SSSSolar Punks

[itstricky]

A lot of aspects of the SSSS story has inspired a sense of environmental activism within me.
Solarpunks are interested in creating a world that is “green” and sustainable, but do not believe that a dystopia is a necessity for this world. The SSSS universe it a new way of life after a global catastrophe that didn’t turn into a hopeless dystopia, which is one of the biggest appeals of the comic for me.

On top of that, issues related to sustainable food systems and sustainable urban planning were heavily addressed during the first decades. These are problems in our world, and even our local communities, today!

I was wondering if anyone else became interested in environmental punk activities as a result of SSSS? And what are some things you do that make you feel closer and kinder to your lived-in environment? I want some more inspiration for myself to continue down this punk-y path to be honest.

Here are some for me:
- more interested in learning about growing food for myself and making use of “lawns” (grass is a monoculture, and provides no nutrition for us! We can use that  space for native plants and make everyone’s lawn as beautiful as the sights we love in SSSS)
- learning how to repair things and rely less on buying new items. In SSSS I imagine its much easier for everyone to reuse items for as long as possible since it will be much more difficult to obtain new resources.
- on the same thread, learning some of those “basic” skills that people my age didn’t grow up doing, like knitting, sewing, cooking from scratch, ect.

(P.S. I liveeee for discussions about the environment and sustainability so feel free to hmu any time ever to talk about it fr)

[Róisín]

Ah, one of my lot, I see. Be doubly welcome! I also am passionate about this stuff, indeed, now I am retired from my job it is what I do for a living! I and others around me teach this stuff, and the local young folk are right into it. I had not heard the term 'solarpunk', but it fits. If you are curious to see what we are doing, look up 'Mount Pleasant Natural Resource Centre, Recreate Project, and Mount Pleasant Community Garden'. At Recreate we recycle stuff into useful things which we sell to fund the town's community garden and classes in all of those useful old skills that we can find people to teach. We love it.

I teach bushcraft, wild food foraging, cooking and food gardening, making your own cosmetics, perfumes and first aid products, and brewing and other related skills. I helped start the town's farmers market, which is thriving, and we have a street library and a produce share going, and a new generation coming up who care about the land, and understand that healthy land, thriving plant and animal life and a good community who care for each other will give us all a better chance. I also do a lot of speaking and teaching at garden clubs, environmental events and such, because I don't want to let the skills we oldies have be forgotten. Though I expect environmental and political disaster more than something like the events of the Minnaverse.

Also, if where you live has some equivalent of our CWA (Country Women's Association), those ladies are a treasure trove of skills and experience, and will happily pass it on.

There is so much we can do for the world if we make an effort. And I totally agree about the grass lawn monoculture. I grow a lot of pretty groundcover plants that provide something useful, like habitat and food  for lizards and small birds, food for my bees and other useful insects, and in the case of native food plants like muntries, all of the above plus erosion control, beauty and delicious fruit. I should put up on the gardening thread instructions on how to convert a lawn into productive space.

[Oripoke]

How did you know?! Sustainability and environmentally compatible living is like, my whole *thing*. (I actually run a solarpunk blog, that admittedly is mostly memeing about climate change with occasional cool green tech sprinkled in, because dammit, i'm mad.)

SSSS has definitely got me thinking about adaptation to a more primitive lifestyle in the wake of catastrophe, which is something that we're likely to see play out in various places the real world due to resource scarcity, natural disasters and the like. What I find particularly interesting is how the world governments in the SSSS-verse have made sure to maintain transportation channels, like the Dalahasten train and the repurposed transport ships. Despite the threat of attack from the Rash-infected, there are shipping channels to provide necessary resources, materials, and even luxury goods can be brought to people across the known world. These types of large, interlocking systems require unity and cooperation on a national scale, which is something i think the Nordic region is somewhat predisposed towards already, and is somewhat easier when everybody has a common threat they are working together to fight.

(Now, if only we could have more national cooperation in the face of real threats, like climate change!)

I also think a lot about energy in the SSSS world, and how the few cities that do have electric power get it from geothermal energy (in Iceland) and hydropower elsewhere (Mora, Aurland, Eno). I wouldn't be surprised if they still drill for petroleum (Norway in particular being very rich in oil), although maintaining an offshore oil rig in the face of attacking sea beasts is no easy task. There's something to be said for renewable resources which don't rely on a continuous supply of fuel. Since Year 0 appears to be set in present-day, relative to the date of the comic's publishing, it's likely that there are still some wind power farms up there too. Since these tend to be far-removed from places where people live though, they would be rather difficult to maintain after the onset of the Rash, and hard to replace if the parts are manufactured in other nations.

Today, there's a lot of promising research into "Micro-grids", sections of the electricity system that can be isolated from the main grid and produce their own power supply through use of distributed generation and energy storage. These can be invaluable in the event of a blackout or other natural disaster, resulting in better resiliency and rapid adaptation. Moreover, these can be owned by the communities themselves, creating independence from the dominant framework of large corporations. Whether there's a hurricane or a Rash-mutant-apocalypse, resiliency and smart planning can save lives and protect us from future disaster.

[Róisín]

All very true. I will check out your blog. I work very hard at preparedness, especially in regard to environmental problems, and encourage people to grow permacultures, so that whatever insane thing happens with the weather or the distribution networks there will be some food growing. A project which may interest you is the Food Forest at Gawler, not far from where I live. The Brookmans, who run it, have done lots of open days, and run courses on useful farming skills. If you want to see the farm, the ABC program ‘Gardening Australia’ has a program on farming which has a segment on the Food Forest, which was broadcast on June 2 and is available on the ‘Gardening Australia’ website. Gawler is in a hot dry area, but the basic principles are adaptable to any climate.

[itstricky]

Wooah definitely going to check around to see if there is something similar to a CWA where I'm at, it certainly seems possible. I'm still a young 'un who has yet to get a real job, but I'm going to school for sustainable planning and climate change mitigation (among other things haha) and I've been looking to get more heavily involved with the groups on campus that are committed to these issues. Most of the time they require you to leave campus though, which isnt totally possible because of our transportation systems and all. I want to get together with people and talk about issues /on/ campus, and i was thinking that a spectacular way to do that would be to discuss the skills that we young 'uns just haven't been taught. The most sustainable consumption is no consumption after all! (something that our sustainability office honestly doesnt seem to really... talk about at all. Perhaps because it is so... systemically incompatible with the university lifestyle)

I've been getting pretty fired up about monocultures in the US as of late, currently visiting my parents and my dad is absolutely obsessed with the american-ideal of a well kept lawn and it's been a real struggle for me. I was just reading a bit about food forests recently but I didnt get to deep into the article. It seems like a real dream.

I followed your blog, Oripoke! I have never heard about microgrids but ill have to look more into it! I'm glad other people been reading maybe-too-deep into the systems that power the SSSS world ahaha its just so interesting to see what could "work" and to sort of have thought experiments inspired by it.

[Krillian]

In my case I've been a solarpunk even before I knew what that is, and certainly before reading SSSS. I haven't made much moves towards a more sustainable life above the basics, but I do have a lot of interest on developing sustainable skills.
Something that have hardened the solarpunk inside me would certainly be The Venus Project, which tackles not only enviroment, but also other sociological issues that we currently have. I might not agree with the implemetation of the ideas Jacques Fresco had thought, but its all very interesting stuff and certainly worthy of debate.

Today, there's a lot of promising research into "Micro-grids", sections of the electricity system that can be isolated from the main grid and produce their own power supply through use of distributed generation and energy storage. These can be invaluable in the event of a blackout or other natural disaster, resulting in better resiliency and rapid adaptation. Moreover, these can be owned by the communities themselves, creating independence from the dominant framework of large corporations. Whether there's a hurricane or a Rash-mutant-apocalypse, resiliency and smart planning can save lives and protect us from future disaster.

That's fairly interesting! I'm certainly going to try to create my own microgrids once I'm living away from small apartment complexes or my parents' homes. I don't know why this reminds me of a few small projects on p2p social-media platforms and blockchain technology; maybe simply due to the fact some of the people who use them are in a very off-grid lifestyle themselves.

A great example of a solarpunk artist couple is 100rabbits, they're two offgrid artists who live in a boat, sailing around the world. They also made a bunch of small creative programs that are very neat.

[Róisín]

We have both solar and mains electricity (we live in an area very prone to power outages), and our solar feeds into the grid which helps to defray electricity bills a little. Also both mains and tank water, which is useful since both power and water prices here are horrific.

Krillian, those are very interesting links, thank you!

[refract3d]

Hmm, I don't know if it got me interested so much as reactivated and aligned with pre-existing interests... but it certainly didn't hurt!

My mother definitely has been interested in permaculture and gardening for as long as I can remember (she now has a lovely substantial front yard food garden) and used to talk about the ten acres of farmland she wanted (she says she's too old now) and my sister also gardens and dreams of raising goats. So maybe it was inevitable I'd go down a similar path 

Personally, I've always been interested in nature and sustainability on some level, but I've been much more active in the last few years. I've gone to a couple primitive skills gatherings, taken a foraging class, tried to figure out how I could help with a neighbor's goats (unfortunately moved away from that area before I could accomplish much) and have been trying and more or less succeeding in finding places and groups that emphasize reuse and environmental responsibility. There's a tree-planting group I'd like to get more involved with and an artist coalition and a small food forest around here, to start. I'd love to find more and do more.
I like the idea of setting up some permaculture but I am currently in the city and frequently moving so I think that's something I'd rather help others with than establish myself for now.

I toyed with the idea of going to school for environmental planning, but ended up just doing environmental studies, and I don't really know what to do with that other than have a heightened awareness of all the problems with climate change and land management More stressful than useful, to be honest. Motivational once you get over the feelings of despair.

Solarpunk is pretty cool

[Róisín]

If you are in a city there are always community gardens, food co-ops, produce swaps and shares and such like. And many of the community gardens have courses on urban self-sufficieny. It’s surprising what you can grow, even in windowboxes, pots on a balcony, or verge gardens, and there is always seed sprouting, by which I have managed to have a bit of live food, even when stuck in a sixth-floor flat. And in Adelaide at least the council is quite good at providing spaces for community gardens, including one in the South Parklands right near the CBD.

Some people in the inner suburbs, walking distance from the Adelaide CBD, make land available to people who want to garden but have no land to do so, if they themselves can’t or don’t want to manage a garden anymore. I know several folk on both sides of that equation, and it mostly seems to work well. If you can look for websites on the internet, check out some of the Gardening Australia episodes about verge gardens. These are basically road verges (‘nature strips’ they are called in Australia) which have been turned into community food gardens by people who live nearby. Wonderful idea, and involves the whole community.

Your local permaculture group may also have ideas and contacts. And really, you can build a garden anywhere. I have seen very productive rooftop food gardens in every Australian capital, and in inner London. One of my sons, being stuck in Adelaide city for a year because of his work, built a strawbale garden on a couple of old disused tennis courts. It was hugely productive!

As you may have gathered from other conversations around the Forum and the comments, I teach this stuff in real life, and am endlessly fascinated by how much can be done with very little in the way of resources!

[Vulpes]

Hm, I seem to have been solarpunk without knowing it existed, although where I live it's well nigh impossible to be sustainable. But I do my best, and look for opportunities to do better. I'll enjoy reading more about solarpunk, thanks for introducing me to what seems to be my natural intellectual home.

[Vafhudr]

Late to the party here, but I do have a word of advice concerning lawn gardening.

Check your city by-laws before you dig in. Some municipalities have by-laws in place that prevent you from diverging from what your neighbhour does - to preserve the "character" of the neighbourhood or they simply have in by-law that you need this amount of setback from the street, have a tree there, or how much space must be left open. It's not like this everywhere, but I have read several instances where people had to dismantle or fight to keep their front lawn gardens against municipal intervention. It could save you some headache and be something to work toward changing in your municipality.

[Róisín]

An amazing find. In Ironbank, which is in the Adelaide Hills about an hour from where I live. We have someone who has built an ‘Earthship’ house. Selfsufficient and completely amazing!

[itstricky]

ah yes the local government, HOA, and other entities are often against that kind of stuff. I have seen some interesting ways to fight against those kind of rules in the past. I don't think ill ever find myself somewhere where those rules apply to me though. Right now I live in an apartment so I don't actually have any easy green space to work with but I happen to live just ten minutes walking from a forest trail, and bewilderingly restrictions on foraging have eased a little bit because of COVID. (I think local gov saw it as a Great Socially Distant Past Time) so recently I have been trying to learn more about foraging and edible plants!

My new biggest pet-peeve, aside from lawns, is how I cant eat dandelion outside of the Forest because of the pesticides used on most of the grass around here.

Soon I will be in charge of showing some international students the forest area and I'm looking forward to converting them to the nature life. Though i should really learn some more about the plants around me before then so that I have more to show them!

[Róisín]

You might find useful a European book which has good illustrations and quite accurate information: The Hamlyn Guide to Edible and Medicinal Plants of Britain and Northern Europe’ by Edmund Launert. This book also includes a number of plants, such as dandelion, which are also found in America and Australia. Which country are you in, if I may ask?

[Alkia]

I am so happy this thread exists!!!!!! And that I know now what "solarpunk" means, it's a very good term. I'm so excited that other people know about permaculture, the negative effect of lawns and monocultures, foraging, renewable energies, etc.!! I guess all those things should be more common knowledge, but I have never heard anyone outside my family discuss them, so this is quite exciting 

As for me, my mom is really into the agriculture side of climate change, and loves talking about/researching regenerative agriculture, holistic management, and, more recently, the importance of healthy soil. Have any of you heard the names Richard Perkins, Alan Savory, Seth Itzkan, or Christine Jones? Those are the names she's been mentioning most often and has told me a little bit about, and they are definitely worth looking up.
I am part of the environmental club at school and we have been trying to set up a composting program, as well as just raise awareness at school about the benefits of composting and what it is. I also made some art about climate change in the form of activist postcards, but I haven't done much with them (i can post them if anyone's interested). Overall, I think I'd like to go into the sustainability field as a career, but I haven't thought about it too much yet.

anyways, sorry, that was a long post, and I'm still just an amateur when it comes to sustainability. I haven't been learning or doing much environmentally recently because I've been focusing on art, but it's so amazing to see other people on this Forum who are passionate about it!!!!! Thank you all (for sharing all this knowledge)!
oh, also, Oripoke, I have also followed your blog, it's really cool!