Punk of Sunshine

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.

Lunarpunk

Lunarpunk is the sister aesthetic to solarpunk, but darker, I was actually surprised to see it has it’s own flag presented below. The basis is people moving to the moon and waiting for the earth to heal while in colonies, there would be tons of difficulties with low gravitational pull, constant unfiltered radiation from the sun, and probably even keeping warm, very compelling in my opinion.

It looks much like the solarpunk flag, but unlike the solarpunk flag, lunarpunk doesn’t have a political movement attached 

Tidalpunk

Tidalpunk is basically humans moving to the sea because the land has been left unhealed for so long, it’s almost uninhabitable, so people are living on or under the sea until the land is able to start healing again/ Expansion in population has led to housing out at or under water that’s Eco-friendly and doesn’t harm wildlife, sadly this one doesn’t have a flag. Luckily it has an aesthetic though.

Sustainable, ocean-based living? Yes please, makes me wish I knew how to swim though. To be perfectly honest I’m out of ideas on this post, so if you have any more ideas, please feel free to re-blog with what sub-genres relating to solarpunk you could find. I’m certain there are niche ones that I haven’t found yet.

Focusing on too many things at once is a problem I face personally, couple that with the need to take everything upon myself and low stress tolerance and you have a disaster waiting to happen. If you face the same problem as me, I'd highly suggest making a group of specialized people and solve small problems locally, whether that be growing food, hooking up satellites for free WiFi, setting up a Food Not Bombs chapter in your area, or even cooperation in local to state government. We all have our talents, honing yours can change a life, but it takes all of us to change the world in a significant way. To rebuild a structure, parts must be torn down, the more you tear down periodically, the better the structure is going to be, however it must be reinforced. You cannot expect a house to stand without a plan for a structure, we are the supports that make the wall, the roof, and the floor. The foundation is what we believe in, and what the foundation is, is hope. Hope for a future that can be, with action, collaboration, and resistance against the hierarchical, overbearing, and exploitative power structures that currently exist.

This has been my first post in a while, so I’ll see ya’ll again in probably a month to commemorate my first post on this site “A Beginner’s Guide to Solarpunk” which absolutely blew up my account, to be truthful I’m proud of how far we’ve all come with our small internet based movement reaching new heights and our voices getting louder in the ears of politicians and capitalists alike. We’re here to stay, don’t forget about it.

In terms of aesthetic, genre, and political movement, Solarpunk is very new. Anarchism has been around formally since 1809, but perhaps even before. So in terms of egalitarian ideologies, Solarpunk is the peppy, bright-eyed child in the egalitarian/collectivist political sphere, but at this point it’s our best hope in terms of getting out of the choke-hold we’ve been in for so long. Having hope in the future doesn’t make a movement less serious, it makes the people involved fight harder than those on the sidelines. Solarpunks are the scholars and players, we study and we play in our down time. I know I do at least, I have connections all across my community, even into city government and partially into county government, so pulling a few strings would be easy, but I also do things that aren’t so legal. In the spring and summer, I’m an avid guerrilla gardener and graffiti artist. Not that I’m any good at graffiti, but I get the message across in biodegradable spray paint and chalk. One of these days I’m going to talk face-to-face with our energy council and treasurer and discuss a bill to add clean rooftop energy to all the small stores in my city, but that’s just me.