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I don’t think we’re doomed. I think the solarpunk movement has plenty of valid ideas to address these problems.
I am new to the movement, but it’s definitely given me some optimism — I believe that we have the means to deal with any crisis with our technology, evolving understanding of the world, and ingenuity.
I am learning things every day and exploring new ideas fairly often. I don’t think I am the best ambassador yet (not even close), so forgive me if I am off-base or not 100% dialed in.
Agriculture is in dire need of reform and revolution. It’s unsustainable — we could more intelligently feed the world by blending agriculture with nature (e.g. by discontinuing monocropping and scaling ideas garnished from food forests) and we can explore scaling up vertical farming. We can power this by renewables and utilize wasterwater recirculation.
We can regulate industrial water usage. We can reduce animal agriculture and grow meat in labs. We can expand upon desalination technology (finding a way to derive scalable benefit from the brine and repurpose the salt) and explore other water capture technologies that all account for potential ecosystem disruption. We can make landscapes that retain water, and reforest and reduce desertification where appropriate (e.g. with ideas from the permaculture movement). We can make water pipelines and more sensibly use groundwater, respecting replenishment rates.
We can explore creating scalable synthetic terra preta and we can explore other promising ideas like this reddit thread proposes.
Solar panels are cheap to manufacture, and if we can finish the proton battery technology, we can build scalable, cheap energy storage and power scalable vertical farms — and more broadly power our societies.
I am sure for whatever crisis you can think of, there is valuable discussion in the solarpunk community to explore more nuanced, comprehensive, and educated viewpoints than my own.
You’re valid in your perspective, but I don’t think I am throwing my hands up just yet. There are billions of people who can figure this out if we actually take the initiative as a global society.
Infinite growth on a finite world is fundamentally unsustainable. We are blasting through tipping points and heat records daily now and the world is still fundamentally reliant on fossil fuels, despite how fast ‘renewable resources’ are developing.
Late stage capitalism, fascism, resource depletion and climate collapse are literally all happening right now, and ww3 is currently in the process of kicking off.
I get that people want hope, but believing in entropy defying magic that will rewrite physics and human nature and save us all from ourselves at the last second… is naive at best and actively harmful at worst.
Use solarpunk ethos to build local communities and pool resources by all means though, but maybe think twice before having kids.
If one doesn’t believe a revolution or significant change isn’t imminent and necessary (within the next 5 years), they aren’t paying attention or they are not informed. I don’t care what your ideology is (and how capitalist you are) — comprehensive action and change, specifically solutions, need to manifest soon.
WW3 can fuck right off, it takes soldiers and willing participants to fight. We had massive desertion in the Vietnam War, I reckon that if the world was able to focus just for a second on common dreads and our shared reality, we’d identify that we can’t afford to continue the current world order and state of affairs and discontinue hostile actions.
War is a wet dream for the capitalists at the very top of the food chain, who are likely frightened that they no longer can maintain their power without it.
Resource depletion implies that we continue our state of affairs — with our reliance on fossil fuels and other non-renewable materials, at a large and very wasteful scale.
Scaling vertical farms, renewable energy, and energy storage (that doesn’t use rare earth materials) are not crazy suggestions. We can build high speed rail powered by renewables, that carries freight and also passengers. We can develop sustainable economies of scale and rethink the global economy.
Our planet can support humanity and every living being on it for the foreseeable future if we take action.
We can mitigate effects of the climate collapse by moving our agriculture indoors and growing food where it’s natural, rational, and sustainable to do so — in addition to exploring new soil and agricultural practices. We can leverage GMO technology sustainably and keep it in balance with the environment.
We can encourage degrowth and decentralization. We can centralize where it makes sense (with all of our centralization being designed to be sustainable and self-sufficient). We will already have to move many cities for various reasons, we are positioned to make development make sense instead of creating urban, ecosystem-disrupting, concrete and asphalt hellholes.
We can build our houses better and refit houses to better withstand climate effects, without expending a ton of energy to do so.
You don’t need entropy defying magic to address the current world system and the many crises we are facing. I believe it’s undesirable to advocate doom and worst-case scenarios without considering what is in our power and advocating for it.
I don’t believe human nature is inherently violent or greedy. I believe our system elevates and enables people with these character traits — we need to rethink it and the power they have over others.
We need to shift our collective mindset from lack and survival in imbalance (and in a sea of abundance), to thriving in balance with nature.
People already aren’t having kids at the rate that they once were, global birth rate is on the decline year after year, and fertility is down by a lot for a lot of reasons.
I don’t have the energy to try and explain current events, capitalism, history and physics to you.
Prepare yourself for the worst, hope for the best, and lower your expectations a bit because you’re definitely going to be disappointed.
I understand current events, capitalism, and history better than most. Physics doesn’t relate to our conversation because I am not suggesting or advocating for infinite growth.
I suggest that you engage with your home instance slrpnk.net with your views for more stimulating conversation and discourse and browse the community and expose yourself to the movement with an open mind. There is plenty of activity on /r/solarpunk, as well.
I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m not preparing myself for the worst or “lowering my expectations”. We either commit collective suicide and devolve into barbarism and scarcity or we choose a different path that is more desirable.
You do you bro.
You too, though I can’t say it isn’t disappointing that you’ve seemingly given up on the world.
I’ve likely met more shitty people than you. It’s hard to stay optimistic about human nature after growing up in It’s underbelly.
I’ve been through some pretty rough experiences too by most people’s measurements. No harsh judgement here, everybody is free to feel however they wish as far as I am concerned. I empathize and understand.