism Network, and so on. But the best ways to find comrades in your community involves working locally and organizing on your terms. Good luck. Hope this was even slightly helpful.
Crimethinc resources:
How to form an affinity group
Collective Security Culture (IMPORTANT)
Direct Action guide
Other resources
Antifa International Masterpost for forming a group
AFN guide to starting local chapter
AFN list of antifa resources
There are a load of UK groups you might be interested in like Anarchist Federation, Antihomophobe Action, Scottish Anti-Racism Network, and so on. But the best ways to find comrades in your community involves working locally and organizing on your terms. Good luck. Hope this was even slightly helpful.
the Industrial Workers of the World have been growing in the UK
you can also look for local Food Not Bombs groups on facebook
There’s ACORN the tenants’ union in England and Wales, and Living Rent in Scotland
Also if your city has a SolFed group they’re a friendly and open bunch, helping workers where they need it.
what to do instead of calling the police •
here’s a thread by user a_busy_woman on twitter
„take a community class on how not to call the cops and how to deescalate [...]“
all the links in the thread
handbook for alternatives to calling the police by the UUA
the abolitionist toolkit by critical resistance
a meta resource put together by Aaron Rose
deescalation webinar on YouTube by Side with Love
a starter guide resource put together by twitter users literElly, sheabutterfemme, and MicahHerskind
bail fund for Minneapolis
Growing food on balconies/ windowsill
Just a little addendum to the growing food in small spaces post. I personally don’t have a balcony but I have a sister who lived in an apartment for years and grew loads of stuff up there. I also grow some food inside every year.
Here are some ideas for small paces;
1. Strawberries. These do great in pots. You can hang them from your balcony. You can build strawberry towers. And they are delicious!
Photo by Soo Ann Woon on Unsplash
2. Cherry tomatoes; Again they grow easily in pots. There are loads of varieties that stay very small. For example Orange Bumble bee and Tiny Tom can be grown inside. For a hanging basket you could try Tumbler. Grow them in a sunny spot. Might also work inside on a windowsill! Don’t forget that you need to tap the flowers a little sometimes to help pollination!
3. Chard; Comes in great colour and can work as a very long lasting plant by just picking some leaves every few weeks. Work great in pots and can be grown inside. Last up to a year! (Most salad greens work this way as well!)
4. Almost all Herbs work in pots. Growing basil plants in a sunny window sill is very easy if you water often. Mediterranean prefer drier conditions.
5. Micro greens. You can grow them in jars, pots, on toilet paper or on those special micro-green glass bowls. They give you a quick harvest of greens and there are many kinds! These are great to fit in left over spaces!
6. Hot pepper. One of my favourites to grow inside and in pots. They like a lot of sun and warmth so inside climates can really work for them. When growing inside, you need to shake the flowers or put the plant outside for sometime so pollination can happen.
Just try things out! Many plants can give you surprising results. I have grown lots of foods in pots before! Some plants might need very big pots (Cucumbers and courgettes) but most greens can be grown in quite limited space!
And if you have a wall why not add growing space by adding a vertical garden? This is a great example of a cheap option if you have some shoe organiser laying around;
Hope this gives you some inspiration!
7. Eggplants I always grow them in pots and they love warm places. There are many small varieties of eggplants so the plant doesn’t need as much space!
