Solarpunk Action Week - Tumblr Posts
Hi!
Throughout this pandemic, I've read countless articles about the effects of COVID-19 on people's lives. However, these stories are too often written about the lives of the privileged-- the struggles of working from home or the struggles of not being able to travel. This is not to say that their struggles are invalid; however, the stories of those most affected by the pandemic remain untold. I'd like to compile perspectives from essential workers and members of marginalized groups to counter the upper-middle-class narrative.
If you could, DM me your stories! I'll give you full credit, or you can remain anonymous.
hi everyone!
i know that this hashtag is sort of dead but can any active solarpunk blogs interact with this post so i can follow you? ty!
In honor of the Lunar New Year, I’ve come up with a few solarpunk-related resolutions. I want to make the commitment to living a more sustainable lifestyle overall, but I feel like it’ll help if I set out specific resolutions to stick to as well.
1. Only buy one item of new clothing per month (excluding necessities such as shoes when they wear out, underthings etc). I’ve found that I often use the excuse of “well, it was at a thrift store and would’ve been gotten rid of anyways”, but this has led to an unnecessary and wasteful accumulation of clothing. Instead, I’m committing to only wearing the clothing I have or making new clothing by hand. The one-new-item per month is there because I collect vintage clothing, and my partner loves to visit thrift shops… in other words, in case of emergency!
2. Produce/gather more of my own food. Right now I have a small indoor apartment garden producing herbs and the occasional tomato, but I’m hoping that I get a community garden plot this year. Even if I don’t, I’d like to expand my home garden setup and perhaps produce, say, all of the leafy greens my household consumes. I also want to forage way more— I think feeding myself from the environment not only improves my knowledge of the bioregion I live in, it also provides a necessary reminder that industrial agriculture isn’t the only way for humans to eat.
3. Produce less waste. My partner and I have made great strides in reducing the amount of food waste we produce (getting much better about eating leftovers and only buying what we need), but we still produce a lot of food packaging waste (side note: it’s crazy how much food comes packaged non-optionally in plastic, even non-processed foods!). This year I plan to reduce waste by shopping at farmer’s markets, stores with bulk bins and simply buying less overall.
Happy Year of the Rabbit, everybody!!
since it’s been almost a month since i’ve posted anything original (oops!) I figured that i’d share some solarpunk shenanigans that i’ve been up to lately…
- i finally cancelled my Amazon Prime! for ethical reasons i’ve minimized my Amazon usage for at least a year, and i’ve been on an “Amazon fast” since December of last year. i don’t want to give jeff bezos another dollar… ever!!
- it’s almost the start of the foraging season in earnest here in the PNW, so i’m brushing up on my existing knowledge and checking out many (so many) books from my local library so that when the weather finally clears up i’ll be ready!!!
- i’ve also been working on expanding my knowledge and skill set for living a more sustainable life! for example, if i buy a whole chicken and break it down, i have enough food for ten (!!!!) meals for my partner and i, with a minimal amount of plastic waste (the wrapper). this means that i can also afford to buy better-quality and more sustainable meats, since the dollar-per-meal cost is so low! the next thing i need to work on is making more of my own snacks, Trader Joe’s single-use-plastic-packaged yet delicious novelty snacks will be my downfall…
and here’s the first cherry blossom of the year!!!
Hi fellow solarpunk people! I've recently learned about the Transition Movement (or Transition Network?) which, according to Wikipedia, refers to "grassroots community movements that aim to increase self-sufficiency... especially around food production and energy usage". While I haven't done an extensive amount of research, I think it's really cool that a movement to encourage community-building exists and it could be a great way for solarpunks to meet like-minded people!
I've included links to The Transition Handbook and the Transition Movement web page so that if anyone's interested they can find more info easily.
https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sme/CSC2600/transition-handbook.pdf
~an introduction to ecobricking~
hello fellow solarpunks! i've been interested in ecobricking for a while but i recently invested some time into researching them so here's a guide! it's a responsible way to sequester plastic from the environment, but making them is slightly more involved than just stuffing plastic in a bottle, if you want to use them for construction or weight-bearing projects like furniture. I'm mainly using information from GoBrik, which had the most comprehensive guide, but feel free to comment or rb with supplemental information.
FAQ:
Isn't it better to recycle plastic rather than ecobricking?
There are many plastics, such as food wrappers or packaging, that can't be recycled and end up degrading rapidly. Ecobricking sequesters those kinds of plastics from the ecosystem and also reduces the surface area exposed, which limits plastic degredation over time.
How do you use ecobricks?
You can use ecobricks in many applications, from furniture to structures. The long-term environmental impact of using ecobricks is still speculated on, but responsible upkeep mitigates their potential environmental impacts, which are still far less than the impact that plastic would have were it not sequestered.
How To Ecobrick:
Find a plastic bottle. The bottles that you use for ecobricking should all be the same variety, which will help in any building projects that you may choose to use them for.
Find some plastic! Make sure to wash and dry your plastic, as any food residue or moisture could make your brick moldy or structurally unsound. You can cut up larger pieces of plastic, like food packaging (think bags of shredded cheese or frozen berries, or the plastic bags inside cereal boxes)-- just pack em in. If you want to be fancy, GoBrik recommends making the bottom layer of your ecobrick all one color, for aesthetic purposes later on. But it's really up to you. Please avoid putting biodegradable material, such as cardboard or paper, as well as glass or metal, in your ecobrick-- it'll affect the density and preferred composition. Plus, you can recycle those!
Calculate the density! This is the only part that involves math, I swear. You want to aim for a density of about 0.37 grams per milliliter; it shouldn't be under 0.33 g/ml or it'll be structurally unsound. It's also good to aim for a density less than 0.7 g/ml, or your bricks might be too heavy to move comfortably. The equation is just the weight in grams divided by the milliliters of the container you're using, so, for example, if you used a bottle than was 1250 ml, you would be aiming for about 475-500 g of plastic (including the bottle). (a kitchen scale is great for weighing, and you can thrift them pretty easily) Of course, if you're ecobricking to sequester plastic and not necessarily to build, you don't need to worry too much about the density, but if you wanted to donate your ecobricks to a project in the future I would encourage you to try to keep track of density.
Cap your bottle tightly, leaving 1-2 cm at the top of the bottle (basically, you don't want the cap to bulge, because it will make the cap degrade rapidly and crack). Label them with the density of the bottle (if it's relevant) and the date (so you know how long the brick has been around so you can maintain it if needed)-- nail polish works the best. Keep them out of the elements (especially the sun) and off the ground until you plan to use them.
There are tons of ways to use ecobricks! I'll link a few ideas below.
https://ecobricks.org/en/build.php
https://ecobricks.org/en/modules.php
anways, happy bricking! i'll post a picture of my finished ecobrick when it's done (hopefully not soon!)
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecobricks
https://ecobricks.org/en/how.php