Solarpunk
[10] The term solarpunk was coined in 2008 in a blog post titled "From Steampunk to Solarpunk",[11] in which the anonymous author, taking the design of the MS Beluga Skysails (the world's first ship partially powered by a computer-controlled kite rig) as inspiration, conceptualizes a new speculative fiction subgenre with steampunk's focal point on specific technologies but guided by practicality and modern economics.
[12] Along a similar vein, in 2009, literary publicist Matt Staggs posted a "GreenPunk Manifesto" on his blog describing his vision of a technophilic genre focused on knowable, do it yourself technologies and with emphasis on positive ecological and social change.
[13][14] After visual artist Olivia Louise posted concept art on Tumblr of a solarpunk aesthetic in 2014,[15] researcher Adam Flynn contributed to the science fiction forum Project Hieroglyph with further definition of the emerging genre.
It describes solarpunk as "a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion, and activism that seeks to answer and embody the questions 'what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?'".
[24] These failures may include oppressive imbalances of wealth or power, degradation of natural habitat or processes, and impacts of climate change.
As is the Afrofuturist's counter to mass-cultural homogeneity, the reckoning of injustices, and use of architecture and technology to correct power imbalances and problems in accessibility.
[25] Although solarpunk is concerned with technology, it also embraces low-tech ways of living sustainably such as gardening, permaculture, regenerative design, tool libraries, maker spaces, open-source, positive psychology, metacognition, and do-it-yourself ethics.
As an art movement, solarpunk emerged in the 2010s as a reaction to the prevalence of bleak post-apocalyptic and dystopian media alongside an increased awareness of social injustices, impacts of climate change, and inextricable economic inequality.
[24] The solarpunk aesthetic typically utilizes natural colors, bright greens and blues, and allusions to diverse cultural origins.
[36][37] Contrasted to cyberpunk, which is portrayed as having a dark, grim aesthetic surrounded by an artificial and domineering built environment reflective of alienation and subjugation, solarpunk is bright, with light often used as a motif and in imagery to convey feelings of cleanliness, abundance, and equability.
[35] Previously published novels that fit into this new genre included Ursula K. Le Guin's Always Coming Home (1985)[39] and The Dispossessed (1974), Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia (1975), Kim Stanley Robinson's Pacific Edge (1990), and Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993), largely for their depictions of contemporary worlds transitioning to more sustainable societies.
[41] In 2018, author Becky Chambers agreed to write two solarpunk novellas for Tor Books and published A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021) and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (2022).
[citation needed] Additionally, the intersection of ecological stewardship and science fiction have also appeared in numerous western animated films such as Treasure Planet (2002), WALL-E (2008), and Strange World (2022).
[citation needed] Examples of live action solarpunk cinema include James Cameron's Avatar films and Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).
In a study of the 44 most popular American science fiction films, nature was found to be ignored in visions of the future, depicted in cities with monoculture lawns and ornamental gardens.
[46] Flynn notes how depictions such as "luxury condos with a green roof that price out existing communities and might end up doing more environmental damage" is "fake solarpunk urbanism".
