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alpaca-clouds · 9 months

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Solarpunk is not archievable under Capitalism

Okay, let me make one thing very clear: We will never have a Solarpunk future as long as we live under capitalism. Again and again I will find people, who have fallen in love with the idea of Solarpunk, but are unwilling to consider any alternative to capitalism. So, please, let me quickly explain what that just is not gonna work out that way. There will be no Solarpunk under capitalism. Because the incentives of capitalism are opposing anything that Solarpunk stands for.

So let me please run over a few core points.

What is capitalism?

One issue that a lot of people do seem to have is understanding what capitalism even is. The defining attribute of capitalism is that "the means of production" (e.g. the things needed to create things) are privately owned and as such the private owners will decide both what gets created through it and who will get a share in any profits created through them. The ultimate goal in this is, to generate as large as a profit as possible, ideally more and more profit with every year. In real terms this means, that most of those means of productions in the way of companies and the like are owned mostly by shareholders, that is investors who have bought part of the company.

While capitalism gets generally thaught in schools with this entire idea of the free market, that... actually is not the central aspect of capitalism. I would even go so far to argue something else...

The market is actually not free and cannot be free

The idea of the free market is, that prices are controlled by the concept of supply and demand, with the buyer in the end deciding on whether they want to spend their money on something and being able to use that power to also enact control on the supplier.

However... that is actually not what is happening. Because it turns out that the end consumer has little influence, because they are actually not actively participating in the market. The market mainly is something that is happening between multimillionaires. It is their demand (or the lack thereoff) that is the influence. Investors, mainly. Which is logical. In a system, where the power to buy is deciding, the person who can spend multiple millions is gonna have a lot more power, than the person who has twenty bucks to their name.

Hence: 99% of all people are not participating in anything resembling a free market, and the remaining 1% are not interested in such a system.

Money under capitalism

One thing everyone needs to understand is, that for the most part money under capitalism is a very theoretical concept. It might be real for the average joe, who for the most part will not have more than maybe ten grand to their name, but it is not real to multi millionaires, let alone billionairs. Something that is going to be thrown around a lot is the concept of "net worth". But what you need to realize is that this net worth is not real money. It does not exist. It is the estimated worth of stuff these people own. Maybe houses and land, maybe private jets, maybe shares in companies and other things. These people's power and literal worth is tied to them being able theoretically able to sell these assets for money.

In fact a lot of these very rich people do not even have a lot of liquid money. So money they can spend. In fact there are quite a few billionairs who do not even own a million in liquidated money. The money they use in everyday life they borrow from banks, while putting their assets up as a security.

Why capitalism won't abolish fossil fuels

Understanding this makes it quite easy to understand why the capitalists cannot have fossil fuels ending. Because a lot of them own millions, at times billions in fossil fuel related assets. They might own a coal mine, or a fracking station, or maybe an offshore rig, or a power plant burning fossil fuels. At times they have 50% or more of their net worth bound in assets like this. If we stopped using fossil fuels, all those assets would become useless from one day to the next. Hence it is not in the interest of these very rich people to have that happen.

But it goes further than that, because politicians cannot have that happen either. Because the entire economy is build around these assets existing and being used as leverage and security for other investments.

Why capitalism won't build walkable cities and infrastructure

The same goes very much for the entire infrastructure. Another thing a lot of people have invested a lot of money into is cars. Not physical cars they own, but cars manufacturing. So, if we were building walkable cities with bikelanes and public transportation, a lot less people would buy cars, those manufactoring factories becoming worthless and hence once more money... just vanishing, that would otherwise be further invested.

Furthermore, even stuff like investing into EVs is a touch call to get to happen, because the investors (whose theoretical and not real money is tied to those manufacturers) want to see dividents at the end of the quartal. And if the manufactuerer invested into changing their factories to build EVs for a while profits would go down due to that investment. Hence, capitalism encourages them not doing that.

Why capitalism won't create sustainable goods

A lot of people will decry the fact that these days all goods you buy will break within two years, while that old washing machine your grandparents bought in 1962 is still running smoothly. To which I say: "Obviously. Because they want to make profits. Hence, selling you the same product every two years is more profitable."

If you wonder: "But wasn't that the same in 1962?" I will answer: "Yes. But in 1962 the market was still growing." See, with the post war economic boom more and more people got more divestable income they could spend. So a lot of companies could expect to win new costumers. But now the market is saturated. There is not a person who could use a washing machine, who does not have one. Hence, that thing needs to break, so they can sell another one.

The market incentive is against making sustainable, enduring products, that can be repaired. They would rather have you throw your clothing, your smartphone and your laptop away every two years.

Why workers will always be exploited under capitalism

One other central thing one has to realize about capitalism is that due to the privitization of the means of production the workers in a capitalist system will always be exploited. Because they own nothing, not even their own work. Any profit the company makes is value that has in the end been created by the workers within the company. (Please note, that everyone who does not own their work and cannot decide what happens to the value created by it is a worker. No matter whether they have a blue collar or a white collar job.)

That is also, why there is the saying: All profit is unpaid wages.

Under capitalism the profits will get divided up under the shareholders (aka the investors), while many of the workers do not even have enough money to just... live. Hence, good living standards for everyone are explicitly once more against the incentives of capitalism.

Why there won't be social justice under capitalism

Racism, sexism and also the current rise of queermisia are all a result of capitalism and have everything to do with capitalist incentives. Because the capitalists, so the people who own the means of production, profit from this discrimination. This is for two reasons.

For once having marginalized people creates groups that are easier exploitable. Due to discrimination these people will have a harder time finding a job and living quarters, making them more desperate and more likely to take badly paid jobs. Making it easier to exploit them for the profit of the capitalists.

A workforce divided through prejudice and discrimination will have a harder time to band together in unions and strikes. The crux of the entire system si, that it is build on the exploitation of workers - but if the workers stopped working, the system would instantly collapse. Hence the power of strikes. So, dividing the workforce between white and non-white, between queer and straight, between abled and disabled makes it easier to stop them from banding together, as they are too busy quaralling amoung themselves.

Why we won't decolonize under capitalism

Colonialism has never ended. Even now a lot of natural ressources and companies in the former colonies are owned by western interest. And this will stay that way, because this way the extraction of wealth is cheaper - making it more profitable. Colonialism has never ended, it has only gotten more subtle - and as long as more money can be made through this system, it will not end.

There won't be Solarpunk under capitalism

It is not your fault, if you think that capitalism cannot end. You have been literally taught this for as long as you can think. You never have been given the information about what capitalism is and how it works. You have never been taught the alternative mechanisms and where and when they were implemented.

You probably look at Solarpunk and think: "Yeah, that... that looks neat. I want that." And here is the thing: I want that, too.

But I have studied economics. Literally. And I can tell you... it does not work. It will not create better living situations for everyone. It will not save the world. Because in the end the longterm goals are not compatible with a capitalistic system.

I know it is fucking scary to be told: "Yeah, change the world you know in massive ways - or the world will end." But... it is just how the things are standing.

You can start small, though. Join a local party. Join a union. Join a mutual aid network. Help repair things. Help people just deal. Our power lies in working together. That is, in the end, what will get us a better future.

#solarpunk #anarchism #anti capitalism #unions #environmentalism #save the planet #explanation #sustainability #renewable energy #end fossil fuels #communism

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raynebowrayne · 1 month

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The earth is dying.

We probably didn't do it.

We probably won't be able to stop it.

We can stop it.

But we probably won't.

Everything we associate with global climate change is due to only one thing. The hole in the ozone layer.

We discovered it in the 1970s we heard all about it in the 80s and 90s but we stopped hearing about it in the new millenia. It doesn't even get a passing mention these days.

I want you to think of a soap bubble - like the kind you blow through a wand as a kid, a really big one.

Bigger.

The size of our ozone layer.

See all those swirls of color on the surface of the giant soap bubble? See how they're constantly in motion? That's our atmosphere. Those swirls of color are winds carrying moisture and chemicals and particulates all over the globe. Storms form when two large and powerful winds that are both heavy with moisture slam into each other in the atmosphere.

We found a giant hole in the soap bubble. Imagine blowing a soap bubble on a bubble wand very carefully so it doesn't blow off. Imagine blowing it really big. Bigger. Bigger - you get the picture? Now Imagine you stop blowing. What happens? The bubble shrinks, right?

So, what I'm saying is, we're spewing atmosphere into space. We have been for a long time. Thankfully, we're creating atmosphere at a pace that almost matches the speed at which we're spewing it. Almost. But not quite.

10,000 years ago the Sahara desert was lush and green and bursting with life.

25,000 years ago the American southwest was green and lush, too - Las Vegas back then was a lot like the Amazon rainforest is now.

We have to close the hole.

But the hole is the only thing stopping us from suffocating in all the pollution we're producing.

We're venting water into space. A small amount, yes. But water isn't a renewable resource. Not at the rate we're losing it.

We need to thicken the ozone layer to keep the planet from drying up but if we do that we and a lot of other species might die from pollution... we don't know how thick the ozone layer was before the hole formed... but it had to be thicker than it is.

We can create ozone - we can close the hole.

We can end the climate crisis and stabilize both the climate and the weather(for the most part). Imagine a world with no tornados, no hurricanes, no droughts, no blizzards... it's possible.

We have to end fossil fuels as an energy source. If we don't we will literally destroy the entire eco system and kill ourselves and millions of other species. The world will recover. It'll take a few million years - but it will recover. Our species won't be here to see it. Because if we don't end fossil fuels we'll choke the surface of the planet to death on pollution. Land, water - too polluted to grow most plants or support much life in the form of a very few species from which many new species will evolve by the time the ecosystem recovers from fossil fuel damage.

We can do it. We can end fossil fuels and begin healing the ozone layer. We can do it in the next 10 years with enough money invested in it.

It'd cost a few billion dollars to get started. Maybe 50 people on the planet could afford to pay for it out of their pocket and not really miss the cost of saving us all. Don't hold your breath waiting for one to step up.

How can one rich person save the world? By replacing fossil fuels with free energy. It's not a myth. It's entirely workable.

First you need a powerful magnet. I recommend a N52 or higher neodymium magnet. Make it 2 inches thick 4 inches tall and 8 inches long. It should be magnetized so that one of the 2x4 ends is positively and the other is negatively charged.

Take a ring of pure iron that is 5 inches tall, 1 - 2" thick, and has an inside diameter of about 10 inches and coat it in gold. Inside the inner portion of the ring you're going to place blocks of copper with a wire attachments on the ends, in place of traditional coils(I'll call these "coils" from here on out but they aren't really traditional coils). There should be 8 of these coils, and they should be 4 inches tall about an inch thick and 2 inches wide... it's not a bad idea to coat them in gold for longevity... they should be positioned so that they line up perfectly with the top and bottom of the 2x4 ends of the magnet and are about 1/2" from the top and bottom of the inside of the ring. They should be attached to the ring using a method to ensure maximum conductivity.

The magnet should have slightly rounded ends so that it fits inside this ring of coils and comes within a hair's breadth of touching them. It should be attached via a brace in the center of an axel so that it can spin perfectly centered inside the coils while not quite touching them. I'll call this metal ring, coil, and magnet on an axel device the "core" from here on out.

This axel with the magnet atrached to it should be driven by a 1 or 2 Kw e-bike type brushless electric motor.

The motor should be driven by a controller box, like an e-bike controller which should be powered by a 48v or higher lifepo4 battery with at least 100 to 200 amp hours capacity and a fairly fast charging speed.

By elevating the core and using a large gear on the axel we can use a small gear on the motor to give more torque and make it easier to prevent overheating the core or the motor.

The coils should be attached to wires that connect them to a voltage regulator/transformer that can regulate the wild electricity produced by the core and transform it into a 50 or 60ghz 120 or 240v feed...whatever matches the local power feed for the region its intended to be used in.

If my calculations are correct that whole set up: the core, the motor, the battery, the transformer box( I call all of that in one device my "generator") should produce enough electricity to run at least 1 to 5 houses, depending on their size and what not, without ever having a brown out moment. If tied to the grid all excess power can be shunted down the line and used for things like traffic signals and street lights. If every house has this as it's energy source and we scale this up a bit to match the needs of any building... any car, any ship, any train, any jet even... we can end fossil fuels.

To keep the battery charged the charger should be able to charge it at its maximum safe charge speed, which will make it so the battery can keep powering the motor while it charges. Side note: program the charger to only kick on when the battery reaches 10 - 25% capacity and kicks off at 100% to extend the life of the battery.(the charger plugs right into any outlet and should be left plugged in at all times.)

So why would it take billions? To set up the manufacturing centers and start producing these on a massive scale.

Sell them for 3 - 5x overhead until the cost of setting everything up is recouped then drop it to 2x overhead, flat, and you'd be a trillionaire before you died of old age if you're under 60 now - even if you split the profits with me.

The problem is that replacing fossil fuels only solves the choking to death on pollution issue, it doesn't solve the ozone issue.

That's the expensive part.

You'd need to use this generator to power ozone generators. You'd need to build a network of steel towers across a huge swath of Antarctica, right in the center where noting lives or roams. Imagine the Eiffel Tower, but instead of that iconic rotunda thing at the top, imagine a giant steel toilet brush made of rebar. Now pack those towers together in such a way that when you add massive amounts of electricity to those rebar bristles they spark off of each other - basically creating an ocean of lightning a hundred or more feet off the ground. Of course, each tower would require its own generator or bank of generators and it/they would need to be inside a structure (built between the base feet of the tower) that's not easily damaged by cold - fireproof helps, too.

Ozone is formed by electrical discharge in air. The only way to make enough to patch up the hole in the ozone layer and rethicken the ozone layer in time to prevent catastrophe is to create this massive field of lightning generating towers.

If you want to save the world build the generators, build the towers, end fossil fuels, generate ozone.

I've worked on this problem since I was a kid - over 30 years now. I don't have the money to build my generator. I have no choice but to give it away like this because I'll never have the money to build it. But we need it.

Our planet IS dying. We didn't cause it, I don't think, but we can fix it.

My generator, one rich person, and a whole lot of steel can save the planet.

If you've got the money, build it.

Save us.

Get even filthy-rich-er.

I'll answer any questions you have about any part of the device, just message me.

I'm giving up my life's work and every dream I ever had, right here and right now, in this post - in hopes that somehow, someday, someone will build the generator and the lightning field and save the world.

#free energy #electricity #save the world #end fossil fuels #rich people #elon musk #bill gates #engineering #save us

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