The “Solarpunk” Online Group Shares 30 Environmental Memes That People Who Are Sick Of Capitalism Destroying The Planet Can Relate To

A cornerstone of the solarpunk belief system is the dream for technology and nature to exist in harmony. This is displayed through beautiful images of “lush green communities with roof-top gardens, floating villages, transport fueled by clean energy” and more. Explored in a BBC News article, solarpunk has been slowly gaining traction since 2008. “Solarpunk is really the only solution to the existential corner of climate disaster we have backed ourselves into as a species,” says Michelle Tulumello, a solarpunk art teacher. “If we wish to survive and keep some of the things we care about on the earth with us, it involves a necessary fundamental alteration in our world view where we change our outlook completely from competitive to cooperative."

As the name implies, the desire for increased solar energy is paramount to the solarpunk community. Sunlight is almost universally accessible, unlike natural gas and other fossil fuels, making it a preferred source of power for many environmental activists. Solarpunks dream to diverge from capitalism and reconnect with nature, and that starts with less dependence on our outdated electrical grids. All renewable energy sources are steps in the right direction, but solar power is the ideal source for solarpunks. 

One possible reason solarpunk has needed time to take off is due to the negative connotations associated with the word punk. A spinoff from the imagined aesthetics of steampunk and juxtaposed to the dark future of cyberpunk, solarpunk creates a more optimistic, yet still radical, idea of our world. Phoebe Tickell, a biologist and solarpunk activist, told BBC News, “Prescribing to people that they need to be more solarpunk is much less inviting to them than encouraging people to exercise their own imaginations.” But to really enact change, people cannot be afraid of the side effects. Jay Springett, a solarpunk activist and admin of Solarpunks.net, describes the “poisonous pill” that must be swallowed when embracing solarpunk ideals. “It means that there's the decentralization of technology, the decentralization of power.”

Bored Panda got in touch with solarpunk activist Phoebe Tickell to ask what solarpunk means to her. She told us, "Solarpunk represents a new narrative and disruptive meme that can help me imagine a better future. It's an aesthetic, it's a sci-fi sub-genre, it's a movement, it's a vision of the future. It's called solarpunk because 'solar' refers to renewable energy and living in harmony with the sun, and 'punk' is about rebellion, innovation, open-source and collective action. Imagine a future where all human beings are treated with the same level of respect and dignity, we are living 100% off renewables, building tech ourselves, co-existing with animal companions and growing our own food at the same time."

She told us the reasons she loves solarpunk are because "it takes three narratives and weaves them together". The first being "that we need to protect nature and return to the land". The second being "that technology can be a force for common good". And the third being the importance of "human flourishing, social justice and equity". "These narratives usually exist in siloes and different tribes," Phoebe told us. "But solarpunk brings them together and asks us to imagine a world that optimises for all three."

As of now, there have not been too many explicit mainstream examples of solarpunk, but oddly enough, a Chobani commercial from 2021 featured a sparkling example of a solarpunk future. The ad featured bright blue skies dotted with blimps generating wind power and endless fields surrounding a beautiful, high tech city. Robots helped harvest produce, and a note from Grandma hung on the fridge saying, “Our job is to plant seeds so our grandkids get to enjoy the fruit. Because how we eat today feeds tomorrow.” Some popular films have also featured solarpunk themes, such as Black Panther and many beloved Studio Ghibli films, like Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke.

We asked Phoebe how she has seen the movement grow over the years, and she told us, "When I first discovered solarpunk in 2015, nobody was talking about it. My blog was called 'Humans, Nature, Tech' at the time, because I was interested in what happens if you bring the three together and explore creating a new world from that lens. I was really keen to spread the word so I changed my Twitter handle to solarpunk_girl and did the same with my Instagram. I started speaking more widely on the topic in 2019 and since then I've seen a sharp increase in interest. More and more people are asking me about what solarpunk is, and I am seeing people writing their own articles and creating memes, artwork and even communities around the topic. In 2020, I started a design and research studio called Moral Imaginations which helps people imagine a solarpunk future. Last year this peaked when I was contacted by the BBC for an interview on solarpunk and imagination."

Lastly, we asked Phoebe where she recommends people who are curious about solarpunk start their journey, and she provided great resources. "Search for 'solarpunk' on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and follow the influencers they find on the topic. They could also follow RenaissanceU where we are creating solarpunk education programs. They could also get started on solarpunk sci-fi: The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin, Walkaway by Cory Doctrow, Dune by Frank Herbert, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Island by Aldous Huxley for some old school solarpunk, and Black Panther by Ta-Nahisi Coates for something more recent. Allow your imagination to explore these future, disruptive and radical scenarios and then find your communities online and start contributing in your own way to the movement - whether that is via fiction writing, artwork, memes or other ways of contributing to the plurality of these imagined futures!"

Solarpunk does not call for surrendering technology or social media, rather it asks for decentralization. One example of this is Scuttlebutt, a popular site for solarpunkers. Scuttlebutt describes itself as a “decentralized secure gossip platform”. What it means by that is that data passes “from friend to friend, without any central server”. Twitter works in the opposite way, where content is hosted on a centralized server and constantly updated in real time. On Scuttlebutt, users’ data is stored on their own devices and networks they choose, rather than broadcasted to the entire internet. Sites such as this are popular for solarpunkers to gather and remain optimistic about the future through their communities. 

Although the term solarpunk was coined in 2008, the ideas behind it are not new. In her Vice article on the topic, Hannah Steinkopf-Frank mentions that many solarpunk practices are inspired by centuries-old Indigenous techniques, such as permaculture or rain collecting. Indigenous communities have always modeled how to have a harmonious relationship with nature, something many of us could learn a thing or two about this day in age. Even the 1988 Talking Heads’ hit “(Nothing But) Flowers” featured David Byrne nodding to a solarpunk future. The song includes lines such as “There was a factory / Now, there are mountains and rivers” and “There was a shopping mall / Now, it’s all covered with flowers”.

Solarpunk has gained a worldwide following, including a passionate community in Brazil. The first collection of solarpunk fiction, "Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World", was published in 2012 in Brazil. Ana Rüsche, an author and researcher from São Paulo, weaves solarpunk themes into her fiction and non-fiction writing. Her novella, "Telepathy Is Other People", follows the story of a girl who travels to Chile and learns about seed preservation, an important issue in Brazil where most of the corn grown is genetically modified. Rüsche says that, "Solarpunk is not naïve. We are facing the world we have already, so the challenge is to imagine together, and that’s really beautiful.”

Books aren’t the only way solarpunkers are trying to make their message more accessible. That’s where Keisha Howard comes in. Howard is the founder of Sugar Gamers, an organization committed to increasing diversity within the worlds of technology, gaming and the arts. In 2018, Howard gave a Tedx talk titled “Imagining a SolarPunk Future” and has even created her own game, Project Violacea, exploring solarpunk themes. The premise of the game is detailed on the Sugar Gamers website:

“In a dystopian future ruled by an oppressive totalitarian regime called the MOX Hierarchy, a group of super revolutionaries is waging a war for liberty, knowledge, and justice. The MOX took control of the world as it teetered on the brink of world war, environmental collapse, and global pandemic. To save humanity, the MOX built great, domed cities covered in solar panels. The walls of the cities protect the citizens from the blasted, plagued wasteland the outside world has become, but they come at a cost. Because climate change, pollution, and environmental destruction have made life on earth so harsh, the MOX is forced to make difficult decisions to protect the cities daily.” 

The solarpunk vision does not need to be viewed only as fictional or a far-off future. Some places around the world are already taking steps toward the solarpunk dream. The city of Detroit, Michigan, unveiled the United States' first sustainable urban "agrihood", The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (or MUFI), in 2016. This agrihood is a 3-acre farm with the mission of ending food insecurity in a lower-income area. Detroit, which has long been labeled one of the “most dangerous” and “most violent” cities in the US, is working towards adding many agricultural neighborhoods to signal safety for visitors and make residents feel more at home. Produce is free to all at MIFU, and the community is growing stronger through maintaining the farm and helping one another.  

Another real-world example is the Global Ecovillage Network, or GEN Europe. As described on their website, GEN is a “network for ecovillages and sustainable communities” with a mission to “support and connect the ecovillage movement, encourage ecovillage development, educate for sustainability and ultimately create a world where empowered local communities are at the forefront of creating a fairer society that regenerates the earth, and ourselves”. With over 100 ecovillages across Europe, GEN is working hard to “regenerate the environments” of these villages and inspire more cities globally to do the same. 

Copenhagen is another dream destination for passionate solarpunkers. CopenHill, or Amager Bakke, is a heat and waste-to-power plant that was built in 2017 and is now world famous for having an artificial ski slope atop the plant as well. Copenhagen has a goal of being carbon-neutral by 2025, and they’re on the right track by housing the cleanest waste-to-energy power plant in the world. The artificial ski slopes don’t rely on natural or man-made snow, making them usable year round, and for those not interested in skiing, CopenHill also features a climbing wall, running track and café.

Imagining the future of the world is a daunting task, but at the rate we're currently at, the planet may have limited future left. Solarpunks aspire to embrace technology but to care for nature as well, rather than exploit it. If we keep an open mind to what our world can look like, maybe we can work towards a more sustainable and technologically advanced Earth. After all, living in a high rise that's covered in greenery and surrounded by urban gardens sounds pretty appealing to me.