Thanks Ozzy. I had never heard of the Earthships. I couldn’t take much of the video, it’s all very “global warming” and “climate change” which I think is a lot of bunk, but that said, these houses look very cool. The LC might not end up with Earthships per se, but self-sustainability will probably be very, very important.
One of my friends is friends with your neighbor. Small world.
EG is oil rich…for their dictator and his family at least but the island that Malabo is on is supposedly the only remotely livable place there. The tropics are hell if you are used to wearing clothes and not dying of Malaria. And that is without Obiang being paranoid of foriegners with weird plans of colonization.
Lots of English speakers in Black Beach these days.
Yeah - anthropogenic global warming - can neither be disproved nor proved. And probably never will be - global climate being far too complex. The models are useless because of the associated uncertainties - which somehow never make it into the IPCC reports or the front page. Still, it would not surprise me a bit if it turned out to be fact. Like any system, or network, the planet has tolerances which, to me as an engineer, it seems foolish to deny can be exceeded. It’s been so politicized now, that people choose to ‘believe’ or ‘disbelieve’ due to ideology. Like disbelieving in, say, gravity would have any effect. Either it’s factual or not - there is no ‘believe’.
Anyway, ignoring that stuff, I’m sort of amazed the whole patriot/militia community is not out there building the hell out of these things. Can you say ‘defensive’ fortification?? They’re buried mostly in the ground for chrissakes! And totally self sufficient. And, again as an engineer, I gotta say: these things represent a totally elegant solution to the problem of shelter. Using thermal mass, the planet’s geothermal properties and radiant energy instead of constantly using electrical power to blow either hot or cold air into a space to keep it at comfort level? Totally brilliant! And economically, I could get used to never paying utilities again.
I wonder how people get away with building these and avoiding building codes. I don’t know what it is like in the US, but in Canada, we’re expected to have 1 million inspections and permits. The wiring all has to be done by a licensed electrician. You have to get your driveway approved before you can pour cement into the forms, and they are anal to the centimeter. Everything is so crazily regulated, earthships one would expect would be on the radar of every trade union.
Oh man, if only that were possible! Yeah, I’d be right next to you. Space pirates. 
Thanks for the link - hard to find good hard sci-fi.
That said, and my fond wishes aside, we are creatures of this planet down to the DNA level. We cannot - at this stage - survive without it. Hell I read an article a while back that said scientists have been trying to create soil from scratch for years - and had failed again. EO Wilson probably said it best: humans are “a biological species tightly dependent on the natural world. As formidable as our intellect may be and as fierce our spirit …those qualities are not enough to free us from the constraints of the natural environment in which our human ancestors evolved.” In short, whether because of techno-or-biological limitations, we’re stuck here for the nonce. Which is just one reason the quest for sustainable liberty is so urgent.
I bought the DVD - most of it is about how the local government shut down Reynold’s operation, how the state legislature killed his bill twice, how his architect’s license got yanked (no coloring outside the lines allowed for the sheep), and his fight to get the permitting process to allow for these structres to be built. So - a very valid point. Basically, it was only after his team got global recognition for going into the Andaman Islands after the tsunami a couple of years back and showed people how to build sustainable and earthquake proof houses from the wreckage that he started making progress. The legislators finally figured out that there were tourist moneys to be made from appearing to be ‘green’ and passed his bill, 3rd time through. So it definitely depends on where you try to build them. In America, Scotland and England, it took him 3+ years, in 3rd world countries, about 3 months. That’s why I think the 3rd world is where it’s gonna be at come the collapse. We in the industrialized nations will be strangled by our own absurdities and contradictions and we’re too ill adapted to change.
I’m not sure we’ll set out into space to colonize the moon, Mars or other planets in our lifetimes but I’m not so pessimistic about the possilibility of colonization. Scientists are already working on soil-less hydroponics just for growing more food here on earth (in skyscrapers, see a recent Popular Science article, for example).
I like Coyote and its sequels a lot. I’m a judge for next year’s Prometheus Hall of Fame Award (for libertarian speculative fiction, awarded by the Libertarian Futurist Society). Coyote probably won’t win considering what it is up against but I nominated it anyway since it was overlooked in the Best Novel Award judging when it was first published.
My understanding is that where these have been built, have been in largely unincorporated areas. That is, few (if any) building codes. And since they can theoretically be constructed by the inhabitants, even most municipalities allow for an owner’s permit, that is, I can do the electric work in my own house, as long as I can do it well enough to explain to the City inspector what it is that I did, and how I did it.
I wrote about earthships a few months back. The biggest downside is that they’re not any cheaper to build (in terms of material inputs) than a wood or steel-framed house, and they want to charge you for the blueprints. If the developers are really stoked about the proliferation of Earthships, they should make the plans available for free.
If you can build a self-sufficient house that survives on 8 inches of rain per year, imagine what you could do with a milder climate? It is possible that “earthships,” if they ever became popular, could completely supplant the current, busted model of “public goods,” provided by government and paid for with confiscatory taxes and implicit violence. When we also consider that they’re environmentally friendly, hell, symbiotic wouldn’t be too far off-the-mark, and tremendously efficient, storing heat and energy like a giant battery, they appear to be a win-win proposition. Also, they can help destroy peoples’ reliance on the parasite State.
Plus, they look like modded out hobbit holes, which is a benefit in and of itself!
Like all climate change scammery, someone is going to pay, and it’s definitely going to be the people on the leading edge of compliance (first adopters).
So what you meant to say is “People will be restricted to homesteading only 5 acres of land.”
I think most people understood that he was talking about an initial allocation of land.
Who is he to allocate land, if he’s not the owner of the land?
Not entirely sure to which post this was directed. But if in regard to earthships, it’s misguided. There is no ‘compliance’ involved. Reducing reliance on existing systems that are all part of the State’s network of entrapment and servitude, and help to perpetuate it, is in and of itself beneficial, IMO. If this happens to also reduce one’s carbon footprint AND lead to no utility bills, it’s hard for me to see this as something for which ‘someone is going to pay’.
I’d also counsel you to be cautious in regard to your assessment of global warming. I’ve personally put an enormous amount of effort into studying both the science and the politics of this issue, and have concluded that the most one can say with total confidence - based on the facts and evidence - is: we just do not know. We simply do not have an adequate understanding of the global climate system to even give probabilities that make any sense. But it is entirely within the realm of possibility that human inputs ARE causing temperatures to rise, just as it is entirely within the realm of possibility that this is not occurring. Thus, to assert that it is a ‘scam’ is to engage in magical thinknig instead of reason or logic or fact or evidence.
Stop being obtuse.
I meant the charge for the blueprints. Everything climate change or global warming related has a price tag, it’s hysterical consumerism, IMO.
Oh, I believe there is global warming. I just don’t believe that our exhaling is the cause of it. I also believe in global cooling, and I don’t believe our exhaling is the cause of that either.
The planet changes temperature. I fully believe that.
As for the rest, I don’t want to argue with or insult you, but I think it’s pretty clear you have a perspective settled closer to warming/change=true and that’s cool, it’s your deal. I’m just saying, I don’t have that perspective.
Do you realize how many times you just said ‘I believe’?? Rather than, ‘I think’? That’s what I mean. Not trying to offend, and apologies if I have, but I do think fact and evidence trumps faith (read: belief without facts and evidence to back it up) every time. Faith is one of the big reasons we’re in such a predicament: people have been contioned to ‘believe’ that the State is a socially beneficent entity, rather than looking at the facts, using their brains to THINK, and realizing it’s anti-social and malevolent.
This is going off topic, so going to start another thread.
Yes, I was speaking to the intial allocation of land. The land is unclaimed so there is no owner so I am really just organizing the identification of where the group will be homesteading.
Thanks for the input and be sure to join the forums at the site for further discussion of these important issues.
Thanks for the link. If your willing how about providing a write-up with information maybe pictures and estimated costs for construction and I can add it to the Liberty Colony site as one of the various areas people can invest in in the Liberty Colony. There is no reason that freedom loving people can’t provide mortgages for Colonists to build these Earthships.
Maybe we can form some sort of partnership for the organization and construction of these as well.
Your help would be appreciated.
Someone should open-source the earthship idea, that would be a start.
Right now, they cost the same as a wood/steel-framed house, and the “owners” want to charge you about $5-$10k for the blueprints.