So long friends

I want to thank everyone who follows this blog for participating in an optimistic vision of a future we can all love and cherish together. 

This blog began as a Solarpunk themed blog, it was a movement I fell head over heels in love with. I’ve always believed in a future where systemic changes to our relationships with consumption and ecology allowed for a more integrative approach to solving climate change challenges. 

Unfortunately, Solarpunk appears to have been co-opted by extremists in the past year who silence dissenters using aggressive banning and reporting policies more reminiscent of a fascist hellscape than of a forward progressive movement that values scientifically informed decision making over the personal values of the leadership.

We stand at a critical crossroads as a species, a place where we can embrace the diversity of all peoples from race to religion to political ideology or we can go to a place where we can fall further into dogmatic ideological principles that thrive and grow on a warmongers appetite for combative otherness.

The self appointed leaders of the Solarpunk communities online have chosen the latter and lost the vision. Time and time again I watch as they abuse their power as community leaders to placate their own beliefs. I watch as they have turned their leadership and voices into shallow businesses, advertising their own works for money and disrespecting the very foundations and ideology of this movement. I’ve watched as they endlessly promote themselves and their own personal endeavors for fleeting moments of glory in the spotlight rather than put in the hard work to advocate for policy changes that create a tangible difference in the world.

Solarpunk under these leaders has become a campaign for their own self-grandeur where they expect unquestioned loyalty to their opinions and for the people to financially support their interests regardless of its relationship to the cause.

I cannot participate in this movement anymore. I will not condone, believe in, or appreciate a dogmatic system that devalues the opinions of the “other” simply by the merit of them opposing the leaderships beliefs. There is no justice in a system that dismisses the values of others without proof that the “other” is wrong. The phrase “I don’t agree.” followed by banning people is not a defense for a position, it is a dictatorship.

I have fought for too long against this. I am tired. The solarpunk that once was all those years ago is now dead, corrupted by greed and hubris. I will continue to look for alternatives and will let you know if I find any.

Good luck out there and remember that nothing you blog about here matters unless you’re doing something about it in the real world. Change starts with a direct dialogue between you and politicians.

Gogoro battery swap station Taiwan.

Design a better world today so we can build it tomorrow.

Keep the Solarpunk vision alive!

Mountains of Kyrgystan

Solarpunk is a beautiful vision and we should flood the world with its positivity by any means necessary. As the old saying goes “seeing is believing” and this can help people believe in a better future, a future that brings us closer to our own ecosystems.

Believe in a better future, show others what it can be, talk incessantly about it until we get there. Your intentions and your kindness will be a key artery for the life that flows through our future.

Don’t just integrate yourself with nature, integrate the whole system.

Solarpunk question: Could we use genetically engineered “super trees” as structural bases for human infrastructure?

How would you integrate nature into our systems as a species?

shopkeep

More Solarpunk visions of a better future where human art and ecology meet as one :)

Be a little cheeky and send these to your local city planner. Be a tad punk and spam your local government with it.

Pantheistic Immortality & Afterlife

Honestly it’s completely natural to wonder for a creature who is aware of it’s own future death how to attempt to live forever in some sort of way. Many humans have chosen to pursue projects that would attain a historical status. Other humans have chosen to pursue the ideas of religion and the potential promise of an eternal afterlife that is literal immortality. Some other humans choose to fight the idea altogether and reject the very idea of immortality outright.

Pantheism has it’s own unique form of immortality. Let’s start by recognizing that Pantheism itself is a very ancient pagan “religion” that at its base recognizes that the closest thing to a “god” is the universe itself. Its founding principle is that all things are interconnected. That’s it. With that established, it’s important to recognize that cultures that practiced Pantheism in the past were small and often unrelated, therefore there is no creed or doctrine of this belief system. It’s important to recognize this because moving forward everything said should be recognized as neo-pantheism (modern day) and not rooted in the beliefs of any past cultures.

Many humans dream of some form of immortality to calm the natural anxieties of death and Pantheists are no exception. The key difference is the approach to the problem of death. Most solutions, even religious ones, are inherently individualistic in their visions of immortality through soul or reputation. Pantheism takes a different approach, one of a more communal based ideal that focuses on bringing a Pantheist the calm inner peace of a happy death and guiding ideal for a life well lived. Pantheists see immortality through their founding ideal, the interconnectedness of all things, and believe that immortality is inherent in their condition of living. The mere act of living a life reverberates throughout history forever through their day to day actions and in this way means their mere existence is influential for eternity. Through the belief of interconnection, Pantheists will use this principle to try to ensure that their actions create the most good in the world to reverberate around them and throughout history.

The very idea of interconnectedness at a Pantheistic level becomes the basis of living an ethical and immortal life.

Some more Solarpunk visions of a better future

Solarpunk visions

Solarpunk doesn’t often get a winter take. Here’s a Solarpunk greenhoused city.

We have the technology damn it! 

Solarpunk Forested Mountain City

Solarpunk Downtown City Park

The Solarpunk Gardener