Earthships: a New Way for Change

We should all be doing our part. This world we live in is in a downward spiral and a change has got to be made. Michael Reynolds is an architect who is trying to make a difference in the world we live in today. He sees the problems we face and has continually managed to create alternative styles of living to better the situations at hand. What is an Earthship you might ask? Well if asked by the creator himself he would define it as, “Independent vessels to sail on the seas of tomorrow.” (Rose, 2004) That may seem quite crazy to most but Reynolds is thinking out of the box and ahead of this time. An Earthship is a self sufficient home in that it requires the use of no utilities. Heated by the sun and using solar and wind power this snug little home has caught the attention of many who struggle in today’s world of high energy costs. Reynolds feels that people should not be homeless as they could live on a small amount of money, if off the grid and relying on the resources the earth has to provide. The primary reason for Reynolds was seeing the unused resources filling the land fills. Reynolds saw this as building material. These Earthships are created completely from recycled resources such as tires and aluminum cans and glass bottles. “Packed with earth, stacked like bricks and plastered over, tires make the perfect building material, says Reynolds.” (Rose) To maintain the naturalism in the home Earthships are built half buried in the earth and half out. The excavated dirt comes to the roof on the northern side of the home. Reynolds states that, “What we are trying to do with these Earthships is make a way for human life to live as intelligently as plant and animal life.” (Knipe, 1991) There are a lot of different views on what is going in this world we are living in today. A main concern on many people’s minds is global warming. So from what has been said, scientists are saying that we are changing the atmosphere and that it is causing damage. So why not do our