I've seen a couple cutesy posts about leaf-shaped solar panels, talking about how rectangular solar panels are inefficient and we only build them that way because it's cheaper, while the real secret most efficient way to do solar is by mimicking leaves, all in a "silly scientists, why didn't you just look at nature" sort of tone. And on top of the tone, the (unsourced) numbers they quoted were...pretty silly, to be honest.

So for the record, if you see someone talking about a solar design having efficiencies >90%...that would magically be the most efficient solar technology on the planet. Compare this record-setting solar cell tech from NREL at 47%. Most commercial solar panels are about 15-20% efficiency (that is, the percentage of solar energy converted into usable electricity).

The only things I've seen about leaf-shaped solar panels increasing efficiency is something like this, where they found that adding a layer of adhesive on top that mimics a leaf's wrinkles and folds increases the efficiency of light harvesting, because the wrinkles concentrate the light.

On the positive side, that's very similar to other work on producing hyper-efficient solar panels, like this one that uses a honeycomb of lens to bend light and concentrate it on the solar cells - so maybe we should romanticize honeycomb panels instead.

@kropotkindersurprise @hater-of-terfs @guerrillatech Indigenous people need comrades who can come to Minnesota to stand up for our basic human rights and oppose Line 3 on August 25. Please spread the word

[ID description: a tiktok by user giiwedinindizhinikaaz]

Hey there water protector! Yes, anyone can be a water protector, you do not have to be Indigenous, you just need to heed that call when the water calls you to protect her because we all know: water is life and we all need it. And it is a human right to have access to clean drinking water for everyone, anywhere.

[A poster appears on screen. It reads: "Treaties Not Tar Sands AUG 25, 2021". It depicts a crowd of protestors with drums, flags and banners saying "Stop Line 3" in above a Capitol building]

And this is why myself and other Anishinaabe people here in Minnesota are inviting people to come with us to the State Capitol here in Minnesota - which is Saint Paul - to occupy space, and to show President Biden that we do not want this goshdarn pipeline, here or anywhere on stolen land. And so please, I invite you to come out, catch a plane - there is MSP, the Minnesota Saint Paul airport - drive out here, but I do understand that there are people who cannot be here and that is ok. But we are hoping for people to be here en masse and in the thousands.

You can find more information on stopline3.org, it is also linked in my bio.

[End description]

much of the shortsighted “garden in every backyard” solarpunk vision of the future is also really rooted in the american obsession with “self-sufficient” capitalist independence imho. 

not a criticism on anyone with a backyard garden, ovbs!! i think backyard gardens are really significant because 1) immediate food aid 2) they give people the chance to develop a personal relationship with nature, which is so important and life changing and a necessary step in being a meaningful steward of the ecosystem on every level. BUT capitalism is still keeping you alienated from everything beyond your backyard, and you can’t give away enough zucchini to fix those structural problems.

and again. it’s easy to turn your brain off and get lost in the pleasure of Having Stuff and the ways that you, personally, are better for your involvement with your backyard garden. we just have to not get complacent with those material victories, and keep challenging the systems that keep us alienated from our own food and our own environment.

Chiara Francesca

Wanted to share this

Sow Good Seeds Abolish Police Abolish Prisons

“Women’s imprisonment has always differed from that of men, because the imprisonment of women, as well as all the other aspects of their lives, takes place against a backdrop of patriarchal relationships.” - Nancy Kurshan

can i get some solarpunk/ancom blogs to interact with this post please? preferably if you post about things to do, things you do, and just activities in general, like stuff i can take into my every day life. i need inspiration!

Scientists produce continuous sheets of sustainable mushroom leather

For the question 'how much food can I grow on a 4m2 balcony?' quite a lot actually. I have 5 tomatoes which would ideally have a bigger container but are producing their first tomatoes. A small eggplant variety, a melon 'minnesotta midget', zucchini, salad leaves, loads of herbs, hot peppers, chard and some Pak chois. It looks lovely I think. Let's hope they continue to grow well.

also be VERY careful w/ “humans are an invasive species” that is an Eco-fascist rhetoric.

humans are not invasive; we deserve to live and develop on this planet. the only stipulation is that we have to help nature do its thing in turn. plant some native veggies, forage invasive ones like crazy and cook them up!!, rescue worms from the driveway when it rains

Did you know you can turn weeds from your garden into terrible baskets? It's fun and free!

I don’t engage with posts that wear me out so I’m making my own post to say that if you’re middle class and you go to a thrift store to get clothes to cut up for your crafts and sewing or support your purse collecting habit that’s fine.

You’re not a gentrifier. You’re not taking resources away from less fortunate people who need them more because thrift stores are businesses, not services, so the more you patronize them the more they expand. I used to work at a thrift store and my boss told me we threw away about half of our donations from the street because they were too damaged or dirty and we threw away another half of the merchandise on the floor that didn’t sell. And that was before Marie Kondo got popular.

So yeah those sheets would look better on somebody’s bed than as a tablecloth you made but they look better as your craft project than getting thrown away. You don’t know. And you’re paying the store to stay open and put another set of sheets out tomorrow. So feel free to shop at thrift stores especially if you donate to them.

Salt to Stars: The Environmental and Community Impacts of Lithium Mining.

A comic by the Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice with art by Sophie Wang, text under the cut. This is part of a toolkit to challenge greenwashing in the climate movement. Please share to support Indigenous water protectors and non-extractive decolonial solutions to climate change!

Lithium and other metals needed for various low emissions/renewable energy technologies, and their associated environmental impacts, are sort of the hidden piece of the picture when we talk about sustainability. One of the reasons I'm so intrigued by geothermal energy is the potential for associated cascade applications, like lithium co-production with geothermal fluids:

The Plunge of Oil Prices Into Sub-Zero Worth.

Via DanClark93 on Reddit

I saw the tag "eat your foes" on a @suzirya post about garlic mustard and thought it made for a good slogan! Eat your foes, especially when your foes are tasty invasive species.

I haven't actually tried making garlic mustard pesto bc I don't know for sure whether the patches nearest me have been sprayed with anything (lots along the roads/culverts).

"Living shorelines are a type of nature-based infrastructure that combine biology with engineering. From North Carolina to Florida, scientists use them to reestablish the sloped shape of healthy shorelines at eroding coastal edges. When the shape is constructed, native plants and other species are introduced to help absorb and disperse the energy of waves that would normally cause erosion.

.....

One of the most vivid examples of their resilience is that they survived flooding and heavy winds from Hurricanes Hermine and Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Irma in 2017, according to Coleman. “We didn’t notice any significant impacts from any of the storms, which is pretty remarkable,” he said."

I love this - better for the environment and cheaper too, compared to seawalls and bulkheads! Using oyster shells recycled from restaurants offers such a great opportunity for local engagement and education, too.

- John Green (x)

Chiara Francesca

Resistance Is Fertile

Solarpunk art by anarchism_no_adjectives on IG: X