#solarpunk worldbuilding

You know what I have been thinking about a lot? How Solarpunk art is often very closely related to post-apocalyptic art. Specifically one kind of it.

Because, there is a certain type of Japanese art that often gets shared under the Solarpunk name. And it looks something like this:

(Half of these are by an artist using the name tokyogenso, who has specialized in this kind of apocalyptic art. Check them out!)

What you see in this art visually is usually man-made landscapes like cities and such, overgrown by plants. In some of these artworks (like those by tokyogenso) the implication is clearly a "human have died out/abandoned this place and it is reclaimed by nature", while others are going more for the generally cozy apocalypse vibe, where some humans are still inhabiting the half-reclaimed landscape.

And it is very obvious how this shares a lot of the visual language of Solarpunk art. It shows urban environments, but there is a lot of green, and especially in cases where human or human-like people inhabit this landscape, they often are more attuned to the nature around than modern humans are.

I mean, Yokohama Shopping Log gets regularly recommended as Solarpunk. And I also have recommended Apocalypse Hotel and several of the Eve animated music videos on the basis of their Solarpunky vibes.

I mean, Eve especially got recommended to me once as "a lot of their stuff has Solarpunk vibes", and I absolutely agree on it. It does have those vibes.

Or, heck. Another thing that I saw a lot of people talk about as "kinda solarpunky" is Pokopia. That Pokemon game with Ditto rebuilding stuff. (And I mean, I also have written in the past about how a lot of Pokémon stuff feels at least Solarpunk adjacent.) Oh, and also Bubble, that Netflix movie that I did not enjoy even thought it was pretty. Or even the other Netflix movie, what was it called? Maboroshi.

But I am... I am never quite sure how I feel about it at the same time.

Because here is the thing: we obviously do indeed not have a whole lot of media that is explicitly Solarpunk. We basically get two flavors of media: media that has a lot of Solarpunk-adjacent themes (like the Studio Ghibli stuff and a lot of the works of Ursula K. LeGuin) or media that visually does somewhat fall into the Solarpunk corner of it all. And the latter is often indeed things that fall under the "cozy apocalypse" banner.

I mean, heck. Arco, which is so far basically the one example of media that explicitly is being Solarpunk, also shows the Solarpunk future being post-apocalyptic. Yeah, sure, humans figured out the "living with nature" thing, but only after a good part of the world was destroyed.

Don't get me wrong. Outside of Pokopia, I love every single example I name here. Both the art, and the music, and the stories.

But I just... It is kinda depressing that for so many it still comes down to people struggling to imagine a world that is actually better - or if so to imagine it happening without a complete apocalypse happening fast.

I get why people are feeling like this. But also I am somewhat depressed by the hopelessness of it all.

I mean, admittedly, heck. I am not better. In my writing I have two Solarpunk worlds. World 1 is Urban Fantasy + Solarpunk, in which the timeline of that world diverges from our own in 2019 when Loki, in trying to prevent the apocalypse, kinda causes it, but it is fine. Sure, some people die but it could have been worse. But now the nature spirits are kicking everyone's butt if they dare to pollute the environment, so hooray, environmentalism has been solved on the basis of nature being very willing to kill you over it. And World 2 is a post-WWIII world, in which we ended up in a Solarpunk future after nuclear war, and a lot of unnecessary deaths.

And... yeah, man. I don't know. Because yeah, I admit it. I also cannot imagine us getting there on the basis of nothing but reforms and protests. I mean... *looks at the world* I think you all know what I mean.

Hi, folks! This year’s Solarpunk Conference will take place virtually on June 29th, 2024. Here is a link to the website if you’re interested in listening to a variety of panels talk about all things solarpunk.

Solarpunk Magazine co-EIC Brianna Castagnozzi will speak on a panel about conflict within solarpunk stories. The panel will also feature podcast hosts and scholars Ariel Kroon and Christina De La Rocha and editors and writers Holly Schofield, Jack Nicholls, and Selena Middleton.

We hope to see you there!

(Worldbuilding is my strong suit, I will definitely have a lot of these!)

In a solarpunk future, people should be able to rely less on money to get what they need! But if currency remains a thing then my leftist dad told me about a concept called global minimum wage (I think) where everyone gets an unconditional steady income, of say.. 20$ an hour per 12 hours of the day becoming 240$ per day. If we're not doing much with money, can't hurt to give lots of it to everyone, yeah?

Besides that, I was thinking about carbon-neutral skyscrapers. Our current method of steel and fiberglass is woefully inefficient in that regard, but in terms of space, building upwards is incredibly efficient. Ideally we would strike a balance with carbon-neutral, long-lasting materials that are good and sturdy!

Oh, and clear solar panels to be put in windows? Imagine stained glass religious reliefs generating power, whole 'glass' buildings becoming beacons of energetic output, self-sufficient houses full of light..

Languages! Languages in the air, signs in so many different alphabets, songs and laughter and family said in so many words but still understood and respected.

Sign language would be commonplace! Mischievous students signing to each other after their mentor told them to hush, parents signing over their sleeping baby, divers speaking merrily to each other while tens of feet down in the deep and expressing their awe for nature. Hearing-impaired folk would be able to move through society with ease and understanding.

BRAILLE LABELS. On stuff in stores, on signs, textured curbs to catch a cane.. but really on stuff especially. You know how hard it is to shop while blind? Everything is identical. It's awful.

Community decisions are decided by council, and anyone who wishes to join the council meetings can. Even children! Especially children. Their voices are heard and respected, because they live in our communities too.

If someone is truly acting harmful and cruel to others, and does hurt people, at majority community vote they are removed from greater society and put in a rehabilitation commune with therapists and social workers to assist them on the right path. With love, not hate and mistreatment.

Has anyone heard of dementia villages? A whole village for those elderly suffering with dementia, constructed for the purpose of their autonomy. Communes would not necessarily become as such and they may not be as necessary- for we all would love and care for each other, especially those infirm- but settlements would be constructed in a similar fashion for ease of navigation, with lots of signage to help point people where, and perhaps dedicated guides if necessary.

Let me talk a bit more about Solarpunk this week. Especially about Solarpunk in different climates and areas. Because, let's face it: Most of Solarpunk art does depict either (sub)tropical foresty areas or at least temperate regions. It does not show any other climate extremes, which is kinda sad, because the world does not only exist in those lush green areas.

Of course, one of the big reasons is, that it kinda depicts the places it is from. For once South America had a big influence on Solarpunk, which is most oftenly associated with the lush rain forest of the amazonas. But also... White people kinda feel most at home in temperate regions.

But if either we woud establish a Solarpunk world - or you just wanted to write a Solarpunk stories... There would still be deserts.

And sure, we could talk about stopping desertification and such things. Something that is definitely important. But some desert should remain, because they are still a unique habitat. So, what does Solarpunk do with that - and how could people live in those areas?

Now, I have to underline again: Deserts are habitats for all sorts of flora and fauna. Animals live their, no matter how inhospitable to life they seem to be. Because of that they should be protected to some degree. Again: We should stop the spread of deserts into other habitats, but the desert in of itself is home to a lot of life, even if it might not seem that way.

As such it has also been a habitat to humans for a long while. No wonder. While humans did not originate in the deserts of Africa, those were darn close and of course some of the first humans went there and some managed to survive there. As such our species has actually a lot of experience when it comes to surviving in the desert.

Humans for the most part will not live in the middle of the desert, of course, but rather at the outskirts or maybe at an oasis of some sort. But of course even there people might need to deal with the elements. Like the heat, the sun, the cold nights (never forget: deserts are very cold at night), the generally dry climate.

Of course we could deal with the heat with ACs, but... ACs are not very good for the environment of course. But also: For most of human history, humans did not have ACs and humans have actually found a lot of ways to keep houses relatively cool through passive cooling system and by using building materials, that cool the insides and help the place well tempered.

But of course in modern times, we also could use heat pumps to move the temperate air around and keep the houses cool during the day and warm at night.

One big issue is the water. Of course, humans tend to go to places where there is water. Like an oasis or close to a lake or other body of water. But of course we do have an issue with the ground water declining for several reasons. So, what can we do?

Well, actually we have found intesting ways with harvesting the water from the air through all sorts of methods. For example by spanning wires, where the daw can collected during thr night. While it is not plentiful, it does work quite well.

But, of course, I cannot talk about solarpunk deserts without talking about photo voltaic and also wind energy.

There are those folks, who will propagade that it would be super practical to build like this giant, giant photo voltaic farm in the middle of the Sahara and then get all the energy from it. Which, technically... I mean, a lot would have to change, but yeah, there is a lot of energy there.

Even though... I am not a big fan of this idea. Because, again: Habitat. And animals cannot all live in those areas, where there is big, big photovoltaic. Still, some areas of the desert could be used as such to add to the general energy grids.

And, yes. There is also wind energy. Something a lot of people do not consider. But a lot of deserts have very windy areas, which could easily be used to generate energy. So... Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it?

You know what? This week I am gonna talk a bit about Solarpunk fiction. Something there is not yet a lot of. Again, the Solarpunk movement is fairly young and while there are a couple of older books and movies, that are kinda Solarpunk, and there is some fiction in the South American sphere, but so far there are only a handful of fiction books out there and a couple of anthologies.

If you enter any Solarpunk space, you will actually find a lot of discussion about how to tell Solarpunk storytelling and how to tell a Solarpunk story. And a lot of those discussions center around the question of "conflict".

This originates with the issue I spoke about before: People have problems imagining or understanding utopias. Because we barely are taught to imagine utopia. We are fairly well versed with dystopias, but utopia is barely getting tackled.

This issue leads to the main problems here: People cannot imagine conflicts within the utopia.

So, let me talk about this in three parts: Conflict between ideologies, conflict with nature, and conflict between people. First I will talk about today, the other two tomorrow and the day after.

Conflict of Ideologies

The most obvious conflict potential lies within two basic ideas: Establishing Utopia and Defending Utopia.

There are a lot of Solarpunk stories, that can be told based around the idea of Establishing Utopia. This is where you might actually link up Solarpunk and Cyberpunk. You can start out with a world that is like ours right now or even worse. And the protagonists are fighting to establish a Solarpunk world or at least a Solarpunk state. After all it seems unrealistic, that we will get to the Solarpunk state without some form of revolution or war. And while Solarpunk does strive towards a peaceful world, it still is something worth fighting for, I would argue.

But of course you can also have a scenario of Defending Utopia. Meaning: The world is already Solarpunk or at least the state or planet or whatever your story is set is. But there is a group, who does not like this Utopia. And make no mistake: There will always be people like this. People, who will talk about a mythological past and all of that. While I personally still absolutely believe that most people are good and only act in bad ways, because they live within a system that encourages this behavior... Some people will always exist that want more power for themselves, that want to discriminate against other people, that want to be rich or just... kill people. Whole stories can be told about characters trying to defend their Solarpunk utopia against people like that. This might be anything: A rebellious Nazi group within a Solarpunk world, or another state going all cold war on a Solarpunk state.

Obviously those conflicts have a very large scale and are probably the most classical kinds of conflicts, you can tell within the Solarpunk genre.

But those kinds of conflicts will realistically exist and the stories about these might be interesting to tell.

Tomorrow I will talk about environmental conflicts.