Visions of planetary disaster “[leave] us with an intuitive understanding of infrastructure as almost necessarily a source of friction or impasse,” notes anthropologist Dominic Boyer, in his incisive argument regarding “revolutionary infrastructure.”18 Solarpunk worlds, meanwhile, are rooted in infrastructural logics that promise a viable (and truly revolutionary) way forward.

Solarpunk Art Contest 2021

Designing a society that makes happy humans with healthy bodies and minds in resilient ecosystems does not involve “going back” to any ideal period of history, but it does require us recognizing that Indigenous knowledge and ecological stewardship are and will continue to be successful; that ecosystems have regulating functions that are better at preventing pandemics and responding to climate change than present human technology; and that the legacy of industrial agriculture, capitalism, and its exploitation of people and the planet should no longer be the standard that shapes our vision of progress.

We could use our technological advancements and industrial scale, guided by Indigenous knowledge, to reintroduce the bison herds onto the Prairies at the same time that we install wind turbines to power the cultivation of food that nourishes people with minimal land use or waste. We can rapidly reforest areas that were clear cut for industrial agriculture or pipelines, and revive animal populations in traditional food forests. We can use low-carbon infrastructure to cultivate mollusks that clean polluted waters,  feed people, and create habitat for other species all at the same time. We can create new social norms and cultural institutions that centre children, the elderly, and our interdependence with life on Earth. 

In reality, solutions to ecological and social problems that were historically or are presently used by non-European cultures are compatible with modern technology, often in consensus with cutting-edge scientific findings, and more necessary than ever. 

“The materialistic consciousness of our culture … is the root cause of the global crisis; it is not our business ethics, our politics or even our personal lifestyles. These are symptoms of a deeper underlying problem. Our whole civilization is unsustainable. And the reason that it is unsustainable is that our value system, the consciousness with which we approach the world, is an unsustainable mode of consciousness.”— Peter Russell (Lazlo, Grof, & Russell, 1999, p.5)

The point of such writing is to influence the present by extrapolating current trends for advancement or detriment.

CPC is currently developing our first research project, on how to make a rapid transition to a post-carbon civilization

Perhaps they need not even be infrastructure in the traditional, utilitarian sense, but efforts to create lasting human works that can provide keystones of cultural continuity for centuries to come — works I believe capitalism has proven nearly incapable of building, or in some cases even maintaining.

These projects could themselves be the organizing principle around which unique solarpunk communities are organized.

The false separation between nature and culture is the root cause of many of the converging crises we are facing

We are also beginning to apply our understanding of nutrient, energy and material cycles in mature ecosystems to the redesign of cities

I see the task of contemporary Commons development as the cultivation and engineering of an alternative, parallel, infrastructure building on these overlooked resources

I’ve come to regard the emergent Post-Industrial culture as a kind of insurgent civilization emerging amidst the declining Industrial Age, filling the gaps in its progressively crumbling edifice with new systems and structures of its own, recycling and repurposing its detritus.

Greathouse reckons Solarpunk could one day leap from the confines of Tumblr blogs and Google brainstorms to become a rebel yell to action

Each little step, he says, represents a Solarpunk signpost for a brighter tomorrow. “It gives context to shutting off your lights or conserving water instead of it just being a nebulous good thing to do.”

Solarpunk sailboat

guerrilla tech is a solarpunk staple

One way to do that––to make risk more approachable––is to run small tests. To build something that isn’t necessarily grand, but rather light, lean, and quick—experiments that we can send off nimbly through the gates and learn from, regardless of what returns. A Trojan Mouse instead of a Trojan Horse.

Unless we’re willing to experiment, we can’t expect big breakthroughs. 

ingenuity, generativity, independence, and community

Stories of little creatures that had created secret, hidden, civilizations within the overlooked and forgotten interstitial spaces of our built habitat, repurposing the detritus of our own civilization.

I am adamant that the solarpunk movement should NOT be separate from the genre. Literature is so important to activism, so having the genre reflect the movement, and the movement reflect the genre, are going to strengthen both.