Commentary: Living off-grid in an Earthship home is about many things. It is not just an ethical choice or a building type choice, it is also a lifestyle choice. When you start to live off-grid, and self-sufficiently, you embark on a break out from the matrix/zeitgeist. You start to unplug yourself from the normal, dependent, vulnerable, and highly controlled way of life that many people are used to in cities and highly developed countries. When you are truly self-sufficient and out of debt you take away some of the main sources of stress: buying food, paying the bills, covering the mortgage or rent, and needing to work full-time to allow this to continue. We can also look at environmental issues and great need to build smarter and in a more connected way, especially in the face of climate change. Our global population is rising and with it the poverty level and inequality of wealth in all forms. To compound this issue, the cost of living is also hurtling up! We are moving toward a very unsafe and unsustainable future if we continue to build and live in the same way that we have been doing.

In this non-technical part, we elaborate on WHY Biotecture is... and always will be... a non-commercial option for home builders. This game of business is a joke, and Mike said it well when he commented that:
"it's insane that some kind of a game-like economy can stand between people and feeding themselves."

He's right, and the game of business does nothing but stop evolution and progress of an idea in its tracks. All they are concerned with is profits, and making something that is easy to replicate. This is the opposite ethos to Biotecture, which is here to free us so that we don’t even need money to survive and feed ourselves. Sure we may need business to drive the cogs of this material world around, but things have gone to far when most of the world are forced to live in utter poverty and scarcity.. all as a direct result of commerce.

So Biotecture really is a movement, more than simply an approach to sustainable building. It is our answer to capitalism system, and the only option for us to be able to step out of the rat race and just live our lives. I have lived in an earthship for 12 years, and luckily for me I have almost no monthly bills whatsoever. Despite that I have more power than I can use via solar panels, boiling hot water for a solar powered jacuzzi with water heated by the sun, plants and food growing from grey water botanical cells both inside and outside the house. I am comfortable in summer and winter time and don’t even need to turn the fireplace on year round.. The Earthship just encounters all the forces of nature and stores and funnels them right into my home, with nothing to do or maintain on my part.

Earthship Karuna - A Self Sufficient Off-Grid Home

Earthship Seminar Transcription Session 2 Part 11

So the whole argument for decentralisation is a huge argument. The president is being hit with trying to use centralised utilities and evolve them... like putting power back into the line grid. Well what happens when the grid goes down, I mean does anybody ask him that? The president is not getting advised very well, although he's trying... he can't be an experienced person in this... he has to depend on people to give him that advice, and the general consensus out there is... use the grid, take advantage of the. grid we've got the grid. Well the grid is you know it's like taking advantage of a bowling pin around your neck or something..

What that's like is like the when the Titanic sunk and everybody was scattered out over the North Atlantic, and the little few life rafts that they had. This would be, what we're (governments) doing with situations like that is we're anchoring the life rafts to the Titanic itself. So as it goes down it takes the life rafts with it. I mean we need life rafts independent of the Titanic, and get away from it... because it's it's going down. It already is in trouble.

The sustenance of people should not be subject to an economy. People should have shelter, water, food, and energy, regardless of economy.

So we're we're constantly moving forward with the technology on the buildings. But the the method of making them happen... the biggest Bugaboo that I've seen in the last year and a half, has been the economy. If the economy can cause people to not have a home then we have a problem. The economy is a game that you play like monopoly, for motorcycles, flat-screen TVs, or sewing machines or whatever. But the sustenance of people should not be subject to an economy. People should have shelter, water, food, and energy, regardless of economy.

We're trying to show that it is possible. Then you could affect everything from health to war to everything. To spread that potential around the world. It's like right now our country is going around the world exploiting other countries for oil. When really we have the technology, we have the funding, we have everything we need to go around the country and just make sure every man woman and child on this planet has a home with food and water. And that is possible with just one of the budgets, either the war budget, or the health education and welfare budget.. or any one of the budgets could give everybody on this planet home.

(Question:)Have you guys ever applied for any federal grants to developed this idea more?

No. I mean people are telling us that there's a lot of grant money out there. We could get our hands on it to some extent... but it's like there's a lot of strings attached to getting a grant. It kind of puts you on the radar, and I prefer to fly under the radar.. for lots of reasons... but I'm not really cuz I'm out there you know... in a lot of different ways. So we haven't exploited that, I don't know if we will. We try to make everything. We've had to do this because we have been sued screwed and tattooed up one side and down the other.

So we've had to be like when a zebra is born to a herd in Africa. The herd moves on. That zebra or giraffe or whatever better had learn to walk in like 20 minutes or it's gonna get left behind cuz the herd is moving. So our ideas have to support us immediately. So we've always made it so that what we're doing supports us. Fortunately our needs are not that extensive. We all drive Mercedes, but they're all 1950, 60 70... held together with rivets and whatever. But we all are living in, as far as we're concerned, we're in the lap of luxury. But it doesn't take much to supply it. Amy, the girl who the woman who handles our books and everything, she gives me $500 a week. You know it's all I need. So that's just like designing down the houses, we're designed down our lifestyle so we just don't need that much, so it's easy to make it work.

This brings up one other point that I think is significant, and that is that... we've had a lot of investors, like wanna buy us out and buy into this and all kinds of things... and every single investor wanted to just increase profits, stop evolution, start manufacturing, and get this out there. There's a fortune to be made. See this company has never made a profit... ever... and I've been doing it for a long time. That gives it a buoyancy, in other words... profit is a weight in a balloon almost. You've got to make a bunch of profit for the Board of Directors. The fact that nobody needs a profit in this company gives it a buoyancy. I mean we're traveling light... and you have to travel light to find out about new terrain. And so it actually becomes a way of life. It becomes a lifestyle which maybe is even a valid lifestyle for the entire planet... which gets you further and further away from economy.

I mean it's it's insane that some kind of a game-like economy can stand between people and feeding themselves. So the you know if you start looking at it overall it's all interrelated. You know we're not just talking about environmentalism, we're not just talking about recycling or energy or fossil fuel or economy or politics... or even spirituality. We're talking about everything all into one movement. And that's how we live on this planet.

Please meet some families who took their lives back and now live in real freedom

Trash to treasure: Earthship carries couple to financial freedom ...

SOURCE & READ THEIR STORY

Earthship home, built using 600 tires, completed in Hope River ...

SOURCE & MORE INFO

 

Homesteading Family Living Off-Grid in a Spectacular Earthship

 

 

 

Earthship Seminar Video 2009 - Part 11

I would like to thank Mike Reynolds for giving me permission to transcribe, edit and reformat this work for the Steem Blockchain! If you do read or watch this and have any questions please ask in the comments. I am happy to educate and help you to understand this. Biotecture is amazing in so many ways, and even after 20 years I still have not seen a model of sustainable building that even comes close in so many important areas such as performance, carbon footprint, longevity, ease of build, etc... Now you can also come to understand what Biotecture Really Is about!

READ PREVIOUS TRANSCRIPTS

SESSION 1

Part 1: The Global Model
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-101-learn-with-michael-reynolds-part-1

Part 2: Staying Cool: The Convection Engine
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-seminar-with-michael-reynolds-transcribed-part-2

Part 3: The Evolution of the Global Model Earthship:
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-seminar-with-michael-reynolds-part-3

Part 4: Heating your home with body heat in Norway, about permits in USA and Europe... How to get them fast
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt4-heating-your-home-with-body-heat-in-norway-about-permits-in-usa-and-europe-how-to-get-them

Part 5: How to Retrofit, Getting Permits, Tire Toxicity?
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-5-how-to-retrofit-getting-permits-tire-toxicity

Part 6: Bottle / Can Walls, Tyre Foundations / Snow Water
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-6-q-and-a-bottle-can-walls-tyre-foundations-snow-water

Part 7: Can you insure an earthship?, the double/triple greenhouse, the global model evolution + more
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-7-q-and-a-can-you-insure-an-earthship-the-double-triple-greenhouse-the-global-model

Part 8: Final: Year round fruiting trees, sizing greenhouses + more
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-8-final-q-and-a-year-round-fruiting-trees-sizing-greenhouses-more

SESSION 2

Part 1: Water, how to size your roof, choosing the right materials for water catchment.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-1-water-how-to-size-your-roof-choosing-the-right-materials-for-water-catchment

Part 2: Cisterns, Filtering Water, Designing Down & Layered Thinking.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-2-cisterns-filtering-water-designing-down-and-layered-thinking

Part 3: Water! Be Self Sufficient Secure & Sustainable.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-3-water-be-self-sufficient-secure-and-sustainable

Part 4: Botanical Cells, Using Water 4 Times, Food Production.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-4-botanical-cells-using-water-4-times-food-production

Part 5 : The Solar Toilet, Making Mistakes and Evolving is Part of the Process.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-5-the-solar-toilet-making-mistakes-and-evolving-is-part-of-the-process

Part 6: Black Water Treatment In Any Climate, Food Production.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part6-black-water-treatment-in-any-climate-food-production

Part 7: Q&A: Water, Botanical Cells, Water Treatment
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-7-q-and-a-water-botanical-cells-water-treatment

Part 8: About Solar Power, Doing It Yourself? Solar Vs Wind.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part8-about-solar-power-doing-it-yourself-solar-vs-wind

Part 9: SOLAR POWER: Designing Down, Making Smart Choices.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-9-solar-power-designing-down-making-smart-choices

Earthship Biotecture Transcribed: Session 2/ Part 10: Decentralisation means security and self sufficiency
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-10-decentralisation-means-security-and-self-sufficiency

Did you know, I built four Earthships in India as well as being instrumental the creation of the first Earthship in the UK, Earthship Brighton. If you are also on this path and would like to read my story, I have recently published a book. It is not only a great story, but a valuable resource for you to learn from. I had no experience or training when I embarked on my mission, but managed to successfully build a gorgeous home called Earthship Karuna.

You can buy this book with Steem on the homesteaders co-op. Whilst you are there please do have a look at some of the other products as there are all kinds of great things there!

https://homesteaderscoop.com/product/earthship-chronicles-ebook/

If you don't have any Steem you can also buy the ebook and paperback on amazon.
http://mybook.to/Earthship-Chronicles
or
https://www.amazon.com/Earthship-Chronicles-sufficient-luxurious-experience-ebook/dp/B07MYCBXYB

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