Okay, let me talk about another solarpunk topic, that we really gotta talk about: Homes. And the way we construct them. Because let's put it like that: There is a lot wrong with it.
The amount of things wrong with it depends a lot on the country - and your income bracket. But generally we do think about it wrong. Especially in the west (and let's face it: Worst in the US) we have this idea that everyone needs their own home. And in general that this home should look a certain way, should have a certain size and all of that.
Of course, I think most people active in the Solarpunk sphere do know how bad suburbia is for nature. Because of the lawns, because of the amount of concrete. All of that. It harms biodiversity.
But even if you have a super natural space around it... Let's be quite honest: Single family buildings are bad for the environment, because the per person use of basically everything is a lot worse than it is with a multi-family home/complex.
The very obvious one is heating/cooling. Because it is in fact easier to keep a multifamily home warm or cool, compared to a single family home. If you have ever lived in a multifamily home you might have noticed it yourself, that you have to heat a lot less and that the temperature in summer is also more even. (Though of course the amount also depends on the efficiacy that the house is build with.)
This has to do with the fact that there is some amount of the temperatures exchanging between the different apartments of a building.
Now, you might ask: "But what about water and electricity? You do not use less of that, right?"
Which technically is right. Still, multi-family homes will still save energy on those things. Why? Because the infrastructure is more centralized. Basically, getting the water to the house uses up less energy and material. And the same goes with electricity.
It should be noted, however, that there is a bit more complexity to this. While the heat/cooling savings basically scale quite a lot, the same is not true for water. If you build a home over a certain height, the energy will end up being used on pumping the water up.
Generally six or seven floors are the optimum in most cases.
So, if we imagine a Solarpunk city, the thing that actually makes a lot of sense is to imagine rather wide buildings with about six floors and several families living inside.
Bonus: Some ammenities can actually be shared. And be it actually something more luxurious, like a shared gym or a shared pool in the basement.
Hot 4am take but I feel like if we want to get people more interested in making their yards a more habitable space for wildlife like insects, we have to acknowledge that ‘Don’t want bugs in your house’ is still a 100% fair and valid point of view. ‘Loves nature’ and ‘doesn’t want roaches spiders and mosquitoes in the house’ aren’t opposites.
And with that in mind, when we propose to people that spraying pesticides around houses is Not A Good Idea, Actually, I feel like we need to give an alternative asides from ‘deal with it.’
it's kinda comforting to me when my friends are a little annoying or longwinded or abrasive or tired and inarticulate, or they don't do the exact politest thing in every interaction, and stuff, because I know I'm sometimes annoying, or take up a more than my share of conversational space, or forget to ask them questions, etc etc, and... like, I'm always working to be nice to my friends and to get better and better at friend-ing, but it just makes me feel more human about it :}
anyway I love you friends plz know I'm not counting, in fact I feel great affection toward you even (especially) when conversations go less than Perfectly Ideal
i think actually the key to successfully doing tumblr (and especially doing fandom on tumblr) is realising that your blog is your little house and you can post about whatever you like there. once you realise you are just living in and decorating your very own silly little online house you start focusing on what makes you happy rather than constantly performing for & compromising your tastes for & placing all your self worth on little scraps of clout, and you will be a lot happier for it