I feel like I always think of solar punk as a macro thing where a lot has to change but there are still smaller wins we can implement, what have you been doing?

  • faythofdragons@slrpnk.netEnglish
    27·
    10 days ago

    Lately, I’ve been teaching people how to repair their clothing! At least one guy has come to the conclusion that hand sewing is actually punk af, because knowing how to fix your shit is Sticking It To The Man.

    • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa@aussie.zone
      12·
      10 days ago

      ‘Thread Repair’ is definitely less grandma-esque than ‘sewing’ or ‘needle and stitch’.

      Some youtuber somewhere is probably recording an introduction,

      ‘Welcome to my thread repair lab. This is where we pull, push, and stretch fabric to the limit…’

      It writes itself! Theres a whole youtube channel in this!

      • OryxAndCake@slrpnk.net
        10·
        9 days ago

        The need to de-centre women from traditionally female technologies, crafts and occupations in order to appeal and cater to men’s interests, is kinda upsetting though.

        • foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net
          5·
          8 days ago

          I’m really torn on it because on one hand, if calling it Thread Repair could get more people (especially men) to participate, that’s a good thing! I also just like the sound of thread repair XD On the other hand… maybe men should learn to be interested in things that aren’t personally catered to their tiny baby feelings. Get over it and fix your damn socks.

          I dunno. I’m also eternally torn between “men created toxic masculinity and they need to fix it themselves, not expect women to do it for them” and “men need the women in their lives to help them escape toxic masculinity because we’re outside it (for the most part) and everyone needs help sometimes”

        • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa@aussie.zone
          4·
          9 days ago

          Yeah, interesting for me that you picked up the masculinity still.

          In that comment I actually considered that because I had written something like ‘inject masculinity’ into it. But as I wrote, I thought its not just young men, but women as well, much like yourself. So I tried to de-masculine it and make it about dropping the old person connotations.

          I suppose I’s not very successful in that. I think its the faux quote at the end that just reads so much like every male teenfluencer ever. 😆

          • OryxAndCake@slrpnk.net
            51·
            9 days ago

            I believe that’s actually a modern perception and textiles were originally a male dominated field.

            Yeah, fuck all the female dominated histories of all the various textile cultures around the world, someone on the internet told me it was men who probably did it first, and women obviously just copied them! So if men want to get into textiles again now they have every right to push out any reminder of women ever being involved!

            Just to be clear, the above paragraph is sarcasm. Exasperated but unsurprised, sarcasm.

              • faythofdragons@slrpnk.netEnglish
                7·
                9 days ago

                On the other hand, the SciShow episode about knitting was so upsettingly wrong that Hank Green took it down, so I’m not particularly inclined to trust him on this topic. He angered the entire fiber art community by talking about how nobody understood knitting until scientists looked at it, which is actually pretty sexist.

  • solbear@slrpnk.net
    23·
    10 days ago

    1. Moving my technological dependencies from big tech companies to self-hosted, open source solutions, running Linux on my machines etc.

    2. Gardening on my balcony. I am growing tomatoes, broad beans, peppers (chilis, bell) and an assortment of salads and herbs. I am mostly self-sufficient on herbs, during growing season I am fully self-sufficient on salads. Pretty far from it on tomatoes and peppers, and especially on beans as they are not fruiting :(

    3. In general getting more in touch with local flora. I’ve been photographing flowering plants in my neighborhood lately and identifying them, trying to learn what grows around here. Goal is to be quite well-versed in local flora, including what is edible (and how to use it) and not

    4. Contributing to OpenStreetMap, both in my neighborhood and also through tasks.hotosm.org where I help trace missing buildings in disaster-struck places for first-responders to use (and in preparation for possible disasters in the future). This kind of collaborative project I find to be very solarpunky.

    Living in a rented apartment, there is only so much I can make changes here. There was an initiative to install solar panels, but it was voted down for some reason - not being an owner, I am not involved in those discussions. Dream is to find a small house outside the city to expand my garden and to become as off-grid as possible.

    • foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net
      5·
      8 days ago

      I’d never heard of OpenStreetMap and I’ve gone down the rabbit hole since last night - this is cool as hell, thank you for introducing me!!

      • solbear@slrpnk.net
        4·
        7 days ago

        Nice, cool to hear!

        I have two favorite navigational applications that utilizes OSM-data: Organic Maps/CoMaps (there’s a lot of drama here that you can read up on if it interests you, but CoMaps was forked from Organic Maps after some mismanagement of funds was uncovered) for a clean, simple and quick navigation experience and OsmAnd~ for a very tailored experience that takes some time to get into, but gives you a way to set up different profiles for walking, hiking, cycling, public transport, driving etc. The premium version with a full feature set (~) can be purchased in Apple Store and Google Play Store, but is offered for free through F-Droid on Android.

        I mentioned tasks.hotosm.org. Here is a cool writeup of the project which introduced me to it just some weeks ago, which was posted somewhere on Lemmy: https://sheets.works/data-viz/strangers-draw-maps

        I also use StreetComplete to solve some outstanding questions about features in the neighborhoods I walk in, such as the quality of the road surfaces, whether a street is lit or not and speed limits. Organized as small tasks that show up as icons on the map. Kinda like a Pokémon Go-experience, as Wiz@midwest.social described it as. There’s another one called Every Door that is supposed to be better for adding information about points of interests (shops, restaurants, monuments, drinking fountains, etc. etc.). I have not tried that yet. I also have Verspucci installed that is a more full-fledged editor for Android, for when I want to make more detailed edits. A bit steeper learning curve. I have not used it that much yet, but I did update some very out-of-date restaurants in a city I visited earlier this Summer.

  • schmorp@slrpnk.netEnglish
    21·
    10 days ago

    Where goblincore swamp and solarpunk forest meet, where the sacred grove is being tended, the bog creature has been up to this:

    • Lots of DIY food production. This year I’m probably at 50% home grown and home raised.
    • Continuous learning and improving to work low tech as well as low energy input (short transport paths, few step processes) around house and garden.
    • Recycle and reuse. Got no money anyways, great chance to learn how to reuse everything. My furniture is punk as fuck, most is self-build or recovered. Sewing machine shall be my powerful ally for making new clothes out of old ones.
    • Small, smaller, still smaller, and very quiet. I practice degrowth as a spiritual practice. I try to notice and to consider my many non-human neighbours and consciously try to keep a tiny footprint and to do a slow and steady work instead of big interventions.
    • I used to be more active in community work, but it’s not within my means and capabilities at the moment. Seeds I helped plant in the past are growing though, so that’s not lost and I will pick it up again in the future.
    • Returning to joyful creative work. My spirit of creating had been fucked over for years by the power of the algorithm and I am rediscovering my true roars and whispers.
    • Remain open to new ideas out there and try to keep a bit updated about what the youngsters do and want and like, to not become a fossil.
    • foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net
      2·
      8 days ago

      I hear you on the joyful creative work. I am only recently starting to write again after all the energy and joy was sapped out of me by survival. Here’s to finding ourselves again <3

  • poVoq@slrpnk.netM
    20·
    10 days ago

    I do a lot more food related DIY stuff, like balcony gardening, food preservation (bought from local farmers directly), planning to grow mushrooms etc.

  • Corvid_Moon@lemmy.ca
    17·
    10 days ago

    ° Eating plant-based & living vegan

    ° Going car-free while using an e-bike

    ° Reducing consumption habits while lowering waste production & plastic use

    ° Long-term goal of owning land & building off-grid, renewables-powered tiny home ♡

  • sophie sunshine@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    16·
    4 days ago
    1. I’ve been vegan for 5 years and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made.
    2. I only buy second-hand clothing. This is a recent change.
    3. I mostly stopped shopping online, except for specific items like my injection supplies.
    4. Using my local library!
    5. I crochet clothing and items for gifts.
  • grue@lemmy.world
    14·
    10 days ago
    • utility biking
    • repairing stuff instead of throwing it out
    • using stuff found on the curb that other people threw out (my wife rescued a $500 Kitchen Aid stand mixer the other day – it’s wild what people throw out around here!)
    • DIY renovations with careful deconstruction so materials can be reused
  • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
    13·
    10 days ago

    A lot of our life has been trending solarpunk for decades; we just finished processing the early crop of cooking apples, from two trees, and gave away the surplus, for instance.

    But notably utopian design stuff: we’re building a bathroom with a composting toilet and greywater drainage.

    Heating in the bathroom will be by on-demand infrared panel, and the small multipurpose building with the bathroom is getting a heat pump. Construction is mostly new materials but we did manage to reuse a lot of salvage.

  • lowbulb@slrpnk.netEnglish
    13·
    9 days ago

    Buying secondhand over new. I love thrifting so that’s a bonus for me! Also using what I have, repairing what I can, or just going without something versus buying something in the first place.

    Eating less meat, and prioritizing locally grown veg when possible.

    Taking public transit, walking, or biking everywhere. If going long distance, I try to take ground transportation (trains, buses) over flying.

    Reducing energy use eg turning off lights when I’m not in the room. You’d be surprised how many people still don’t do that, haha!

    • foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net
      2·
      8 days ago

      I’m still building the habit of turning lights off when leaving a room hehe. I’ve learned a lot about those little things recently - turning the lights off, stopping the dishwasher before the dry cycle, and someone below said that a computer uses less energy when the screen brightness is down so I’m doing that now too c:

      Also seconding on thrifting, it’s so much fun!! I also love repairing.

  • alerich@discuss.tchncs.de
    12·
    10 days ago

    Electrification is a big topic. But you can always start with little things like changing to an electric mower instead of a gasoline powered one. Community work is also important, but I honestly don’t know where to start…

  • Berttheduck@lemmy.ml
    11·
    10 days ago

    I’ve been lucky enough to be able to get a rooftop solar set up and battery for my house. I absolutely love it. We’ve barely used the grid since it’s gone up, only our electric shower draws too much for the inverter/ battery to provide it all, everything else runs off solar. It’s been especially good in the UK recently with the weather because it means I can run my (also recently purchased) portable aircon without feeling guilty. Makes me feel happy every time the sun is shining.

    I keep thinking about getting a ground rod installed so I can run totally off grid.

    We’re trying to eat less meat and having at least a couple meals per week with veggies or fish as the main. We’ve reduced how much landfill waste we produce and are recycling more.

    • Capitanmaroon@lemmy.worldOP
      4·
      9 days ago

      I’m also from the UK. Could I ask for a recommendation and price range for your panels? I love the idea of it and know the upfront costs are high but haven’t actually looked into it.

      • Berttheduck@lemmy.ml
        2·
        9 days ago

        Of course. We have been with Octopus for a while now for our energy and went with them for solar because of good offers and finance deals. The price dropped quite a lot in the year or so we were looking. In March this year we got 10 panels a 10kW battery and a 5kW inverter for a little over £9k. We also picked a finance deal which worked out about £300 a month so it was affordable for us, that’s not including the electric buy back or the fact we don’t have an electric bill currently so it’s actually cheaper. For comparison we looked about 8 months before and they had 10 panels a 5kW battery and a smaller inverter for £13k admittedly on an interest free finance deal, our current one is not interest free. So the prices keep coming down.

  • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netEnglish
    11·
    10 days ago

    I picked up an old used SFF (Small Form Factor) office PC a couple years ago to use as my daily driver instead of my gaming PC. Based on a Kill-o-watt power usage meter, my gaming PC would idle at around 40w, while the office PC (with a fairly power efficient i7-7700 and integrated graphics) idles at 10w, so 3x more efficient. Now I only ever boot up the gaming PC when I actually need its performance. As a side bonus, the DDR3 RAM it uses is still very affordable on the used market. It browses the web and plays videos really well, and even plays most games I’m interested in nowadays :)

    For anyone else interested in doing that, Dell, HP, and Lenovo are the big makers of those SFF PC’s, and they can generally be had pretty cheaply on eBay, but you can also sometimes find them locally at recycling facilities or the local dump drop-off area. You may want to avoid anything older than the 6000 series of Intel CPU’s, since the older ones don’t support modern video codecs (meaning they’ll use more power playing youtube videos, decoding them on the CPU itself instead of the build-in decoder), and they aren’t as power efficient overall.

    I also found that reducing your monitor’s brightness to around 50 to 60% reduces power usage significantly, though that may not be viable if you are in a room that gets very bright.

  • reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net
    10·
    10 days ago

    I purchase as much of my produce as possible from a farm co-op

    I try to walk for errands as much as possible rather than drive

    I’m slowly learning basic electronics repair

    I have a small hydroponic garden that just about meets my salad needs