u/21Kuranashi

Love to see it.

But the "pollinator garden" in the third picture was 90% overgrown grass and dandelions, which made me laugh.

Light is without doubt one of the greatest limitations and controls of life, and the greatest source is the Sun. For billions of years, this has influenced the way in which animals have evolved and adapted to their surroundings.

As well as this, in the Sun’s absence, animals must come up with ingenious tactics in order to survive. For instance, during the night and in deep-sea environments, a lack of sunlight controls the way life behaves. Lions and other big cats for instance have evolved to hunt best in total darkness and are far more dangerous with no light.

On the other end of the spectrum, animals such as reptiles and birds can be totally dependent on the Sun. Reptiles, for example need to warm-up in the Sun as they are ectotherms, and are unable to function properly when their bodies are cold.

The Sun can also be used for migration, both in the sea and on the land. It therefore controls nature both directly and indirectly, and moulds the way life functions around it.

Sources: https://www.thesolarcentre.co.uk/blog/2016/08/09/sun-controls-nature/?amp=1

Article & Illustration by @hannah - SolarCentre_Blog

#Terra Viva, Vivus Locus, Viva Civitas

Looks like NCR residents are discovering that supply-demand works both ways, even for domestic help.

Honestly, not entirely a bad thing in my opinion.

Original creator is Karl Jilg, @kallejilg on Instagram

Shifting Baseline Syndrome is one of the major reasons ecological collapse and species extinction are often widely underestimated.

Each generation grows up accepting the environment they inherited as “normal", forgetting how abundant wildlife, forests, rivers, and ecosystems once were.

>As biodiversity declines gradually over decades, society adapts to lower & lower ecological baselines instead of recognising the scale of loss and it's tragic consequences.

For centuries, dolphins and other large aquatic species were common in rivers and coastal waterways, but now, these waterbodies are considered too polluted or urbanised for them. Historical records describe dolphins in the canals and lagoon systems around Venice, while the Ganges river dolphin once thrived across much of the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system.

Today, many people view heavily degraded rivers as “normal” like the Seine, simply because they never experienced these ecosystems in their older abundance. What previous generations would have considered ecological collapse is now often mistaken for a healthy or restored environment because collective ecological memory has faded.

However, during Covid years, we saw these vectors changing due to our lack of pressure on environment and that lead to the flora & fauna recovering from our damage and pollution.

Source:

>Pic 1: @emilyebuchananc on Instagram

>Pic 2: @weareparklanelandscapes on Instagram

SBS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_baseline

Dolphin in Venice: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/06/mimmo-bottlenose-dolphin-seen-near-st-marks-square-inspires-venice-rescue-effort

Records of Gangetic Freshwater dolphins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges_river_dolphin

Global coral bleaching event 23-25: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023%E2%80%932025_global_coral_bleaching_event

He goes by ArlingtonAF (the artist, not the knight)

Utrecht feels like one of the closest real-world glimpses of Solarpunk urbanism. Not because it is perfect, but because it consciously chose to reverse destructive infrastructure and rebuild around people, water, ecology, and human-scale mobility.

A highway that once cut through the city was removed and transformed back into a living canal system. 💚

Streets prioritize cyclists and pedestrians over automobiles. Green-blue infrastructure cools the city, manages water, and restores biodiversity while still functioning as public space increasing the mental & physical health for its inhabitants.

What makes Utrecht fascinating is that it proves ecological urbanism does not require futuristic megastructures or fantasy technology. Much of it comes from reclaiming space from cars, restoring natural systems, densifying intelligently, and designing cities around livability rather than extraction.

It feels less like “a city of the future” and more like a city remembering how to coexist with its environment again.