Solarpunk Collective

By the time they reached the half-moon village the sweat was pouring down Dante’s back like a river. The trees overhanging the road gave some shelter, but the beginning of summer’s deep humidity meant that even shade brought no relief. The rising and falling of cicadas was almost a roar. “Let’s see if any of those buildings have windows, we can set up an AC unit inside and cool off.” The group led the horses over the broken asphalt and in to the abandoned village. Hannah walked around the small room picking up trinkets and looking over the detritus of a life abandoned. There were no signs of what had happened to the owners. The small house was structurally sound and everything was tidy, but the dust lay thick on everything and it was clear no one had lived here for years. “What happened to everyone?” Jungwoo looked up from his minicomp, scrolling through feeds. “It says here the last person living in the village moved to an assisted living center in the city. The deeds to the ...

“Miss Wightwitch?” As always, the guard asked the question through the locked door. He didn’t slide back the viewing port or use the intercom. “Last I checked.” “Please answer yes or no.” “Yes.” “You have an interview in 2 minutes.” The female prisoner got up from the stiff cot, walked over to the radiator and picked up her prison jacket. It was a coarse synthetic garment which would probably last longer than she would. It was also itchy and uncomfortable. When she was alone in the cell she didn’t wear it. But you couldn’t attend an interview in your underwear. The walk took longer than usual. The single guard led her down several dusty hallways before going through a double locked door in to a nicer part of the prison. There were carpets here and the paint on the walls looked like it had been applied sometime in the current century. This was visitor country. In 16 months of incarceration, Ness had yet to see anyone who wasn’t a guard or an investigating agent. This meant...

With the popularity of Marvel/Disney's Avengers and the story line concerning Thanos, it's probably inevitable that people would start talking about overpopulation. And some of those conversations are going to bring out people who support eco-fascist ideas like forced population control. It think it's essential to reject these ideas as strongly as possible. Bodily autonomy, and reproductive rights are very important topics that everyone should make an effort to educate themselves about. We only have to take a look at the history books to see why concepts like forced sterilization or selective breeding must be consigned to the dustbin of history. Whether a woman chooses to have a baby or not must be her choice to make. Eugenics. We all know about the National Socialists of 1940s Germany and their attempts to engineer a "master race", but it was not only jack-booted Far right movements who were involved in attempts to control human reproductio...

Since the year 2000, recycling rates in the UK have increased nearly 400%. Who should we praise for this great achievement? And who should we blame for the 60% of trash which is not yet recycled? Have you heard of Responsibility Assumption , or the Doctrine of Personal Responsibility? This could be considered one of the defining characteristics of modern, western civilization. In this philosophy, people are totally responsible for their own actions, and their circumstances, even to the point where negative thinking can result in bad outcomes. So women are blamed for being the victims of assault, because they could have made better choices. Poor people are blamed for being poor, because they are obviously "too lazy" to become rich. The colossal amounts of plastic trash in the oceans comes from us, our household waste. But we have limited control over how much waste we generate. When you go to the store to buy groceries, you find that all of the optio...

Spring Jensen looked about her, aware of the beauty that was bestowed her. The gentle breeze of the mid afternoon forest she called home blew gently through her hair, caressing around her body. The air was sweet with the smell of fresh water, pollen, and the life of the forest all about. Her home, a small building nestled into the side of a hill was simple and functional. A roof hung over two artificial walls, and then against the hill itself. Inside she had a small stove, a bed, and some simple furniture. Some bowls, cups, and simple utensils adorned her table, along with candles, flint sparks and picture books. Currently Jensen sat outside her small home, enjoying what she had to view. The ruins of what was once a dense apartment complex sat not far away, had been overrun by the forests as nature reclaimed what was always hers. Trees and vines had quickly moved in after the coming of the end, followed by the animals of the wild. Currently some small chitters were galloping ...

There's a very important graphic for understanding climate change which you need to see in order to have a chance of understanding what a solution might look like. On the left are the sources of Green House Gas emissions, sorted by sector. Energy is the biggest category, but land use change and agriculture is still very important. On the right are different kinds of gasses produced. It may seem that CO2 is the biggest worry, but don't forget that Methane is as much as 30 times more potent at trapping heat than CO2. Overall, GHG emissions are around 4 times higher than they were in the middle of last century. Rises haven't been universal though. Some regions have seen bigger increases than others. And some sectors have risen while others have fallen. When we think of GHGs, we imagine most of it to come from our cars and from power stations generating energy for our homes. We've been told that we are the problem, and if we'd just drive less and turn of...

Two years ago South Koreans took to the streets to force an unpopular and corrupt government from power. Could the same happen elsewhere? Is there anything that the people of other countries can learn from the success of the so-called “candlelight-revolution” of South Korea? When I first came to Korea 10 years ago, I noticed right away how common protests are here. The country has a long history of protests. I won’t go in to detail, but you can Google the Gwangju uprising for just one example of when people were literally prepared to put their lives on the line for what they believed in. More recently there have been protests about agricultural policy, the American Free Trade Agreement and university tuition fees. Just today I drove past a group of middle aged women protesting outside the local police station. I was too busy driving to read their signs, but they seemed to be having a great time; sitting cross-legged on the floor, gossiping and sharing food. In a country wh...