SteveKLord

Stumbling on a piece of glowing wood out in the forest sounds like a magical experience, but it is possible. Under specific conditions, certain species of mushroom will fluoresce as they consume wood, although it’s rare and hard to recreate.

Now, scientists at Empa have managed to induce those conditions to make glow in the dark wood. The most effective combo turned out to be ringless honey fungus (Desarmillaria tabescens) and balsa wood, which was able to fluoresce for up to 10 days in wavelengths of 560 nanometers – a classic green glow.

Today, imagining a better future is a powerful act of resistance. It’s a way of reclaiming our agency when it feels like the ground is falling away beneath us. This isn't about naive optimism or pretending the difficulties we face aren’t real.

Rather, it’s refusing to let these problems dominate our thinking. It’s about creating mental and emotional space for ideas that push beyond the status quo, even when the present can feel like it’s crushing us with its darkness.

If we only resist, we risk becoming defined by what we oppose. To change the world for the better we need visions to sustain us. Vivid and inspiring ones that helps keep us going through the tough times and challenges ahead. Ideas of the future that don’t deny the difficult work ahead. They give that work purpose and meaning.

This is why we believe in the power of solarpunk. Not as a fantasy to escape to but as a radical re-imagining of what we can build if we work together for a deliciously sustainable world.

Does the failure of Disney’s ‘solarpunk movie’ mean our genre is doomed to remain niche?

With its strong environmental message, diverse representation and multimillion-dollar budget, many thought Disney’s 2022 film Strange World would take solarpunk mainstream. That hope was short-lived.

This film did so poorly it is estimated to have lost Disney $197 million. This made it the worst performing film of 2022 and one of the biggest box office flops of all time.

Does this disastrous commercial performance mean that solarpunk will never reach a wider audience? Will it always be fringe? We explore the film and look at some of the explanations for why it did so badly to find out.

An open access online course about the ways Canada dispossesses Indigenous people of the land -- and the strategies communities are using to get it back.

This seven-module online course from the Yellowhead School is based on the Yellowhead Institute Red Paper, Land Back.

In this course, you will learn about the scope of land dispossession in Canada, historically and in the present, as well as examples of resistance that result in the enforcement of Indigenous models of consent. The course also considers the future of the Land Back movement with reference to climate activism and solidarity with non-Indigenous communities.

Food sovereignty is a matter of life and death in Gaza, where Israel has been deliberately destroying Palestinians’ ability to sustain themselves.

For Yousef Abu Rabee, from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, farming ran in his blood. He had been doing it from a very young age, the 24-year-old said with pride when interviewed by The Electronic Intifada in September.

But over the past year, many farmers in Gaza like Abu Rabee have had to abandon their land, crops and way of life due to Israeli bombing and evacuation orders. Instead of producing their own food, they, like everyone else in Gaza, have become dependent on the little humanitarian aid allowed in as Israel deliberately destroys Palestinians’ self-sufficiency.

In this near future anthology, Solarpunk explores the many ways individuals and resilient groups can fight gentrification, expropriation, abuse and loss of identity, starting within local communities, ultimately to embrace the whole world.

Solarpunk traces a path, rough and tortuous, towards a change now perceived by many as a necessity. “Nobody will give us the future” – seem to say these short stories edited by Future Fiction's Francesco Verso. Solarpunk brings stories without borders, from across the world: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, the UK and USA. Authors are Jerri Jerreat, Ken Liu, Thomas Badlan, Ciro Faienza, Brenda Cooper, Renan Bernardo, Jennifer L. Rossman, Sarena Ulibarri, Gustavo Bondoni, Lucie Lukacovicova, Ingrid Garcia, Andrew Dana Hudson and D.K. Mok.

Solar technology has come a long way since New York inventor Charles Fritts created the first solar cell in 1883.

His device wasn’t very efficient – it was only capable of turning a tiny amount of the sunshine it absorbed into electricity, about 1% to 2%. Today’s solar cells – which are typically silicon-based – can convert an average of around 22% of the sunshine they absorb into power. More efficient solar cells mean each solar panel can generate more electricity, saving on materials and the land needed.

Manufacturing silicon solar cells is also an energy-intensive process. Experts warn that renewable power capacity must triple by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C, and solar is predicted to play a major role, so the industry is racing to increase the efficiency of its technology.

• A new study claims that fungi possess great intelligence to the point that they can make decisions.

• A group of scientists tested how fungi would grow across patterns of blocks, and found that they grew in strategic, resource-preserving ways that indicate the ability for communication across the entire mycelial network.

• These findings could not only lead to a better understanding of these relatively mysterious organisms, but to better comprehension of intelligence itself.

Cities are never truly complete and done; instead they are always changing, always evolving. One positive change is the rise of regenerative cities—urban centers designed to have a restorative relationship with the environment that protects and enhances local ecosystems.

WIRED Japan collaborated with the urban design studio For Cities to highlight some of the world’s best sustainable urban developments, which are harbingers of what is to come. From using local materials and construction methods to restoring ecosystems, these projects go beyond merely making green spaces and provide hints of how cities of the future will function as well as how they will be built. Here are some places where the future is now.

The Assembly of Collectives of Zapatista Autonomous Governments (ACEGAZ), the Zapatista communities and the EZLN call on all people, groups, collectives, organizations, movements and indigenous peoples who have signed the so-called Declaration for Life, to the…

International Meetings of Rebellions and Resistances 2024-2025. Theme: The Storm and the Day After.

The venues for the events, as well as their implementation, are pending due to the evident situation of insecurity and violence that the 3 levels of government (federal, state and municipal emanating from the PRI, PAN, MC, PVEM, PT and MORENA parties), in Chiapas, have provoked, fueled and concealed for several years. Well, that situation exists and persists in the parts and the whole of this geography called “Mexico”, but the intention is for it to be in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas.

The country’s largest area designated for solar energy, Desert Center shows how sprawls of PV panels impact communities.

Ysolt awakes after a freak storm to find herself at the bottom of a ravine in the broken remains of the nomadic home that was supposed to protect her.

Author: Premee Mohamed

Imagine 2200, Grist’s climate fiction initiative, celebrates stories that offer vivid, hope-filled, diverse visions of climate progress.