I have family that will be moving to Maine shortly, hopefully I'll get to see the positive impacts this has for the state.
I agree that remote work isn't the end and that it helps to allow time and energy to be used for community-driven interaction. We won't truly be at "an end" for solarpunk since we always want to keep making life better for everyone, so any opportunity we have to reduce our impact on the climate and work with the people around us is cause to celebrate if only a little.
I currently work at a place where I could do 90% of my job remotely, but because one department has to be in the building our director requires everyone to work on-site. I lose a lot of time that could be used for self improvement or forging social bonds just sitting at a desk waiting for a phone call. If I could work remotely, I feel like I'd have the time and energy to bike to a community garden and help grow food for people at the very least.
There is a solarpunk festival happening soon near me and there will be some job fair stuff as well. I'll go and see if there's something I can do that helps our planet as well as myself if I can. Any improvement is nice.
Maybe a dumb question but how does funding from fossil fuel companies influence the research? Does it not just get sent to the college to use as they see fit?