Set Sail for Solarpunk Island

Inspiring solarpunk youth programs, cancel culture in the green movement and more in this protopian round-up

Young solarpunk castaways catalyse creativity

If you were marooned with a ship full of other people and could create a new society what would you do? This is the question that was posed to Scottish students with the Solarpunk Island project.

The program was developed by the non-profit educational group Daydream Believers. They engaged schools and universities with a creative exploration of sustainability using solarpunk to help inspire all the participants.

The program encouraged students to collaborate across age groups and develop essential skills through immersive challenges. Highlights included cross-school mentorships, scenario-based adventures and a grand showcase at Edinburgh’s Napier University.

The Solarpunk Island toolkit is freely available for teachers and other educators from the Daydream Believers website.

Solarpunk Conf 2025

Now in its third year, this virtual Solarpunk Conference is planned for 21st June 2025. You can put forward your ideas for a talk or workshop using the form on the link here.

Should solarpunks be cancelling each other?

Are people who should be uniting to build a deliciously sustainable future spending too much time attacking each other? How do we get the balance right between holding people accountable for things we think aren’t cool without fuelling infighting and unnecessary division in the green movement?

Climate Curious host Ben Hurst explores these questions with Jenny Morgan, the author of Cancel Culture in Climate in this podcast. They also explore how you can talk with people you disagree with in a way that has a greater chance of being more fruitful and less confrontational.

Get more solarpunk goodness in your life

We run SolarPunk Stories and publish this substack because we believe it’s the best way we can help bring a deliciously sustainable future closer to reality.

For years now we’ve shared free fortnightly posts about solarpunk art and activism with you. We’re planning to keep doing that and add something more.

Starting from next week, we’ll be publishing extra posts for our paid subscribers. We’re aiming to do at least one of these bonus substacks monthly.

For less than a price of a coffee a month, you will get this bonus content, a free copy of SolarPunk Detective #1 and something else. You’ll be helping fund our essential costs and enable us to do more interviews, reviews and thought pieces about solarpunk.

Next week paid subscribers will get an exclusive interview with Sam Henze. She’s the creator of the Bounty Hunter Solafunk comic book, a solarpunk inspired western.

To get that straight to your inbox, and help make a deliciously sustainable world that much more possible, sign up for a paid subscription today.

Other solarpunky stuff

• Why Doomerism is not the Answer - Solarpunk Alana

• Top 11 Lessons from 6 years of ecovillage research -

  Nicole Reese

• How Climate Change Became a Partisan Issue - Summer Dean

• From dream to reality: Go-op, Britain’s first cooperative railway - Guardian

• 7 Ways to Turn Your Yard into a Food Paradise (Neighborhood Tour) - Andrew Millison

• Clothes destined for landfill become capsule wardrobes for domestic abuse survivors - Positive News

• The UK's first fully electric cross-river passenger ferry "Orbit Clipper" announced - Thames Clippers

• Utopia by Metrik - SolarPunk Stories Playlist

Make solarpunk a reality

The main way this substack grows is people like you sharing it. Help bring a deliciously sustainable future a little closer by passing this onto anyone you think might enjoy a dose of inspiration.

See you in the sunshine,

Alex Holland

Founder, SolarPunk Stories