A Beginner’s Guide to a Solarpunk Lifestyle

Subcultures in geekdom pop up with every new iconic game, show, and comic. Solarpunk is one such genre: relatively young, it’s one of the many -punk subcultures (like steampunk and cyberpunk) that make up the world of geek, thought to have been given a name in 2008 by Republic of the Bees. Its focus? Renewability, sustainability, equality, and a perfect balance between technology and know-how—and like any good punk subculture, it comes with its own aesthetics. You can explore some of the styles, as well as read more about the genre, at MissOliviaLouise’s Tumblr: this post has been credited before as one of solarpunk’s main starting influences.

Solarpunk is the marriage of technology and nature. Quang Nguyen Vinh/Pexels

However, for something to be truly labeled “punk,” it must include an element of the radical. For solarpunk, it’s optimism. Solarpunk and cyberpunk share a love of technology, but where Blade Runner and other staples of the cyberpunk genre show us how technology can lead us down a hard, dark road, solarpunk shows us where things can go so, so right. It’s a brighter outlook on the future, and one that I personally find refreshing in light of the doomsaying of the current era. Radical optimism is a powerful thing!

Many of us already engage in the tenets of solarpunk in our lives, as we learn more about how to live responsibly on this planet. If you’re thinking you’d like to explore solarpunk as a lifestyle, I’ve gathered some great resources for steps you can take, big and small, to add elements of the DIY- and tech-focused to your home. And if you want to explore solarpunk as a genre, The Portalist has a list of 10 books for a good place to start, which includes novels from award-winning authors such as Octavia E. Butler and John Brunner!

For the DIY-Minded

Turn your lawn into a meadow. Grass lawns are monocultures that don’t support wildlife and insects that are important to our ecosystem, and they require so much maintenance: dozens of hours and gallons of gasoline poured into maintaining that perfect, clean-cut look every year. Meadowing—allowing your lawn to return to a wild state and grow native vegetation—gets rid of all of those things. After a little initial planning of what to grow, a meadowed yard is self-maintaining. Since the focus of this project is to cultivate plants native to your state, a biodiverse prairie yard is also much more water efficient, since the vegetation has developed to thrive in exactly the conditions of your area. And as a bonus, you’ll start noticing many more kinds of birds paying a visit to your house: there’s not much to attract birds in a grass lawn, but a meadow is a lot more interesting. Can’t commit to meadowing your full lawn due to zoning laws or living in an apartment, or just not interested in a large scale project? A meadowed flower bed, or filling planters on your deck or balcony with native plants, are also great ways to support the natural ecosystem. Here’s a great resource for reading more about this project.

DIY air conditioning. Can’t stand the noise of an air conditioner, or how much power it sucks up? Consider any of these small-scale, easy Saturday project air conditioners collected by Popular Mechanics, or go totally power free and reuse plastic bottles with this Bangladeshi-style air-conditioning system!

Sew mesh bags into kitchen scrubbers. Speaking of reusing, do you collect those mesh bags that fruit and onions come in at the grocery store? Here’s an excellent tutorial on how you can easily sew them into a durable and effective scrubber, to get a little more use out of them before recycling them.

Save fruit and vegetable scraps to regrow. Many different fruits and vegetables that you buy at the store can be regrown through their cut-off ends that are normally thrown out or made into stock. Onions, potatoes, garlic, herbs, and even avocado and pineapple can be grown at home this way! Check out a list of foods to start with here. (And if you’re the kind of person who likes to save scraps to compost as well, check out this tutorial on making a triple composter!)

For the Technologically Minded

Use the Internet of Things to maintain your garden with a Raspberry Pi. Want an easy way to keep an eye on the moisture level of your garden? A schedule to tell you when to feed and fertilize each of your plants? You can have all that and more through Raspberry Pi: DIY it, or check it out through MudPi’s open-source software (still in development).

Build a small solar charging station. I’m almost always listening to music when I’m outdoors, whether I’m in the garden or enjoying some late summer grilling. This little solar-powered charging station, designed by a Boy Scout, is a great way to keep your phone and speakers topped up while you’re out of the house.

Fight for the right to repair. While tech companies like Apple use planned obsolescence and try to have a monopoly on repairing their products, you can check out this list of free classes in computer repair to keep your electronics running smoothly. Are you more of a tinkerer? Family Handyman has a great list of simple car repairs with videos to show you how to do them on your own.

It’s hard to look around and feel optimistic about the future these days, but dark times are when we appreciate the sun the most (just look at Dark Souls and the popularity of “Praise the sun!”). I hope these tutorials and suggestions will help you stay inspired with a brighter outlook. Keep on the sunny side, my friends.