A flowery green illustration with the words "what is Solarpunk"?

What is Solarpunk?

A flowery green illustration with the words "what is Solarpunk"?

The next comic I’m working on is in the “solarpunk” genre, but what is solarpunk? I created a microsite – solarpunk.lol to collect and organize my thoughts and research as this genre is being developed.

To me ‘Solarpunk’ is a genre of fiction that explores the simple question: “What if this all works out?” While apocalyptic fiction preoccupies itself with all the ways our society can be destroyed and what comes after, Solarpunk acknowledges that all of those terrible things may come to pass and we can get through it. It is by its nature, in my opinion, an optimistic genre that should focus on primarily optimistic stories. Mostly because that is the type of story we desperately need at this moment in time.

‘Solarpunk’ as an ethos can be divided into three main parts.

A diagram showing the three main aspects of Solarpunk arranged in a triangle. At the apex is a heart for love. In the  lower left are some sprouting plants for Sustainable Flourishing. In the lower right are two hands in the shape of a yin-yang for Anti-Fragility

Love

Love, in the deepest broadest sense, is a major driving force of this movement. Love of our planet and love of each other, making decisions based on compassion as the guiding star.

Sustainable Flourishing

The term “Sustainable Flourishing” originates with the book Sustainability by Design by John Ehrenfeld. The underlying idea is that it’s not good enough to make technology that is less harmful. “Clean” tech and even “Net Zero” are not enough. We need to treat our biosphere as the complex system that it is, and reinforce biological systems so we AND the biosphere are both continuously flourishing. It’s moving away from the concept of extraction, and since reading this book I’ve learned that it’s much closer to Indigenous models of biosphere management.

Anti-Fragility

The concept of “Anti-Fragility” originates with System Thinking or System Design. In the sustainability world you’ll often hear things like “climate resilience” and “robustness” but anti-fragility as a concept goes beyond this. When you try to break an anti-fragil system it comes back stronger by design.

I look forward to expanding further on each of these concepts.

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