Solarpunk: a new subgenre that could popularize sustainability

[Lucky C]

I found out there is a new sci-fi genre called Solarpunk - think cyberpunk or steampunk but instead using tech to build sustainable communities. Picture beautiful cities set in the near future with renewable energy, plantlife everywhere, and a community/anarchy vibe.

This is particularly interesting to me because one of my post-FIRE plans was to try writing a book or two, and I have a few ideas that could work great as solarpunk novels. The aesthetic "rules" of solarpunk would help guide my vision for the worlds I want to create, and it would be good to know that there is actually an audience out there - maybe people would actually read my book!

Solarpunk seems like it has the potential to become very popular as people realize climate change and related issues are real and accelerating. It also is a "nicer" view of the world than cyberpunk, which may help it become appealing to more people. As its popularity spreads, a broader audience of consumers will become aware of sustainability solutions which they may have never thought about otherwise.

Today, there is so much sci-fi (including superhero movies/shows) as a portion of popular movies and TV shows which get broad audiences thinking more about robots/AI, space colonization, evolution/bio-hacking, etc. Not long ago these would be more niche topics considered to be for nerds. Now they're cool. Perhaps in the near future the public at large will think renewables, sustainable agriculture, and permaculture communities are cool. They just need to be served these concepts through popular shows/movies/video games, instead of having to think about these things and seek out (less entertaining) resources to learn more.

SolarPunk on TV Tropes

[jacob]

Lets have some links to actual books?

Otherwise, I'll default to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl or https://www.npr.org/2015/05/28/40829580 ... -cuts-deep which seem depressingly realistic.

[prognastat]

I think for any genre that ends in punk there is a certain amount of grunginess that's supposed to be involved. They generally don't paint positive pictures of the world they live in. Even ones with lighter elements often contain a certain level of grittiness.

From the description on TV Tropes I don't think it really deserves the punk part of it's name. It specifies it's somewhat utopian whereas punk tends to be dystopian in nature.

[Lucky C]

Right, I saw someone complaining about the lack of "punk" but in this case (a) there are still anti-corporation and anti-big-government themes and it's still counter-culture even if doesn't involve angry people wearing leather, and (b) maybe it's just not a good name for it.


I failed to mention that I haven't actually read any solarpunk yet since I just found out that it was a defined genre today. I actually heard about it through Reddit but the solarpunk sub-reddit seems to mainly have real world articles/pictures. The TV Tropes page has examples from various forms of media though.

Solarpunk would differ from The Windup Girl or a post-apocalyptic rebuilding story (A Canticle for Leibowitz, the Fallout games), in that we have successfully found a sustainable future. Therefore it would involve optimistic eco-friendly settings, and there may be conflicts involving biology or society, but pollution or energy scarcity would not be issues.

For maximum consumption, you could even make a story having nothing to do with the "difficult" issues of ecology and society. Picture 1980's movies set in California - Everything is Awesome except for there's a killer on the loose / the girl is going out with a different guy / you got wrapped up in a case of mistaken identity. Now take that same story and set in an idealized 2080's California, throw in some audience-friendly explanations of how the sustainable society works, and you may set off some positive trends.

I know this probably isn't the best way to help create a more sustainable society, but it's a different method that just might help a bit

[prognastat]

I mean by that measure star trek would be solarpunk or futurepunk or something like that since it imagines a future where we have overcome the need for capital and have near unlimited clean energy.

The punk moniker to me just doesn't fit with a utopian world. There has to be some sort or rebelling or at least rebellious attitude for it to work in my opinion.

Also utopian stories on average tend to be less interesting to me than non-utopian or outright dystopian stories.

[jacob]

@prognastat - Star Trek 9 would be solar punk, until it goes wrong ...

[prognastat]

A way for me to feel it was more appropriate of the punk moniker would be if it was dystopian, but the ones rebelling against the system were fighting to change the world to an eco friendly one.

Say for example set in a world where none of the climate agreements ever occurred because some oligarchs have bought the political system well enough globally to prevent any and all environmental policy and suppressed all information about the negative impact their products were having(even worse than we currently are) and we were a few decades further down the line. Some up and coming scientists fight to spread both information and either build technologies that circumvent those developed by the oligarchs and are environmentally friends or possibly even terraform an even more destroyed earth back, but the oligarchs don't want this because it will reduce their profits. Maybe the rebels lead a revolt in one of the major oil/coal towns among the people working in a plant/refinery.

Maybe they succeed or possibly they become disillusioned by humanity and try to escape civilisation and build their own commune with the eco friendly technology they developed or stole from a secret internal facility run by the oligarchs.

[Lucky C]

Well I don't really care for the name either but that's not the point of my post. Solarpunk just happens to be what people are currently calling it. Young people on the internet like to give names to certain aesthetics/themes, and the stickiness of a certain name may not match its appropriateness.