homesteadsolarpunk

[homesteadsolarpunk]

A Beginner’s Guide to Solarpunk: Political Attitudes, Praxis, and a Summary of the Movement

I’m well aware I’m a small account so I may be overlooked and a lot of these things are mostly leftist exclusive, there are many forms Solarpunk can take, however this version is commonly found on Tumblr. Happy reading! Please don’t think I’m being condescending, this is for people who are new to the movement and don’t know how to start.

To begin, separate the compound word. Solar, meaning related to the sun and Punk, a leftist movement that protests right-wing authoritarianism, capitalism, bigotry in any form, and has ties to anarchist philosophy. So what does that make Solarpunk? A movement that’s completely into the anti-authoritarian, anti-consumerist, egalitarian ideals of punk while having a heavy emphasis on nature, clean energy, and foregoing modern comforts to live sustainably. There are also people who suggest that Solarpunk has some influence from the great social theorist Murray Bookchin, a libertarian socialist who generated the concept of communalism and the theory of social ecology (Which I may go into later, I’m not sure yet). While Bookchin is a great influence and his theories/political ideologies align with Solarpunk, it would be unfair to only give Bookchin credit, Karl Marx had a part in shaping Bookchin’s idea of social ecology.

So. What is the movement about then? 

To put it simply, it’s about helping each other and the earth in any way possible while being sustainable in everyday life. To make it more complex, it’s about rebelling against the systems that oppress us and harm the earth through any means necessary in order to save what is left of the world after the global collapse via global warming/climate change, but unlike anarcho-primitivists, the goal of a Solarpunk is to rebuild sustainably, unite with many people to accomplish goals that benefit everyone, and reconstruct natural environments to get the earth in working order once again, however global collapse isn’t necessary to bring about a Solarpunk revolution or Solarpunk future, which leads into the next paragraph.

Praxis. What do I do?

Well, what do you think is best for bringing communities together? What could you change in your daily habits? How can you waste less? How can you buy less? Those are the questions you should ask yourself, and it doesn’t have to be perfect, you just have to try. Personally, I grow my own food in the growing season, up-cycle bottles and plastic jugs, use biodegradable packaging to start seedlings, save seeds from my plants, grow saplings, and reduce the amount of electricity I use by unplugging a lot of my devices when they’re not in use. It may be small in the grand scheme of things, but I’m doing what I can when I can. Combining practice and theory is a powerful thing and if we all start doing it, it can change the world.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask, I will not tolerate trolls however. If you are searching the solarpunk tag for the aesthetic, that’s how I started as well.

This has been punkofsunshine, have a good one and be safe.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

It’s the dream for most of us to buy a farm and not be crushed under the financial weight of an apartment owned by a landlord who never fixes anything in a part of the city that isn’t even that safe to live.  But a dream without a plan is just a wish, so here’s where to start.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

Art and Activism: soft and hard action

We all know direct action is important in resistance, but what about the humanities?

The humanities have a place as well, music, drawings, paintings, murals, etc. They’re all important due to the fact that is may draw people in and it’s important for the people doing a lot of the front-line work to relax for a while and art is one of the best ways to do that. Burnout is real shit, I should know because on my first eco-activism “crusade” I went too long without indulging myself in entertainment or the arts. I burnt out for a while, which is why I realized the arts are important, work all the time wears you down even if it’s for a good cause.

In short, take a break, even if for a little while. You don’t want to burn out and leave the movement.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

Agriculture reform, vertical farming, and environmental restoration

Agriculture is one of, if not the best advancement humanity has made, but modern agriculture does not fulfill the needs of people. In fact, modern agriculture fulfills the needs of livestock more than people, roughly 39% of cattle feed comes from what’s leftover after ethanol production. In fact, 40% of the corn we grow here in the mid-west actually goes to ethanol production for everclear and as an additive in gasoline. More information found here. This is only one part of why we need agriculture reform, another part is soil depletion and pesticide runoff. Pesticides and artificial fertilizers seep into groundwater and often times become runoff in rivers which harms yet another aspect of our ecosystem, more on soil health here. So what can be done? Right now? Not too much, cooperation with lawmakers may help however, if you emphasize the importance of the dangers of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides you may grab their attention. Carcinogens are no joking matter, especially on a mass scale like most agriculture is now.

What do we do after basic reform?

Well, we try to push for a more cost-effective, water-efficient, and space saving option. Vertical farming, now, I know next-to-nothing about hydroponics, so I’ll be leaving an article right here. But the benefits include year-round crop production, no runoff, reduces usage of fossil fuels (transportation mostly, energy for the pump can be produced rather easily via renewable sources), makes use of unused/abandoned properties, is sustainable (really good for urban centers and food deserts), and more are listed here. A push for vertical farming would generate new jobs in cities, rural environments, and would have the benefit of going to the communities that are running the operation. It’s essentially farming on a mass scale, but without the need for all the potentially harmful chemicals used in arable land farming. I can’t emphasize enough how beneficial this would be to any community.

The relation to environmental restoration?

It’s kind of a stretch, but I believe that we could turn that farmland back into prairie, with some help from environmental restoration initiatives, it should be possible to convert old farmland into its original state. The benefits of this would include soil stability, encouraging ecological diversity, a regeneration of the microbiome, more habitats for indigenous species, and a change of landscape for once. Prairies also absorb a lot of rain, making them fantastic for erosion prevention, wild grass roots grow deeper than lawn grass, meaning it will hold more soil in the event of a natural disaster such as a tornado. In general, it’s a wonderful idea to restore our natural environments, no matter where you are, it’s essential to prevent desertification in any way you can. I used the example of a prairie because it’s one of the most endangered natural environments in the world today, only 1% of its original area remains, more on that here. 

That was all for today, hopefully I gave you something to think/reflect on.

Have a good one babes and stay safe.

This has been @punkofsunshine, out.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

Textiles: Agriculture, industry, couture, and exploitation

You guys may not know this, but I’m a fan of the fashion world, I have a deep respect for handcrafted clothing. The skill needed to make clothes is incredible, I’m a bit rusty with a needle and thread myself, but a few of my friends are spectacularly skilled with a sewing machine and a needle. Envy aside, this is actually a very good skill to learn, the decline of this knowledge has been beneficial to those who work in the fast fashion sector and nobody else. Clothing is an essential part of culture and I think that essential aspect is part of why I really dislike fast fashion as well as haute couture. Generally speaking the fashion industry does some pretty shitty things to workers and markets to those who don’t see anything bigger at stake than how they look, which is awful for a culture that’s as consumption obsessed as that of the US.

It all has to start somewhere, mostly from seeds, as long as you pretend that synthetic fabrics don’t exist for a moment (that deserves a post of its own when I move onto the topic of fossil fuels and their obsolescence), most clothes are made from cotton yarn, which is woven into fabric, which is then cut into various shapes and made into whatever clothing item is being manufactured, yeah? Well, there’s a problem with cotton even into the modern day and that’s the energy cost for processing and water cost for growing when you look at the water cost alone and combine it with the fact that in needs to be processed, transported, woven, and cut that comes out to be a lot of fossil fuels and even more water consumed. Roughly 20,000 litres of water (5,283 gallons) is used to produce 1 kilogram of cotton (2.2 pounds). High water cost combined with pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide use make cotton a nightmare for groundwater pollution, agricultural runoff, and soil depletion. There is a better source of fiber than cotton which uses less water and produces more than cotton does, hemp, the industrial variety of hemp is easy to grow and could be replacing half of all textiles very soon. Industrial hemp uses less than a third of cotton and produces, to read more about this hemp click here. 

Now onto the textile industry and how it feeds into both fast fashion and couture. As we’ve established, cloth is incredibly important when talking about fashion and clothing. It’s sometimes a selling point, if you want clothes that are easy to take care of, or want something that’s luxurious but is dry-clean only (I don’t know why people would do that to themselves, but that’s besides the point). The top textile manufacturer right now is Arvind Limited which deals in cotton fabrics, cotton is still king it seems, but it’s an India based company. I can’t seem to find who they supply to, although their financial reports are public access, I cannot find who they sell their fabrics to. I am willing to bet it’s mostly to fast fashion companies and some premier brands. That information is out of my hands however, but I can say they’re making bank as a 3rd party distributor with cheap labour on the ground floor. I’m afraid I cannot give detailed accounts of whom they ship to, but speculation will have to do for now.

A little break from serious topics to discuss couture, haute couture, and handmade clothing, I swear we’ll move onto the topic of exploitation of workers after this. Couture is essentially custom fitted clothing, haute couture is luxury custom fitted clothing, and handmade clothes are self explanatory. The only one out of the three that I don’t have a problem with is handmade clothing because it’s made to be warn more than once and is pragmatic, the couture however, is basically what you see at the Met Gala, to be worn once and never again. I think you see the problem as much as I do, a waste of resources and idolization of others based on appearance. Now, I may be misunderstanding or biased, but clothes are supposed to be worn multiple times. In this respect, couture is no better than fast fashion. 

Now onto the final topic of an already lengthy post, exploitation of workers in textiles. From the farmers who grow the fiber, to the cloth makers, to the ones operating the sewing machines in sweatshops, all of these people are being exploited by different organizations. The farmers are exploited via the seed industry as well as pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer industries because they’re viewed as essential in the production of clothing fibers and food crops. For the manufactures of the cloth, they’re being exploited by whomever runs the factory for processing and weaving the fibers, same goes for sweatshop workers. It’s like this anywhere you go in the textile industry, even “high end” fashion is infamous for seasonal crunch times and overworking designers, photographers, and models. It may not be the same as meager wages in a sweatshop, but nobody should be under extreme stress over something that will go away from public vision in a month’s time. We need to rethink what we wear, me included. Instead of throwing clothes away, we should learn how to resize and repair. We’ll get to that point eventually, but until then we have to be more conscious about the things we take for granted and their social & ecological impact.

That was all for today, this post was 2 days late, but I work a lot now and it’s hard to keep up with any social media, especially when I’m essentially writing essays. So have a good one and stay safe babes.

This has been @punkofsunshine, out.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

The growth of solarpunk and what it may mean going forward

I’m ecstatic to see such a growth in the solarpunk community, but this also may come with drawbacks, drawbacks like de-politicization, eco-fascist insurgency, and a pure focus on aesthetics (an effect of de-politicization). If we’re to keep this train running, we must be vigilant and be on the lookout for those who don’t follow the message or goals of the movement. If you’re new here, I’d like to say, welcome to the community. I’m not the only blog with a solarpunk focus to be sure, but I’m glad you could join us. If you’re browsing the solarpunk tag right now looking for aesthetics, that’s how I started out too, but I took my talent for informational writing and blended it with my passion for conservation and environmentalism. I also relate solarpunk with various forms of media and expressionism like fashion, visual arts, and writing to show how interconnected everything can be, but enough about me. 

Here are the signs of an eco-fascist

1.) They say humans are a disease to be cured (or something along those lines)

2.) Look to a main authority to justify stripping freedoms away from certain groups that they feel are effecting the environment negatively

3.) Has an outgroup to hate on (such as refugees, immigrants, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ folk)

4.) Despises immigration

5.) Blames overpopulation on rise of temperatures and pollution

6.) Will blame industrial workers for carbon emissions

7.) Focuses on nationality and race/ethnicity to the degree of obsession 

8.) Believes they or their mythical promised land in immediate danger from an out group

If you see any of these signs, these aren’t your fellow solarpunks, they’re eco-fascists, don’t communicate with them or debate them. Just leave them be and distance yourself from them in any way possible.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

Rethinking solarpunk: Aesthetic being a reflection of ideals

Don’t get me wrong, I love the whole art nouveau thing, but I’d like to take a step back and analyze how the aesthetic should reflect the movement. While it is nice to have an end goal in mind, the message should be “We need to work together so the earth doesn’t become uninhabitable in our lifetime.” and not “Hey, pretty pictures of green cityscapes, but also here’s the message based around a few different political philosophies that you have to look into.”

In short I’m saying, we need to put the punk firmly in solarpunk so it reflects upon the movement as one with ideas and ideals as opposed to overly utopian in nature. A nice change would be moving away from cityscapes and focusing on architecture that feels handmade, adding in the punk principle of DIY into the aesthetic while also keeping the greenery would make something totally unique and reflect the movement better than the current iteration does. Changing the aesthetic would also drive home the point that we’re constantly evolving as a movement, constantly growing and changing.

As I’ve said before, with growth comes new challenges. If we want our message to be fully understood and not just ogled at because it’s bright and pretty, we need to make it easier to understand off the bat and not as easy to twist into something harmful where someone could say “If [X group] weren’t around, we could have this future!” Visuals are a powerful medium, we sincerely want them to reflect our intent as well as provide a message that we’re not going away, ever. So now, I ask you artists to rethink the future of this look and imagine one which is more akin to a cobbled together house with solar panels and a water pump out front as opposed to a green apartment complex in a retrofitted city. One of these is achievable in our lifetime and I know you know which one.

That’s all for today (tonight really) babes. This has been @punkofsunshine, have a good one and stay safe.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

Food and Climate: How climate change effects how and what we eat

Hello my lovely humans, welcome back to what I like to call informal essays. Today brings together two very important topics to me, food and conservationism. This is going to be longer than my last post and is going to involve some sidetracking as well.

I came up with this topic while looking at all the spices I was using to make butter chicken for dinner tonight and wondering how much the price was going to go up when shit really hits the fan, if we could have such dishes like this again, etc. So, essentially my anxiety spiral led me to doing research and wanting to discuss the intersectionality of culinary arts, climate science, and farming. In our current state, beef reigns supreme in terms of climate change contribution, the most eaten meat in the world is actually chicken, which is significantly less harmful than beef or pork, and yet beef and pork have the greatest climate impact and are highly susceptible to diseases (poultry is as well, don’t get me wrong). In general animal farming is a big contributor to climate change, crop farming is as well…

Crop farming, which I talk about here, also emits a lot of fossil fuels, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and pollutes ground water, depletes soil, and flows downriver along with cow and pig manure, thus killing fish, crustaceans, marine reptiles, and mammals who live in or around the sea. This combination of disregard after disregard for natural ecosystems leads us into where we are now. The Midwest is on the cusp of desertification, there’s been no agriculture reform or sign of actual change, which is why we need to take it upon ourselves to start vertical farming, hydroponics, and soil-less farming on an industrial scale. Not only is it more efficient, it’s better for the environment in every possible aspect, even using less water and requiring very little usage of fertilizers, but how do you replace animal farming? Answer: You don’t, you just get rid of it, the least amount of impact out of any animal is the chicken, so it may be able to stay, but cows and pigs cannot be farmed en masse anymore, it’s dangerous for our environment and our health, so they must be used all at once, and composted (with the rich preferably). It sounds cruel, I know, but there aren’t many better options. Of course the meat and dairy industries will try to interfere like they always do, but we knew that would happen anyway.

Moral of the story, our modern agriculture industry is profit focused and not based around the health or well-being of us or our planet, causing both a rise in greenhouse gas emissions, water and land pollution, and is just generally bad for us in the dietary respect.

Anyway, that’s all for today babes. This has been @punkofsunshine have a good one and stay safe.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

On the prevalence of “green capitalism” or greenwashing in life and common media

People are starting to care about the environment, and that’s wonderful… but there’s a catch. Always is, isn’t there? It’s a mix of aestheticism, marketing, and research suppression. More often than not, most entrepreneurs and companies are out to make a quick buck off of people who think that reducing waste or using renewable materials is active environmentalism. It’s not their fault for having the wool pulled over their eyes, that’s how so called “green capitalism” is designed, blaming others for being fooled is just victim blaming. Another tool of separation by the ruling class is greenwashing.

An example of greenwashing is this: 

You do see the problem here, right? I mean you’d have to be metaphorically blind to miss it. What good is reducing carbon emissions when you’re using a plastic bottle? Creating plastic causes hella emissions, From an article by NPR (I know, they sold out, but hear them out) “By one estimate, emissions from producing and incinerating plastics could amount to 56 gigatons of carbon — almost 50 times the annual emissions of all of the coal power plants in the U.S. — between now and 2050. … And that’s what makes replacing plastic a problem without a clear solution.” For the whole article, click the quote.

But where’s the point in what I’m saying? It’s not gonna stop anytime soon. The point is to potentially educate those who fall for these these things, as I’ve stated before, they’re victims of marketeering and (probably) propaganda propelled forward by the ruling class. In the end, putting green in front of whatever is being sold doesn’t make it true. Don’t be a victim, be what they fear most, educated.

That’s all for tonight (currently 7:22 American Central time zone as I’m typing)

I’d love for you to share this, with how many (ugh) liberals are on Tumblr, I wouldn’t be surprised if I got backlash for blaming capitalism, but anyway, this has been @punkofsunshine​, have a good one and stay safe.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

I once again am boosting my playlist because I think it fits the movement perfectly in attitude. It has a lot of different cultural influences and has some nice ambient music in there too including a track from @thecarboncoast

I hope you enjoy! This has been punkofsunshine, have a good one and stay safe.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

Insects: the future of protein, pollination, and permaculture

Part I: Introduction and Protein

At every level, insects and (arachnids) are around us, whether it be a fruit fly or those fucking stink bugs that we get in the house every single winter, they’re around us whether we like it or not. Chitinous critters corral themselves into crannies or cowardly fly cross the room when we’re trying to kill them, but what if we used these cool carapaced creatures to our advantage instead of them being a general annoyance, no i’m not talking about beekeeping or honeybees or even those bee hotels that don’t really work, I’m talking farming them, cooking them, seasoning them, dehydrating them, etc. We’ve all heard that insects are the purest form of protein as a joke when someone accidentally swallows a bug, but this little joke is actually true, specifically with crickets. Crickets contain 2-3 times more complete protein than a beef steak on the same weight basis and contain no cholesterol and fat, on top of it all they contain more iron and contain fiber as well. That’s not even including the ecological benefits, such as water usage, waste disposal, carbon emissions, and runoff from improper animal waste disposal.

Part II: Pollination

Like I said above, I don’t condone owning honeybees, not out of a moral stance or anything, they’re ecologically unsafe, they compete with native bees and usually end up winning due to sheer numbers. I’m talking about mason bees and growing habitats for them, yes growing habitats, mason bees use reeds to make their hives, so grow some pop grass (horsetail reed) and watch the magic happen, preferably not too close though. Spending money on those bee houses isn’t a good idea anyhow, they’re a breeding ground for diseases and mostly get occupied by native wasps, which isn’t a bad thing, having natural predators around a certain area is a very good thing, but they’re not pollinators, which is the focus right now.

Part III: Permaculture 

Insects and arachnids are essential members of our ecosystem and play a vital part in keeping it balanced, whether it be a common fly laying eggs on a carrion for decomposition or a butterfly doing its butterfly thing of being pretty and drinking nectar, they all serve a purpose, even the annoying bastards like mosquitoes or those fucking stinkbugs. Some may even serve a culinary purpose in the future, like meal-worms, crickets, and grasshoppers being the most common forms. These little creatures make a significant impact together, just like us.

This has been it for me babes, this has been @punkofsunshine ,I’ll be checking in tomorrow. Have a nice night.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

I like how they grayed out #brianthompson 's picture, it's like they're giving us a hit list because all of these people have names and faces displayed and people can be easily found in the information age. Just a thought.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

"…send a message to the American public that catching a rich body comes without consequences."

We're getting so close to ending the culture war and actually starting the class war, thank the whatever God there may or not be that we live in such interesting times.

Something I find very interesting about this CEO assassination is that the guy who did it has basically become an American hero.

They're probably quite worried about what will happen when they catch this guy, especially with the level of public support he has. If they catch him alive and he gets to air his grievances, he could unite the entire country against the private healthcare system. It could go to trial and result in jury nullification, which would basically send a message to the American public that catching a rich body comes without consquences.

If they kill him to keep his mouth shut, I'd say people will burn cities to the ground, and it could potentially provoke even more anger against private health insurance. In a powder keg, it only takes one person lighting the match.

I know it sounds over the top, but a figurehead is a powerful thing, and that's what this shooter is. The rich understand it. That's why Blue Cross just magically decided they were going to pay for anesthesia again. Those dead-eyed psychopaths were going to take everything they could until someone shot that guy and that's the gospel truth.

Keep the hate fire burning. Watching their fear is the closest I've come to knowing joy since the Bush administration.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

After being reprimanded for approving his clients' insurance claims, Bob Paar nearly kills his boss at Insuricare

The Incredibles (2004)

[homesteadsolarpunk]

It is as it should be.

[homesteadsolarpunk]

That man is a hero of the ongoing struggle of the working class, if you see him, no you didn't.

I'll be so honest right now the thing I love about everyone not caring or congratulating the guy who downed the UnitedHealthcare CEO is that this will inspire other "copycats" if you know what I mean.

There are people who have nothing left to lose, people who want to make a mark in history, people who would want to be known nationwide, people who see through the NYPD's bluff and realize that they can get away with ending a CEOs life when everybody wants you to get away.

I'm not promoting anything! But this is something that has been seen time and time again in history, soooo

[homesteadsolarpunk]

Class consciousness 2025?

something interesting is happening