Mr. BugOut
Young archtitect planning his own bugout and looking for buddies to cooperate with and possibly share the bugout.…
March 3, 2022
No Comments
Young archtitect planning his own bugout and looking for buddies to cooperate with and possibly share the bugout.…
Boasting an outer shell made of stacked car tyres packed with earth, an Earthship claims to be a cutting-edge, sustainable green home made from recycled materials. In fact there are serious design flaws: from off-gas from the tyres to overheating in ultra-hot places like Australia. All in all, having an Earthship in your life is like having a particularly sensitive pet – which needs constant feeding and excercise.
But that has not stopped shameless American architect Michael Reynolds touring Australia’s North Coast, preaching his particular brand of Earthship.
In Melbourne, he is in league with the Ceres community in Brunswick East which has a small project where you can pay to experience Earthship construction techniques. The Group, which always relied on volunteers to build its empire, has now found a marvellous new idea – get people to pay $160 ozzie dollars for a weekend ramming earth into old tyres.
Reynolds, who did not invent the Earthship concept, says its “a vessel sailing on towards tomorrow.” …
There are only 24 canal boats in America – this trip around the system of waterways circling eastern North America plans to change all that.…
US Army tests off-grid living quarters, as well as preparing major bases to become energy self-sufficient and therefore secure.…
John Wells lives in a shack he has grandly titled the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy And Sustainable Living Field Laboratory.
When I visited he told me he had wanted to leave his glitzy fashion photographer world behind, a world of “mounting debt and an overwhelming feeling of being trapped in the life you have chosen.” He was looking for a simple life but a comfortable one
Solar PV from off-grid sources will account for 1% of global electricity says the IEA, and 25% in total will be solar…
This site does not talk enough about the great new gadgets and technologies which make off-grid living ever more comfortable. Here are two – your favorite suggestions please, readers, in comments at end of this story.:-
The impact of the microwave oven on human grazing habits has been extreme. It can reheat frozen food or cook raw food in a fraction of the time required of a conventional oven and has brought the convenience of preparing food to new levels. The WaveBox Microwave Oven is a…
It was obvious from the start that the Copenhagen climate conference was doomed.
World leaders were trying to square an impossible circle. They had to reduce carbon emissions whilst paying off the crippling debts incurred by Western financial institutions during the asset bubble of the past few years.
The only solution that would have led to an agreement in Copenhagen would also have caused riots in Washington, Paris, London, Berlin and Tokyo. The problem comes from an inability to level with the public as to exactly what has to be done to get a grip on pollution.
For carbon emissions to fall, energy use has to fall and for that to happen, either the population has to fall or GDP per capita has to fall (see our earlier article on this subject – https://off-grid.net/2009/11/12/scrap-carbon-targets-–-they’re-pointless/).
There is no chance of the population falling, unless H1N1 comes to the politician’s rescue. And that means GDP has to fall, which entails a shrinking economy. This in itself is no bad thing after decades of growth.…
Off-Grid founder Nick Rosen is interviewed on CNN today.
The article puts Off-Grid living into the context of Copenhagen. In the interview given at the start of the climate talks, Rosen dismissed the whole process,saying it had no chance of success.
“We are still being fed the lie that we can somehow keep our lifestyles just like they are — just tweak them a little bit…
We are honored to welcome a serving member of the US Armed forces as our newest regular contributer.
Laurie Tamminen is currently in a theater of war that is featured in the media every day. Her dream over the next two years is to build herself a new home off the grid. Here is her first dispatch from the frontline of the off-grid learning curve:
Thinking about building your new home off the grid?
Anyone will tell you that the first time you try something new, it can be frustrating or a flat out failure. This doesn’t have to be the case when decided to build your new home off-grid. The first correct decision you made was deciding to build a home that is energy efficient and environmentally friendly. …
A verbatim account of Sarah Palin discussing energy and the enviuronment with Rush Limbaugh…
Biomass is freedom for a village that has ceased to pay any bills for power or heat…