Solarpunk is innately about hope for a better future, but Desert is rather about the impossibility to save the world from climate change and the opportunities for anarchy that arise after the world’s end. It’s not as if Desert is devoid of hope, but rather it sees hope and possibilities within the end of the world. In that respect, there is some overlap with solarpunk, but I can’t help but think the nihilism doesn’t jive well with the solarpunk ethos.
I agree and resonate a lot of what you’ve written except for the first part on winning climate change. I think the IPCC reports are pretty clear that we’ve already lost. Even if somehow we achieve world revolution, we will still end up in an apocalyptic 1.5C scenario. There’s nothing to debate: a 1.5C scenario is already inevitable and it will be pretty bad. What isn’t inevitable is a 2.0C or higher scenario. That’s where we come in: solarpunks and anarchists alike have to struggle for reaching a 1.5C world and things like degrowth and just transition.
The world as we know it will end, but that doesn’t need to mean mass death and devastation. That’s where I depart from Desert because it seems to say that the mass death and devastation will create new avenues for freedom. Cool I guess, but I rather save as much people as I can.