Summary

Almanac for the Anthropocene collects original voices from across the solarpunk movement, which positions ingenuity, generativity, and community as beacons of resistance to the hopelessness often inspired by the climate crisis. To point toward practical implementation of the movement’s ideas, it gathers usable blueprints that bring together theory and practice. The result is a collection of interviews, recipes, exercises, DIY instructions, and more—all of it amounting to a call to create hope through action.

Inspired by a commitment to the idea that there can be no environmental justice without decolonial and racial justice, Almanac for the Anthropocene unites in a single volume both academic and practical responses to environmental crisis.

Contents

Introduction: The Situation So Far   
Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland

Part 1: Generativity

Not Just Solar: Creating Our Own Powers, Stories, and Spaces
Brontë Christopher Wieland

1. Solarpunk Is a Verb for Rising
The Commando Jugendstil and Tales from the EV Studio

2. In Defense of Hope
Margaret Killjoy

3. Feeding Imagination
Giulia Lepori and Michał Krawczyk

4. A Collective Gardening Shed of Concepts for Planting Solarpunk Futures
Christoph D. D. Rupprecht

Part 2: Independence

Building toward Autonomy: Ways of Reclaiming the Present and the Future
Brontë Christopher Wieland

5. Your Mineral Footprint
Gabriel Aliaga

6. Solarpunk Design Guidelines
Navarre Bartz

7. How to Build a Solar-Powered Website
Kris De Decker

8. Solarpunks See the World: Traversing the World without Destroying It
Craig Stevenson

Part 3: Community

“All Organizing Is Science Fiction”: On Dreaming a Solarpunk Community
Phoebe Wagner

9. Science Fiction and Disability: Engage!
Petra Kuppers

10. The Urban Reef: Breaking Down Barriers between Green Spaces in Urban Environments
Octavia Cade

11. The Commensal Canine
Susan Haris

12. Solarpunk: The Fruitful Revolution
Connor D. Louiselle

Part 4: Ingenuity

Solarpunk Ingenuity and DIY Projects
Phoebe Wagner

13. Visible Mending: A Recipe for Beautiful and Sustainable Clothing
Sari Fordham

14. Appalachian Solarpunk: Growing Trees from Seed for the Plant Revolution
Vance Mullis and Joy Lew

15. Anthrocene Strategy: Foraging
Michael J. DeLuca

16. Multispecies Community Garden: A More-Than-Human Design Concept Proposal 
for Well-Being in Shrinking Cities
Christoph D. D. Rupprecht, Aoi Yoshida, and Lihua Cui

Conclusion: Looking Forward 
Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland

Contributors

Editors

Phoebe Wagner is a writer, academic, and coeditor of Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation. She lives in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Brontë Christopher Wieland has an MFA in creative writing and environment and is coeditor of Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation. He lives in Reno, Nevada.

Reviews

“I’m thankful for all that Wagner and Wieland have done to gather and champion those working in the solarpunk movement, and I believe this book will help bring new solarpunks into the fold, ready to join them in further thought and action.”
Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

“Wagner and Wieland demonstrate the breadth of the solarpunk movement through the collection’s ferocious expression of many possible futures, giving us tools and strategies for bringing those about, but reminding us that the conversation is not, and perhaps not ever, over.”
Sean Guynes, coeditor of Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction