Dennis Weavers Earthship

February 14, 2008

“Dennis Weaver, the US retired actor, here builds himself a mansion made almost entirely from….old tyres and dirt. This is all eco-modernisation, proving once and for all that eco-friendly design and construction/building does not have to smell or look funny. In fact, it is cheaper, quicker, easier and safer to construct such an ‘earthship’ than any conventional construction technique! This is eco-rationality in action. Prepare to be amazed.” - Google Video


Video: Google Video

G’day again it’s me Beam and I got to say the idea of building your own home, staying off the Grid; unless it’s to sell them power, and capturing & storing your own water appeals to me greatly… and why wouldn’t it?

Some years back I had a friend who lived in a ‘Straw House’ and no Wolf was ever going to blow that house down, and contra to what most people might think, inside it looked much the same as a lot of homes I’ve been in, though it was a lot better insulated.

Personally I’m not too impressed with most of the houses I see and I believe that this has a lot to do with the Bankers who wont support alternative building methods, by giving people loans to build them, or then there’s those other cretins the Councilors, who might say that they don’t ’suit’ the area… well they would if there were more of them.

Mind you those Councilors, until relatively recently would not allow rainwater tanks… now you have to have one if your building a new house, which at best shows how slooow they are… remember I’m in Australia, supposedly one of the driest, if not the driest continent on Earth. You would think that capturing the rain is a better solution than letting it go down the drain wouldn’t you, you’d think it’s quicker, cheaper, easier and logical to offer a ‘cash back’ for people installing a suitable tank, than say building another Dam or a power hungry desalination plant?

Logic, well OK then ethical logic, has little to do with how decisions are made. A Politician’s logic revolves around themselves, our previous State Pollie who’s name was Carr, ironically didn’t drive, landed a $500,000 pa job with the very same bankers (Macquarie) who benefited through, again ironically building roads and tunnels for cars… well OK lets be honest for the Bank.

But wait there’s still more, his replacement, Morris Iemma, who for some inexplicable reason I keep calling him Morris Enema, has also inexplicably, still got his hart set on a desalination plant, which more than likely will be financed by Macquarie and then to cap of his hopefully short and intellectually lethargic career as State Premier, with the help of his Treasurer Michael Costa; who’s more like one of The Sopranos mindless thugs, they’ve got the power covered too, they want to sell NSW’s Electricity… didn’t they notice what happened to California when it privatized it’s electricity?

At this point I will ask, seeing you can’t, how the hell did I get from Dennis Weavers home built home to dumping on politicians? mmm tricky. Building a house is both important and complex in ways not often considered. It’s like health, education, food and a host of other necessities that have been captured by big business for the benefit of big business (ultimately Banks). My proof, Florida and the Tornado belt USA where they keep building poorly designed and built homes that keep getting blown down by Hurricanes & Tornadoes which has been going on for years and it seems, will probably be happening more frequently in the future… this can not be for the benefit of the home owners.

I think I’m going to talk more of the way we might better build better homes in my subsequent posts.



Written by Beam · Filed Under Building, Energy, People 

Comments

Got something to say?