A great -- and I think mostly realistic -- vision. One thing: when I sold my car and decided to live a more active lifestyle with transit and car share as mid- and longer-haul options respectively, one of my goals was to not spend more time commuting, i.e. to not have a reduction in my quality of life. The "aha!" moment came when I realized that to be a healthy human, I need to get 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day. I used to struggle to get even that, even after retiring. But once I started counting walking or biking as exercise time instead of commute time, it all started falling into place. All this to say: I think it's all possible without any reduction in quality of life that might be implied by slower or active transport options.
My favourite for electricity production is geothermal bore holes. Unlike how some people assume, they don't need to be built in geologically active regions. The earth beneath us has enough heat at a surprisingly small distance to run a generator. A single bore hole can generate enough electricity for a standard sized family home, it can them be covered over by the garden, yard, or anything else, leaving a small generator that can fit in a shed (and still leave room for the garden tools) The local sports centre has a bunch of bore holes under the running track, the generator is larger but still less than house sized (and looks just like a house from outside), and it provides enough electricity for the centre and the nearby housing estate. There's also the added bonus that, because it runs on water, it can also provide heating for the buildings. Because it's a closed system that only needs water to run it's low to no waste, no fuel, and minimum maintenance. I was told that the initial cost is covered by around the first 4 years savings (for a normal sized family house), after that it's cheap. That was before the recent price increase, now it's going to be even quicker to cover the cost. All it would take is to have each pavement/sidewalk have a line of bore holes underneath and every building alongside will have plenty of electricity. Except maybe the super tall buildings.
@@ScarletpookyThanks. The geothermal portion (featuring 200-meter-deep boreholes) doesn't generate electricity. Instead, it provides low-grade heat which is turned into high-grade heat via a heat-pump (which heat is then used for district-heating). The heat-pump, in turn, is powered by a 600 kW generator running on natural-gas. The bottom line is that electricity cannot be produced geothermally with mere 200-meter boreholes.
different people will come up with different environmental solutions so an environmentally conscious future is going to be more complicated than we can imagine
I don't understand why so many single people and couples hate the idea of living in apartment blocks. If you have a big family with kids then sure, I can understand the desire for a nice house and garden, but when it's just 1 or 2 people there's no need for all that space. If you spend your time indoors then there's no difference at all between a room in a fancy house, a small apartment block, or a large one. It's still just a room with the same things in it. I think the biggest hurdle we face is trying to teach people they don't need all those things they think they want.
Because living in condos means having to deal with lots of assholes and annoying folks. I have grown in one and hate everything about it. Having to go through a meeting and a majority agreement for what I can or cannot do to my apartment is a pain in the ass, not having a private and personal green space is trash. If I want to make a freaking food garden for myself, I want both the space for it and the freedom of doing it without having the dude leaving below me to stop me and annoy me with their complaints.
@@MrReset94 I've lived in an apartment block for almost 30 years, and not missed anything a 'proper' house has, and I know many others who feel the same. There's a nice small park next to my place, I can't grow anything there but it's fine for relaxing in. There's a small balcony with the apartments, it's not much but I know some people do have some potted plants on theirs. Not all blocks have an association that controls what can be done, mine doesn't. I'm free to do what I want in my place, the only restriction is nighttime noise, and major things like tearing down walls. In my comment I said "If you spend your time indoors". It sounds like that doesn't apply to you. I thought I was fairly clear that I was only talking about specific type of people. An apartment block is fine for many people and I don't understand the instant hate as if they're awful for everyone. I even know people who ridicule my place while living in a three story block with the exact same amenities, they just have an instant hate for large block for some bizarre reason.
@@Scarletpooky you were lucky to not have any association or similar. Here in Italy, all condos have an admin and they call a meeting at least every month were all the tenants (at least one member per house) linda have to attend(if they want to participate in decision making). In the meeting various issues are addressed and some things are put to votes. In general seems right, democracy, but condos are the ultimate representation of what doesn’t work with the democratic system: some people are annoying assholes and cockblock everything for everyone all the time, even (mostly actually) the good stuff. Cause they are cheap or simply cause they don’t understand and feel there’s no need for that. Seriously, living in a condo in Italy is hell.
This video doesn’t get into accessibility for the 25-30% of any given population that is a huge part of solarpunk and in fact repeatedly discusses non-accessible solutions as ‘what it is’ which isn’t intersectional, which… isnt solarpunk. Good start but really feeling I dont belong in the future you lay out here, by large, despite agreeing with many points.
Can you elaborate the non accessible solutions? In the Netherlands mini electric vehicles are allowed on bike roads. There are a lot of ways to accommodate people with these solutions
@@anubis2814There are, but they aren't mentioned as an aspect of solarpunk in the video while, in reality, accessibility is a defining characteristic of the genre
@@m-2718 You're missing the point, it's not about the individual solutions (mini electric vehicles like the Canta as another commenter mentioned would be an example of that), it's about creating a society and an economy that isn't entirely dependent on fossil fuels ALONE so people of all ability levels can enjoy life. This involves everything from how labor is organized to how we keep track of time, asking for specifics is literally impossible. Edit: *fossil fuels, not cars
@@arenomusic The way we keep track of time is based on natrual movments of the planet. We can't change how the actual planet moves. Labor is quite much just changing the owner and push towards workers coops, but most of accessiblity is BY individual solutions, and GOOD portion of accessiblity can be just be dealt with remote work, also a lot of trasport, and wasted time, and A LOT almost all white/Gold collar work can be done remotly
@@anubis2814 I'm in the area. Would like to chat if your ever in town. Thin lines between echo chambers and enough difference to create hybridization of thought. Big ag has really fouled up my life. I must do something, you know
Whilst I love a lot of this. Most of this either doesn’t exist because of zoning laws. Suburbs, community gardens, local electricity grids. These are all restricted by stupid zoning laws.
@@anubis2814 Yeah, but a lot of people whom like solarpunk blame capitalism for our faults. This video kind of points out how it has nothing to do with the economic system, but instead is the fault of continuing bad policies and propaganda
@thecrimsonfire4921 Propganda created by car companies fueled by capitalism, and colonial era racism that refuses to die. Lots of corporate astroturfing boosting nimbys fears
@@anubis2814 The biggest divide amongst the western world comes from politics. Thats how most racism is fueled these days. NIMBYs only have power because the government listens to them. It’s not the car companies telling people electric is the future. It’s not the car companies forcing electric cars at a determined point in the future. Most car companies don’t even want electric, they are being forced to compete in that industry because of Tesla and government policies. In my opinion, Solarpunk is a capitalist utopia. A limited but caring government that is held accountable. With a few checks and balances, capitalism is amazing. Do you disagree?
bio gas is made from things like grass clippings in a biodigester. it also makes liquid fert as a second product.. Grass grows using atmospheric carbon and sunlight. it is circular ecology and therefore solarpunk. You can combine the liquid fert with biochar made from different grass clippings to activate it too. Lawn mowing, with rechargable mowers can become solarpunk sunlight to gas and sunlight to soilbuilding. Lithium will never be solar punk. Anything 'rare' is not for solar punk use. it has to be insanely abundant or ultra recyclable or regeneratable. Liquid air created using plants like the highview factory in the uk from renewable energy to use in mechanical propulsion is super solar punk. Compressing atmospheric air into liquid air is a form of carbon capture not even recognised properly yet. co2 liquidises sooner and easier than the air it is in, so we get to bottle it essentially for free. The air we produce, when spent in a vehicle as fuel, the vehicles 'pollution' is then cold, clean, co2 free air. our vehicles themselves become an instrument of diluting by way of mixing, the co2 and heat we have to face. Nuclear is not solar punk. it is fossil fuel. it is 'burning' something to boil a kettle. as simple as that.
@gigabane7357 Biogas isn't quite there yet but it can be on the menu in the future. Grass clippings should only exist sparingly for things like sports parks. Yard grass should be local/ mixed with wildflowers or gardens if people need yards most yards in the US are not solar punk. Lithium is getting more and more recyclable all the time but solid state batteries are coming and will hopefully eliminate lithium. Nuclear using nuclear waste is solar punk as it reduces the radioactive lifetimes of the waste but we are not there yet, mining for uranium isn't. Thorium is a by product of other things so it could also be considered solar punk
@@anubis2814 when I think of grass. I am thinking more of american switch grass, which pushes all of its nutrients into the roots at winter leaving a carbon husk to convert. grasslands both wild and managed will still exist even if we ban lawns. sand batteries slay lithium at scale for district heating and industrial uses. Liquid air and adaptations to using it can cover most other gaps. the end of the day, we literally have about 12 hiroshima bombs per second worth of excess energy imbalance due to climate change, we do not need fossil fuels or nuclear, all the energy is already there for the taking.
I wish i lived solar punk society.If we tried to make solar punk it wouldn't happen because human are creed and selfish.We are cruel to others species and to each other.
Humans are shaped by their environment and the environment is shaped by humans. There is a small percentage that are especially greedy and selfish, those with the power and money to shape the environment. There is a reason Hobbs believes that the natural state of man was base and terrible. hunter/gatherers aren't like that, they all have issues but they have leveling mechanisms against things like power, bullying and greed. The introduction of possessions changed all of that. Trauma and desperation and fear makes the normal person greedy and selfish, power and isolation makes the rich greedy and selfish. In a natural disaster, humans have a natural ability to self-organize because we are hard wired to do so, but the constraints of society prevent that, because it was engineered to do so..
You've made a lot of assumptions in that video, such as people having to take longer to get to work (people are lazy by nature) and people not working 40h workweeks for corporations (where would we get money from?) but other than that, great and underappreciated video
Oh right one more thing, solar is not that Pollution friendly (don't get me started on making wind turbines from composites) and it's really not viable in northern countries, I live in Poland and here solar energy just could not manage during winters and falls. The sun comes up at 7am and sets at 4pm and the whole day is cloudy (I mean total overcast) for weeks if not months at times
You've made a lot of assumptions that I haven't discussed many of these ideas in previous videos. People are not lazy by nature, most people have a natural drive to work if they feel they are providing for the greater good, it gives them social standing and approval and a sense of accomplishment. Depression and anxiety and the basic structure jobs these days are designed, especially in the modern era are not designed to fit the human psyche and rely on fear of homelessness rather than promoting ones talents. We are still running on the mindlessmanual labor model, where pay-by-the-hour and 40 hour work week actually makes sense. In the second industrial revolution the 40 hour work week and pay by hour drove people to work harder to make more things. However in modern service and thinking jobs, we have a limit on how much we can do before our brains crap out and we start making mistakes. Germany and Belgium has 6 weeks paid vacation and 37-39 hours a week with zero overtime, and are just as efficient and productive as the US because they are not having to fix mistakes made through mental exhaustion. The American 40 hour work week in inefficient and bad for the human brain except in some job cases. The work time structure and pay incentive needs to fit the actual job and not make every job a cookie cutting. As for corporations, I'm a mutualist which is an anarchist lite, Where I believe all corporations when they get big enough need to be converted to worker owned and run cooperatives, the founder should be rewarded for their innovation but at a certain point, the workers are the reason it succeeds. Also at this point thanks to CEO bankruptcy/shareholder incentives and private equity incentives, CEOs have zero reason to make long term decisions to pay off in the long run, just short term decisions and if the company goes under and everyone looses their jobs too bad. Also workers know their job and should have some say in how it functions, this is the principle of 6 sigma created by engineers. Workers can collectively run companies with better results better than any publicly traded company if given similar advantages.
Since wind and solar (and tidal, geothermal, etc.) wouldn't actually work (even a village needs reliable power-service at low price), perhaps consider: • Fracking punk • Atomic punk Fracking punk could be done right now.
Evidence that they don't work? They've been exploding in use and production, and now we just need to perfect energy storage to stabilize the grid. Fracking is just as bad as coal as it's around 50 times more potent a greenhouse gas, and leaks are insane at every stage of its production, what should have been a bridge fuel is now baking the planet just as fast. I'm not against nuclear but there is a required scale up process and if energy storage becomes more affordable in time, it's advantage will be moot.
@@anubis2814"Evidence that they don't work?" See my answer in another thread. In short: No country runs on them. No factory runs on them (including factories making wind and solar hardware). Electricity prices skyrocket wherever they are forced onto the grid (and they are only present on any grid by being forced there). Fracking is really the best technology to design an ecotopia around, unless you want to try cathedral-style uranium. Or seasteading on a barge or massively-multi-hull seawater-mining uranium-powered village-ship (kilometer or more around). A single village isn't going to affect the global atmosphere, and people benefit from warmer temperatures anyway. And, even if they didn't, the cure to any woes would be more reliable-power, *_by any means necessary._* So, fracking makes sense for an ecovillage, regardless of climate assumptions. As for storage, any storage makes the already unworkable EROI of wind-and-solar even worse. The best you can do is pumped hydro, and even that can't save wind-and-solar. There's a new idea called Hydrostor. Might want to look into that. I believe it's compressed air, but with a hydro element which makes it workable. Could be good to pair with a cathedral-style uranium-fired power plant. Batteries can't store seasonally, so there would be no sense in pairing them with wind-and-solar.
Believing that public green space is wasted land is a colonialist mindset. George may have held this old fashioned mindset. Public green spaces sequester carbon, reduce pollution, reduce the heat island effect, reduce flooding, allow for food forests and foraging, perhaps even hunting and are powerful psychological and physical treatments for basic human well being. Wasted lands are ones that aren't used for the public good and just sat on and hoarded
@@anubis2814Local carbon-sequestration doesn't help a local community in any measurable way. Flooding is best controlled by pavement and concrete and storm drains. Food forests seem like a good idea to people who don't understand nutrition and sanitation.
@@aliendroneservices6621 No its ALL of the concrete that causes the flooding. Our insane number of parking lots have drastically increased flooding. If the soil is porous it can drain much faster into the water table. Flooding is worstened by pavement and concrete because it can't be removed fast enough. The most uncovered ground available the more water will make it down to the water table. "Nutrition and sanitation" what are you talking about. Fresh grown foods are some of the healthiest, most of the foods we eat were selected because they travel well not because they are more nutrition, they are often less nutrition. Sanitation? How is eating thing grown in the wild where pesticides and herbicides have purposely not been used and the microbiome of the forest is preserved be any less sanitary than the stuff we grow in the field? Its still grown in dirt, has bugs in them and often manure water is used to water crops which causes e. coli and salmonella outbreaks. You must be confusing raw milk with plants that have just "grown" there is no pasteurization process with fruit, tubers and veggies. Carbon sequestration doesn't help a local community UNLESS EVERYONE IN THE NATION IS ALSO DOING CARBON SEQUESTRATION! This is why climate change is happening, people can't see the big picture, just "How will it effect ME right now". Carbon sequestration from biochar and old growth forests with a healthy microbiome can suck up way more than "productive" monoculture forest that is more often than not at best carbon neutral and at worst a carbon source.
@@anubis2814 "No its ALL of the concrete that causes the flooding." So you think *_The Great Flood of 1862_* was caused by asphalt and concrete? Why hasn't anything like that flood been repeated, despite all of the asphalt and concrete in the US today? 8B people sequestering carbon is a wish, not a plan of action. Do it locally, and people will simply compensate by emitting more carbon elsewhere. (Not that that's harmful, but that's another subject.)
@@aliendroneservices6621 Because I said MORE flooding. dykes dams and levys have severely done wonders, the issue is that for the same soil types in Europe, they have less flooding when they have less asphalt and concrete on the ground in cities than US cities with our crazy 8 parking spots for every one driver. Also there are things like 1k year floods, 10k year floods and so on. Take for example Katrina, Had they not drained the wetlands that act as a water shock absorber to the system, the levy would not have been breached. You are having issues thinking in systems, a balance of changes man can do and at the same time balancing it with nature. Similar to forest management where we stopped controlled burning the natives used and now have had some of the worst wild fires in American history. Yeah we stopped the fires, for a while, until they got so bad now they are just massive tinder boxers ready to explode.
My favourite for electricity production is geothermal bore holes. Unlike how some people assume, they don't need to be built in geologically active regions. The earth beneath us has enough heat at a surprisingly small distance to run a generator. A single bore hole can generate enough electricity for a standard sized family home, it can them be covered over by the garden, yard, or anything else, leaving a small generator that can fit in a shed (and still leave room for the garden tools) The local sports centre has a bunch of bore holes under the running track, the generator is larger but still less than house sized (and looks just like a house from outside), and it provides enough electricity for the centre and the nearby housing estate. There's also the added bonus that, because it runs on water, it can also provide heating for the buildings. Because it's a closed system there's little to no waste, no fuel needed just water, and it needs a minimum of maintenance. There's a large initial instillation cost, but after that it's really cheap to run. I was told that, for a normal family house, a hole will pay for itself in around 5 years, after that it's huge savings, and that was before the recent price increases. All it would take is to have each pavement/sidewalk have a line of bore holes underneath and every building alongside will have plenty of electricity. Except maybe the super tall buildings.
