Earthships Chronicles
Part I: Why I went to Earthship Academy
When I first learned about earthships, they seemed too good to be true. An off grid, sustainable autonomous dwelling that repurposes and up-cycle waste for building materials, harvests rainwater and uses it 4x, passively heat and cool the space, uses renewable energy for electricity, and grows food! A kind of holistic, multi-tasking, Swiss Army knife of climate solutions. Could this be THE climate solution of my dreams?! For the first time in a long time, I started to feel a glimmer of hope.
Despite the many exciting new green technological developments and innovations, and the many public and private investments in programs and projects intended to achieve net zero or reduce harmful environmental impacts, the majority of them tend to be market based solutions that still entail extracting and exploiting resources to make more “stuff” to be bought and sold. They are the type of climate solutions that avoid — by design — challenging the status quo of the structure of power and wealth distribution. In short, they are not grounded in the principles of climate justice.
Not only are we overheating the planet, but human activities such as deforestation, urbanization, infrastructure development, mining, manufacturing, and industrial agriculture are destroying ecosystems and accelerating species extinction faster than ever. The very systems we depend on to survive on earth. But somehow we’re going to be able to pull our planet back from the brink WITHOUT having to curtail our over consumption addiction or destructive activities at all. It just doesn’t add up.
It is also unhelpful when our political leaders keep enacting nominal climate actions — at best — while continuing to coddle the fossil fuel industry. Supporting the transition to a low carbon economy is all great, but you’re undermining your own good efforts if you don’t stop the harmful activities causing the problem in the first place. Unfortunately, the opportunity to ease ourselves gently off of our fossil fuel addiction is decades long passed.
Then Covid-19 hit and it went from bad to worse. Other concerns took precedent and most climate actions were put on hold or abandoned altogether. Our social safety nets were stretched beyond their limits. Those with the most wealth and power in our society took advantage of this period of chaos, fear, and uncertainty to consolidate even more wealth and power for themselves, including doubling down on fossil fuels. (See this and this) Even a global pandemic couldn’t slow down the rate of planetary destruction. In fact, it accelerated.
The other feature of this capitalist death cult is how harmful it has been to our mental and physical health. As if the rat race wasn’t already disconnecting and isolating enough, Covid made it worse and exposed how hollow it all is. The forced “Big Pause” gave us the space to sit with ourselves long enough to realize the absurdity of the way we’ve been doing life. The technology we use, the built structures we live and work in, the machineries and gadgets of convenience in our daily lives, and the hyper competitiveness all serve to disconnect us from the rest of the natural world, from each other, and even from our own selves. The way we grow and source our food and the pollution from our activities are also harmful to our health. Microplastics have been found in our blood stream and PFAS (forever chemicals) have contaminated every corner of the globe.
So, while many were eager to “get back to normal”, I had to wonder:
Why?! What was so great about the status quo pre-Covid? It was barely working for the majority anyhow. And “normal” was making the planet unlivable AND us miserable.
And if it wasn’t really working for the majority to begin with, and will likely get worse as the planet becomes more unlivable as the result of continuing with the status quo, wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity to reimagine how we do life altogether? Why limit ourselves in what’s possible?! Let’s dream REALLY big!
Ever since childhood, I had a deep sense that it’s possible for humans to live in harmony with the planet. To get what we need to live comfortably without harming the earth. But perhaps it was an ancient knowledge buried deep in my ancestral DNA because there was certainly a time human tribes the world over knew how to work with nature rather than against her — such as beautifully told here in this TedTalk by Lyla June.
In earthships, I saw potential for, not only an effective climate solution, but a way of doing life that would be healing for us too. A chance for us to get out of the rat race to a degree. It was with this perspective that I went to Earthship Academy last November. I wanted to figure out if earthships are the real deal and what it might take for ME personally, as well as the rest of the industrialized human society, to change our way of doing life. It’s a long shot but it’s time to go big or go home — actually we may not have a home to go back to if we don’t get this right.
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In Part II: Earthships Design & Build, I will give my reflections on what I learned and observed at Earthship Academy. Part III: A Month in An Earthship is a report of my experience staying in an earthship. Finally, in Part IV: Earthships and Beyond, I will give my perspective on ideas and concepts I believe could improve and make earthships more accessible to more people.
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For a broader perspective on why the status quo of exploitative capitalism and globalization is unsustainable, check out Local Futures Podcast. I recommend the ones from 2022 (only 4 episodes), but if you love listening to podcasts, by all means check out more.
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Resources:
Earthship Biotecture website ; Design Principles
Earthship Biotecture’s YouTube channel — tons of videos explaining how earthships are built & function
Garbage Warrior — 2011 documentary about Mike Reynolds & his earthships; http://www.garbagewarrior.com/
New Earthships capture more energy, water and food at lower cost — Kirsten Dirksen YT channel
How to build Off-Grid Earthship homes with TRASH! — Belinda Carr YT channel
Earthships — America’s Off-Grid Community — Off the Cuff YT channel
The Off Grid Guru YT channel — lots of good info. on this channel created by a guy who went through the EA himself and spent some time at the Greater World.
