Earthships - the way of the future?

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Though sustainable housing isn't the newest thing in the world, the people creating what they call "earthships" (http://earthship.com) seem to have a lot more promise than most. All utilities (and greenhouses for food) built in and sustainable, almost all materials are recycled, and you can learn to make your own in a matter of months. The original creator of these, architect Micheal Reynolds, has been living in one for over 20 years so surely they're durable and reliable as well.

I personally think it's a genius idea ecologically and financially, and might consider learning to do this myself. Would you ever do it?

 

Honestly it depends on the situation.

I certainly think it is worth consideration. What I suspect I'd be most likely to do is incorporate some of the aspects/ideas there in a home that already exists in the preferably urban setting where I want to live.

Thank you for the info resource.

 

No prob, i'm heavily into this kind of thing so I always try to share what I care about. I plan to do something like this as a way to obtain more freedom in my life and not have to ever be part of the "rat race". I actually saw a video about a guy who basically legally freed himself from all social chains (taxes, etc.) to become completely independent. Pretty damn cool, if you ask me.

 

Lol. It had something to do with the fact that he didn't require any of the state's services and was pretty much entirely self sufficient, generating his own power and food and such. It's all in the film "Ungrip" you can watch on youtube.

 

OK, but even if he didn't have a job (and thus didn't pay income tax), he supposedly lived SOMEWHERE. If he owned the place he lived in, he would need to pay property taxes. If he didn't own the place then he'd have to rent, and therefore would need an income stream.

 

I'm not exactly sure how he did it, but from what I understand he owned the land, and when government people asked him to file property taxes and building permits he told them (insert legal jargon here) and they let him go. Apparently there are some supreme court rulings and U.N laws that allow this, don't ask me what they are exactly. It has something to do with the right of self-determination and the consent to being governed I think.

 

It still sounds fishy, but hey, there's no reason you couldn't build a home like this and STILL have a job and pay taxes! It's not like they are mutually exclusive options.

 

There were some areas of the US (notably in Alaska and Montana) that had homesteading exclusion to taxes. Many areas have tax credits for environmentally conscious building. Some areas (mainly in Alaska) have no requirements for building permits.

Hence, carefully selecting an isolated area with no roads, water or electricity available can result in a home with no taxes ... but I'm personally not interested in a life hours from even a small town.

An interesting side note ... there is a road in Washington that was paved with crumb rubber (ground up tires) in an effort to rid the state of tire waste. The road kept getting hotter and hotter until it was melting tires of vehicles on the road and had to be closed down. I personally would be hesitant to use tires as my insulating foundation.

 

I believe they still use the tires is road paving. they jsut add it to some of the different mixtures they use for the roads.

The big question on this topic for me is... can I still play video games and watch my Blu-rays living exclusively in my "Earthship"?

 

The tires are actually surprisingly good insulation, the creator of them lives in the deserts of New Mexico where it routinely gets many degrees below zero and there is no need for electric heating. There is also one in northern Canada and it works fine. They build them in such a way where in the summertime they are less exposed to the sun and are more exposed in the wintertime, heating and cooling the house respectively. The best part about it is that you can learn to build it in a few weeks (the designers wanted it to be as accessible as possible), and there you have a skill not just to free yourself from a lot of monthly expenditures but also have the ability to build this kind of thing for others. For a tree hugger like me, this is a dream come true

And yes, you can play video games. The whole thing is solar and wind powered, and apparently if you want to hook it up to a grid you may pay 50 bucks a year in electricity. If I couldn't throw fireballs in imaginary peoples faces every day of the week, I don't know what I would do.