Hi everyone! A bit over a month ago I made a survey about Solarpunk and shared it here. Now, I finally present you the findings of the survey! I am adding a few pics here for a preview and if you are interested, go check the link where there is a full description of the findings!!

full findings: https://thesolarpunksurvey2024.carrd.co/

  • poVoq@slrpnk.netM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    I am surprised how many people didn’t get the “trees on buildings” reference…

    • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      That video effected how i think about modern solutions not necessarily how i picture a potantial solarpunk future. So I voted yes to the question.

      I agree just slapping trees on buildings is not going to magically fix modern society’s much deeper issues. I do still think having roof top gardens is something that could work for a much more advanced civilization with different construction methods and materials.

      I dunno i think it has a place in the more imaginative side of solarpunk… a living building (like the ships and buildings from octavia butlers liliths brood series) could definetly support gardens. Or specially grown tree houses. Or hollowed out “mountains” with sunlight vents and an entire forest on the surface. Ooooo or maybe some floating islands where people live inside the verticle garden beds.

      Modern concrete and steel based architecture is definetly not ready to have that level of greenery integrated into the building structures. One of the communes I lived at had a rooftop garden, & we had tons of issues with leaks and just the sheer weight of all that dirt and plant material on the structure.

      I still love the idea though, lol just not in the modern era.

      • Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        5 months ago

        One of the communes I lived at had a rooftop garden, & we had tons of issues with leaks and just the sheer weight of all that dirt and plant material on the structure.

        In Montréal we have several large scale rooftop greenhouses built on top of warehouses. I’m guessing the warehouse construction is probably overbuilt to support the weight, but there haven’t been and major issues yet.

        It might not be solarpunk, but it’s solarpunk wearing a tie at it’s day job to find it’s dreams. And their tomatoes are fucking delicious.

          • Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            5 months ago

            I was specifically referring to Lufa Farm’s commercial rooftop farms. Each farm varies slightly in construction, operation, strengths, and weaknesses.

            But thanks for those listservs, great resources.

          • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            5 months ago

            Super useful links, thanks for sharing :) it’s so cool to see all the different ways people have approached the questions & all the different solutions they came up with.

            Maybe I’m just a sucker for plants on buildings though lol

        • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          That sounds super cool! Warehouses especially seem like a good candidate for gardens. They’re large, typically flat on top, & are often surrounded by paved parking areas meaning they get full sun. Plus the interiors often have easy access to the ceiling making any repairs very simple.

          Lol I will say our leaky roof garden was the product of hippie construction, so it was beautiful and really cool-- but not the most carefully engineered 🤣

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        5 months ago

        Yeah, for me I see stuff like ivy growing on the sides to bring nature into urban spaces, and maybe greenhouses or gardens on the roof. Trees require a lot of soil and junk, and their roots can cause a lot of damage that you wouldn’t expect. I’d probably answer yes to the question even though it isn’t “trees” exactly I envision, but still green plant growth.

        • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          Good point! I’m on the same page of understanding “trees on buildngs” to mean general greenery.

          Your comment did get me thinking: It would be cool if we could find a way to direct tree roots. Like how in yards if a tree root breaks into the water lines, they’ll fill that space since it is clear and full of nutrients. It’s bad for the pipes, but if done purposefully could maybe help mitigate the damage caused by large tree root systems.

        • Jayjader@jlai.lu
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          5 months ago

          The sci-fi/space opera Pandora’s Star (and it’s follow-up, Judas Unchained) by Peter F Hamilton has humanity developing fast growing coral that they then use to essentially grow houses, over around 5 years, to the specific shape and layout that the inhabitants desire.

          The books aren’t solarpunk in the truest sense, yet they have a surprising amount of solarpunk compatible ideas involved (including a hefty critique of both capitalism and unchecked industrialization).

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    5 months ago

    imo it is better to make simple websites that don’t use too many animations. Otherwise they don’t display properly on some devices. Here’s what it looks like to me:

    As you can see, the picture doesn’t show completely (the borders are cut off), also the photo fades in rather slowly, which is annoying when scrolling through quickly.

  • MercurySunrise@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    5 months ago

    I missed this survey. I find the gender demographics intriguing. I’m unsure why this survey was so very male-dominated. That’s really something to ponder about. Is it an internet issue, or is it something about the ideology itself? Are women in some way being restricted from solarpunk thought? This is phenomena of note in leftism, as well. I find it very perplexing, especially considering the shared goal of equality in these ideologies. I cannot believe women wouldn’t be incredibly attracted to solarpunk, it can quite seriously be summed up with one word: care. If women aren’t at least equal in their interest in the ideology, it seems to me something is very wrong. Thanks for doing the survey though. Nice to see what’s going on in the community, statistically.

  • OnlyTakesLs@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    5 months ago

    I guess solarpunk is more about communism than I thought. I still agree with the ecological aspects, hell I drive an older prius, but I wont label myself as part of the solarpunk group. God I hate tankies infesting everything.

    • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      5 months ago

      Not all communists are tankies. I understand many people (especially Americans) assume that connection because of the cold war era propaganda. However, many self identified communists have no respect or admiration for authoritarian states like China or the USSR.

      & I think solarpunk tends to draw in communists, anarchists, libertarians and other radical views. To create a significant change in how humans relate to the environment around us, we would also likely need a significant change in how we relate to eachother. This means some sort of change to our modern system of profit based sucess (i.e. modern capitalism).

    • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      5 months ago

      Huh? Where are you meeting tankies in this movement? I’ve found it quite hostile to tankies which is saying something since there’s a lot of them here on Lemmy.

    • keepthepace@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      5 months ago

      Anti-capitalism doesn’t necessarily means communism. Note that both decentralization and anti-statism also score pretty high.

      I hate tankies too but they do not represent the entirety of the anticapitalist movement.