Notes on Solarpunk Economics #1
A Solarpunk future is achievable. Here's how we can move from talking to doing.
Solarpunk is a biophilic future worthy of our attention and creative drive. Its aesthetics and sense-making are rooted in the pillars of regeneration, inclusivity, justice, diversity, cleantech, and decolonization. Over the years artists, designers, architects, writers and other creatives have shaped up the Solarpunk ancestral future. Many publications are dedicated to spreading its ideals and stories, granting it significant form and traction.
Grounding Solarpunk from an ideal to a practical, liveable reality, requires a massive multi-stakeholder effort. However, one key sector of society remains disappointingly disengaged with it: business folk, economists, and economic planners (BEEs). As creatives have given it form, it is up to the BEEs to give it function.
To usher in a Solarpunk future, BEEs will have to move capital, in all its forms, and at all scales. Some BEEs have enabled some key design principles and operating systems that Solarpunk has adopted in its reconstruction of economics.
They include :
Circular and gift economies,
Regenerative governance
Equitable wealth creation,
Alternative and complementary currencies,
Decentralized and localized production and distribution,
Multi-capital accounting and true cost valuation,
Cultivating local resilience,
Alternative ownership and stewardship models,
Open-source and collaborative innovation
Holistic economic development
These principles and systems are all part of the new economic paradigm found in Solarpunk.
However, we are missing some key catalyst ingredients.
We need a way to systematically integrate and incentivize economic collaboration and deliver the outcomes competition cannot.
We need a way to anchor a new economy in existing law to enable and protect all stakeholders.
We need a way to embed developmental purpose in this transformation to push human consciousness beyond its current state.
In the coming weeks I’ll be publishing Notes on Solarpunk Economics. I'll address these missing catalysts and other themes on Solarpunk Economics, and hopefully with your help, dear reader, bridge gaps in my own knowledge.
We deserve better horizons. We need visions of the future that fill us with hope, kindling our desire to act, and igniting our Warrior spirit.
For me, a 24 year old man from Costa Rica, a Solarpunk future is a reason to believe that humanity's life on Earth can emerge stronger, wiser, and kinder from the cataclysms we face.
Help me spread the word by sharing this Substack Post in your social media!