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The Solarpunk Conference is coming up

After writing Solarpunk Creatures, I decided to join forces with my co-authors to create a workshop at the Solarpunk Conference: Decentering Humans in Solarpunk. How would you create a society that sees other creatures not as things to be exploited or marginalized into extinction but valuable independent of their use to us?

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reading Too Like the Lightning, Solarpunk Book Club ☀ Discord Server
discord.gg Join the Solarpunk Book Club ☀ Discord Server!

Check out the Solarpunk Book Club ☀ community on Discord - hang out with 105 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

We’re about to begin Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. Set in the year 2454, the Earth of the Terra Ignota quartet has seen several centuries of near-total peace and prosperity.

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Short podcast on raising solarpunk kids
podcasts.apple.com ‎If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics: Solarpunk: Solarpunk Kids Are Free Range with Navarre Bartz on Apple Podcasts

‎Show If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics, Ep Solarpunk: Solarpunk Kids Are Free Range with Navarre Bartz - Apr 22, 2024

‎If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics: Solarpunk: Solarpunk Kids Are Free Range with Navarre Bartz on Apple Podcasts
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Projection at Cal Berkeley
  • The good news for Zionist punks is they can do the right thing and stop being Zionists at any point, like that Jewish woman I saw at the encampment wearing a Kippah patterned like a slice of watermelon.

  • Projection at Cal Berkeley

    Projected last night at the Free Palestine Encampment at Cal, Berkeley. Colonial capitalism drives the war machine that bulldozes people from Gaza, to the Congo, to the Philippines. It’s important for solarpunks to show up in solidarity with native peoples against imperialism. Sustainability depends on the knowledge and stewardship of native populations. And, most importantly, Zionist punks fuck off! -

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    Reminder: crypto isn’t solarpunk. It’s cyberpunk.
  • On their Patreon, the “Solarpunk Presents” hosts admitted they interviewed crypto-and-web3 bro Stephen Reid because listeners asked for him. The hosts should have known better. They should have ignored those requests, as probably those listeners/Patreon donors are invested in crypto and are trying to shoehorn it into the conversation. The hosts should have known crypto is unnecessary for a solarpunk present or future. Instead we could be talking about real solutions like mutual aid, free stores, and library economies. The hosts failed to do the right thing.

    Barring that, they should have refunded the money of Patreon donors asking for this speaker, saying that ethically they cannot platform crypto. The hosts failed to do the right thing.

    They should have challenged Stephen Reid when he made fallacious arguments in favor of crypto. The hosts failed to do the right thing. After recording, the hosts should have realized their conversation wasn’t substantive and valuable. They could have refrained from uploading it or edited out the unopposed statements in favor of crypto. The hosts failed to do the right thing.

    At the least they should have interjected context about those arguments, adding counterpoints and why crypto may not be the only solution or not a solution at all to any of solarpunk’s goals. The hosts failed to do the right thing.

    They should have added a prelude or epilogue to the episode talking about any reservations about crypto or how the general conversation did not represent their solarpunk values. The hosts failed to do the right thing.

    I have no confidence they will do the right thing in the future.

  • Reminder: crypto isn’t solarpunk. It’s cyberpunk.
  • In S5E3 they invite on a guest in favor of crypto. The hosts do nothing to counter his statements. Even if they had on that episode, it would have been a zero-sum game. They could invite more guests on who oppose crypto. That still would fail to undo the damage of introducing crypto as something that deserves debate, rather than consistent and clear condemnation.

    “Debate me,” is the rallying cry of the alt-right. You absolutely should not debate them. Those ready to argue in bad faith of the indefensible know the power of muddling issues, of eroding moral clarity, and creating uncertainty when there should be none.

    I expect solarpunk media to have enough clarity of vision that they present a future that is better than a zero-sum game. And I expect them to do better than being permissive toward crypto. I have lost faith in the ability of “Solarpunk Presents” to deliver bold and radical truth. I have canceled my Patreon support and unsubscribed from their podcast.

  • Reminder: crypto isn’t solarpunk. It’s cyberpunk.
  • Editing the original post as follows, in response to their latest episode.

    Update for episode 5.3: In a case of hyper hypocrisy, Solarpunk Presents caution against accepting superficial solutions---things that appear utopian but really reinforce inequality and accelerate the climate crisis---while doing exactly that by talking up cryptocurrency.

  • working on cover for my next solarpunk novel
  • None of you caught it, but apparently AI stole art to make this image. My intention was to hire and fairly pay an illustrator. I sourced Nell Fallcard through Art Station, searching for mermaids, filtering out AI art. She met those criteria. However, I do see that recently she has used AI. Her bio's did not mention AI art, and on her recent pieces I saw that she had used blender, photoshop, and I was less familiar with AI apps and did not spot those. Reddit users voiced concerns that the art was stolen by AI. I hired an independent artist to look the piece over. She determined it was likely AI. To see her analysis, follow this link.

    Even given her explanation, I find it unlikely I would be detect similar AI thefts. I will have to be more careful in hiring illustrators in future. My graphic designer also used AI art to make a back cover. I caught that and had him redo it. The front cover was not obvious to me. There are few things less solarpunk that stealing work from artists. I will not be publishing my novel with AI art, which means the release date for Missing Mermaid will be postponed. If you know illustrators who would be excited to work on a solarpunk piece featuring mermaids, do tell.

  • working on cover for my next solarpunk novel
  • I wish you the best with your own solarpunk writing. Be careful when hiring an illustrator. I've had some issues avoiding AI art.

    Hope you enjoy Murder in the Tool Library. Wishing you greener futures.

  • working on cover for my next solarpunk novel
  • Good eye.

    Yes, in this city there is a fusion power plant. Whether fission power is worthwhile has been a lively debate. Fusion represents a more aspirational goal. In this story it is paired with DAC plants to remove carbon from the atmosphere, another aspirational technology that will be necessary in some form to reverse climate change.

  • working on cover for my next solarpunk novel

    I’m swimming-with-mermaids delighted to reveal the cover of my next solarpunk mystery novel, Missing Mermaid. Right now I’m deciding how best to arrange the text on the cover. Do you recommend option one (author name on her tail) or option two (author name and title both up in the sky)?

    The illustration is by Nell Fallcard. You can order the ebook, internationally, on the indie site Smashwords after its release on May 24th. You can preorder the book on Amazon. The paperback will come later on Barnes and Noble.

    !

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    Reminder: crypto isn’t solarpunk. It’s cyberpunk.

    Listening to a recent episode of the Solarpunk Presents podcast reminded me the importance of consistently calling out cryptocurrency as a wasteful scam. The podcast hosts fail to do that, and because bad actors will continue to try to push crypto, we must condemn it with equal persistence.

    Solarpunks must be skeptical of anyone saying it’s important to buy something, like a Tesla, or buy in, with cryptocurrency. Capitalists want nothing more than to co-opt radical movements, neutralizing them, to sell products.

    People shilling crypto will tell you it decentralizes power. So that’s a lie, but solarpunks who believe it may be fooled into investing in this Ponzi scheme that burns more energy than some countries. Crypto will centralize power in billionaires, increasing their wealth and decreasing their accountability. That’s why Space Karen Elon Musk pushes crypto. The freer the market, the faster it devolves to monopoly. Rather than decentralizing anything, crypto would steer us toward a Bladerunner dystopia with its all-powerful Tyrell corporation.

    Promoting crypto on a solarpunk podcast would be unforgivable. That’s not quite what happens on S5E1 “Let’s Talk Tech.” The hosts seem to understand crypto has no part in a solarpunk future or its prefigurative present. But they don’t come out and say that, adopting a tone of impartiality. At best, I would call this disingenuous. And it reeks of the both-sides-ism that corporate media used to paralyze climate action discourse for decades.

    Crypto is not “appropriate tech,” and discussing it without any clarity is inappropriate.

    Update for episode 5.3: In a case of hyper hypocrisy, they caution against accepting superficial solutions---things that appear utopian but really reinforce inequality and accelerate the climate crisis---while doing exactly that by talking up cryptocurrency.

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    Enjoyed this short story: The Stillout by Andrew Dana Hudson
    www.ltu.se The Stillout | Luleå tekniska universitet

    If electricity was limited during certain periods – Where should we use it? To what would you prioritize it for during these periods? Read the story about an energy crisis and a village meeting discussing how the electricity in the village battery (the round building) should be prioritized. Ca...

    The Stillout | Luleå tekniska universitet
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    Aaron Bushnell was a radical who believed in post-scarcity futures

    This is a projection in Oakland. You can find the original art here.

    The way-back machine found a March 2023 Reddit post by Aaron Bushnell where he said, “I’ve realized that a lot of the difference between me and my less radical friends is that they are less capable of imagining a better world than I am. I follow YouTubers like Andrewism that fill my head with concrete images of free, post-scarcity communities, and it makes me so much more prepared to reject things about the current world, because I’ve imagined how things could be and that helps me see how extremely bullshit things are right now.”

    If you care to see the full quote, you can check @tinythunders on Twitter or Andrewism’s YouTube Channel, the community tab.

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    looking for Native American (Maya) sensitivity reader

    I am working on the sequel to Murder in the Tool Library, a solarpunk mystery novel I published recently. In the next book, the clues lead to the Yucatan, and I would love to improve my representation of native people from that region. If you identify in any way as Maya (Yucatec, Mopan, or Q'eqchi') please do message me.

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    Enjoyed this short story
    clarkesworldmagazine.com Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

    Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast. This page: Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer

    Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy
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    Solarpunk Creatures anthology releases today
    www.worldweaverpress.com Solarpunk Creatures

    World Weaver Press: Publishing fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction. We believe in great storytelling.

    Solarpunk Creatures
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    military-industrial complex is a supervillain of causing the climate crisis

    In short, US residents need to shut it down before Genocide Joe escalates us to World War III.

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    Thanks, Elon Musk, for debunking the myth that billionaires are smart and capitalism is a just system

    I projected this and so much more on (formerly) Twitter HQ in San Francisco. You can see then are sign that used to show the company name.

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    book release: Murder in the Tool Library

    My first solarpunk novel releases today. You can discover Murder in the Tool Library at eBook retailers. For a paperback like I’m holding, you’ll have to wait until next week. (Barnes and Noble did me dirty.)

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    Tech bros try to build utopia, but it is just greenwashed cyberpunk
    www.solarpunkpresents.com Dear Solarpunk Presents… Is It Solarpunk When Billionaires Decide to Build a Solarpunk City? — Solarpunk Presents

    When we make the podcast, write the blogs, and tend our Patreon garden, most of the time, it feels like shouting into the void. We occasionally hear from one of our supporters on Patreon and sometimes get comments on our various social media accounts, but what we’d really like is for discussions

    Dear Solarpunk Presents… Is It Solarpunk When Billionaires Decide to Build a Solarpunk City? — Solarpunk Presents

    To boil it down to a single set of bullet points, a group of billionaire investors

    secretly bought up enough low–cost agricultural land to build a city that will make them obscenely richer when they sell and lease the resulting residential and commercial properties

    used their ownership of parcels of land badly needed by the county to try to leverage the county into granting them the necessary permits and zoning changes

    attempted to get the country to cover some of the cost to build pipes to supply water to the city they will profit from building

    obtained the rights to that water by buying it from farmers who’ve had the market for their crops crash

    and then, despite riling up county officials and local voters with their actions, tried to sell their project as a wonderfully generous social and environmental endeavor.

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    Projected on US government property (Nancy Pelosi’s office)

    Systems that profit off the death of children must be dismantled. Governments complicit in genocide are illegitimate.

    Original Photo: Belal Khaled

    Children of the Al-Ghalban family were killed while playing in front of their house Saturday in Hamad Town in Khan Yunis.

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    Sweet Graffiti and other acts of wholesome vandalism @slrpnk.net AEMarling @slrpnk.net
    Projected on government property (Nancy Pelosi’s office)

    Systems that profit off the death of children must be dismantled. Governments complicit in genocide are illegitimate.

    Photo: Belal Khaled Children of the Al-Ghalban family were killed while playing in front of their house Saturday in Hamad Town in Khan Yunis.

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    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)AE
    AEMarling @slrpnk.net

    Projection activist and solarpunk writer

    Posts 27
    Comments 87