First of all, I love you, slrpnk admins. You handled it all like champions! Happy to have you back.

Someone said in one one of the matrix chats during the outage that the fact that this instance is selfhosted and went down is like true experience of a solarpunk world; there won't always be power and that's okay!

Just wanted to write it down in a post since that message was so spot on.

The rise of doomers, preppers, and antinatalists on the Left reveals something deeper than the hollow posture of rebellion: a collapse of belief in tomorrow. A Left that chants “No future” isn’t just demoralized — it’s unserious, misanthropic, and bound to lose.

Tldr: How do you inspire people to work for a better tomorrow if you don't believe tomorrow can be better? Trump and the American right have a vision of a future America that they claim will be great and glorious. The American left - and the global left - have lost sight of the future entirely. Instead of promising a bright future, they merely seek to endure the crises of the present - and some on the left have given up even that.

The article speaks to the desperate need for hope - for a clear, compelling, leftist vision of the future to serve as a guiding light for left-wing activists and politicians.

And hey, what political slash environmental slash aesthetic movement focused on a hopeful future just got its instance back up?

(Welcome back, everybody!)

Tldr: go forth, imagine shit! Lest the doomerism fungus consume us!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30711375

People just need to get used to paying for the web. Monthly subscriptions for Spotify or Netflix are widely accepted, so a fee to fund the rest of the net doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility. It could even be made part of the ISP fee (perhaps this could be forced on all ISPs by govts under the guise of 'supporting local websites').

The technical solutions already seem to exist, but have been shut down 1) due to lack of use and 2) by the entrenched business model (in the case of Scroll). Therefore, the challenge currently lies in bringing the masses over to this business model (IMO easier than it may seem, as the masses never consciously opted for their current method of paying anyway and hence feel no attachment to it), and stopping regulatory capture by the entrenched business model (an even deeper root problem whose solution would solve many issues beside this one).

So assume that everybody switched to this model of funding overnight. I don't think it would stop surveillance capitalism entirely since the surveillance technologies that the current business model lead to being developed (AI, cookies, etc) have since been adapted for use in other settings (facial recognition CCTV etc.) whose investment sources are now entirely separate from the web’s. What's more, websites would probably keep spying on paying users anyway, simply because they already have the technology to do so, and it would make them extra money on top of their allocated subscription money. Despite this, I still think it's a change worth working towards.

Archived link of the article

why i left the left the left the left

I want only portable devices like solar, and hand-crank chargers. I want to be able to boil water, charge my Laptop and phone, run my induction stove for a few minutes thrice a day, want it rugerdized at some point, and want to depend on my equipment for day to day life as preparation for having no support.

How am I doing so far? Did I waste money?

Gardening offers insight into biodiversity, soil health, and sustainability, fostering a deeper connection with nature.

Insects come out at the crepuscular times Between two extremes, hot and bright, dark and cold The sun rays cast through an ocean of motes Dust, pericarps, insects, hummingbirds, bats Even in concrete suburbs I am reminded of the ocean we live under This atmosphere would suffocate me I am a masked intruder in the toxic jungle

[the toxicity is seasonal allergies]

Anyone else going? Going solo and happy to tag along with other soloers! Not going to take tent (I don't have equipment) so would love to get a small group for the nearest accomodation. See ya there

Hey Solarpunk people! I'm back to ask if you'd like to join our booklcub. We are a small community of readers, writers, and activists that is dedicated to exploring Solarpunk and adjacent literature. Every week, we discuss one chapter of a book that we choose together. So far, we have read eight books, including The Dispossessed, the Monk and Robot series and a few short story collections. If you want to join our book club just in time to pick our next read, please swing by. We’d be happy to have more people to share thoughts and insights with!

https://discord.gg/2zUph5DSmR

So im a very typical American. Cars, big lawn, etc. I do the best I can with a garden, fixing my own cars instead of buying new, and trying not to buy things packaged in plastic. I also want to make most of my lawn clovers and wildflowers etc because I hate the boringness of grass and want biodiversity.

Now I think the solarpunk movement is awesome, but I feel like im just a poser. Obviously I can't leave my house and go live in a grass hut. Im also one of those people with a million hobbies, so im always doing things (and by extension, purchasing things, though usually used). I've also always been a car guy, which kind of goes against the whole eco thing. Though I do pretty much only drive smaller cars. I wont buy electric until they are analog and disconnected from any sort of internet.

I feel like there's many out there like me who just feel they wont make any difference anyways so they don't get as involved. But what other things can someone like me do? I've thought about some panels on the house to potentially run small servers off of, but that's pretty much it

This past DC Climate Week, we linked up with founders, artists and visionaries who are reimagining how we move, grow, create, and care for our world. We talked, biked, toured rooftops, and reflected on how far we’ve come—and where we’re headed next. This issue is a preview of what’s bubbling beneath the surface of the DMV’s solarpunk movement.

Grassy trams are better than dead asphalt, but monoculture lawns are still not the best. I'm not sure what the best translation of the official name would be, but I guess meadowy tram would fit. Much lower maintenance and increased resilience to heat and dryness are nice bonuses.

This is a 1km stretch of tramline 13 running through a park in Helsinki, Finland.

What's more solarpunk than using old hardware destined for the dump to host a cool website?

The German - French TV Broadcaster is doing a documentary series about sustainability of cities.

The Audio is only in German and French, but English Subtitles are available. It is nice to watch.

Mass timer buildings are prefabricated structures made of (hopefully renewable) wood. The pieces are made in a factory and then able to be quickly constructed together on-site.

This can hopefully greatly reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from producing a building. The cost of producing buildings in this method is also going down. Additionally, these mass timer buildings are typically more dense than single family homes, which can lead to more sustainable communities.

Just finished the stellarbook, by James Arbib and Tony Seba (from RethinkX). They make a very interesting case on how we can move from our current extractive societies to one of abundance. It touches on many themes that are well known in the solar punk community, still it brought together a clear overview and model of where we are now and how to get to a better world.

I was wondering if anyone here has read it as well. And what your take is.