Solarpunk Collective

-From a children’s fairy tale book in a Solarpunk library 2062 Once upon a time there was a great dragon. It lived in a mountain cave and slept all day on a vast hoard of gold. At night it flew out and gorged itself on a goats and cattle. Sometimes it ate villagers or burned towns. Eventually, the dwarves who lived in the valley grew tired of being terrorized by the dragon, so they assembled an army and marched on its cave. They defeated the dragon and imprisoned it, but no mortal can slay the great primordial beast. The victorious dwarves soon fell to arguing about what to do with the dragon’s hoard. Such a great treasure was difficult to divide. Every dwarf had fought in the battle and many had died, but some fought harder than others, and without the help of the sword smiths and armorers, there could have been no victory. Guards were set while the dwarves decided what to do with it. The sly dragon lay on its pile of gold, grinning at the tiny dwarves who thought they h...

I got the call on my beeper just after lunch. Not much of a lunch, just an old unlabeled tin that turned out to be beans and vegan sausages, cooked on our solar stove on the roof of the squat. Downstairs I waited in line to use the community deck, anxiously tapping my foot and looking at the old patched LCD of the beeper, waiting to see if a second call would signal that the run had been cancelled. It hadn’t. When I finally got to sit down at the ancient computer and check my mail, the coded message was clear. I had barely enough time to put together a team and run the five blocks to the target. There was Otter, our physical pen expert. A tall, lanky dark-skinned bloke, he got his name from his unusually extensive body hair. That and the fact that he was the only one of us who could swim. Jewel considered herself to be a ‘leet hacker and at least had a discerning eye. She usually acted as appraiser for our runs, helping us decide what was worth taking and what should be left ...

“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...

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...