[Cob] PaperCob!

[GlobalCirclenet]

I know it's fruitless to argue with the clueless, but ... replies interlined

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On 7/6/2006 at 1:35 PM Dognyard wrote:

>GlobalCirclenet wrote:
> 
>> This "almost-all eco-earthen house" apparently doesn't have a roof,
>> windows, doors, appliances, utilities, foundation, or anything else.
>> Because all those things require other materials not "so eco-earthen".
>
>They do? 
>Foundations of dry-stacked stone are "eco-earthen"...can't get much more
>"eco-earthen" in fact.

If you happen to have plenty of stone shaped just right on your property. Or you burn a lot of fossil fuel hauling it there. That's if the code police don't shut you down. 

> Windows are what you make of them and may be both
>detrimental and beneficial to a heating/cooling system at the same
>time...and your heating system may be passive solar gain and a wood
>fire...your cooling system may be earth berms, a cold sink, or simply
>opening said windows to allow the air to move through.

All windows lose heat. But you can do without windows, or doors for that matter. Just never look out or go outside. And while you're at it, show us a passive solar house that doesn't require a lot of thermal mass concrete, stone, or water-holding structures which all require energy to make, move, or install. Maybe you'd like to shovel enough dirt to berm a house without heavy equipment. I wouldn't at 62. 

>Roofs as well can most certainly be eco-earthen. Use totally natural
>materials if you don't mind re-roofing every few years or so. Insulate
>the ceiling with wool. There are hundreds of options for making an
>eco-earthen roof...from practical to impractical...but all of them
>do-able to some extent or other, in some part of the world or other.

Wool? As in sheep? Can you spell v-e-r-m-i-n? Hundreds of options? Like thatch? They have to redo thatch every year. Try and get fire insurance on that one.

>Who says you must have appliances?  You can cook on an open fire indoors
>or out if you prefer, and cool your food by suspending it down your well
>as we did to some extent when I was a child. On a hot day, if you opened
>the cover to the well, it was like standing in front of an open
>refrigerator. Who says you must have utilities? No one says you MUST be
>hooked up to gas and electricity. Solar, wind (if you have it), candles.
>We can all get by with a whole lot less than we do, other than someone
>who says they know better is constantly trying to convince us all we
>MUST have these things.

Sure, just live outdoors, no appliances, no refrigeration, no swamp cooler, no house wiring needed. I never said you MUST have those things. 

>People need to dream and experiment. That's not only how we discover new
>ways of doing things, but it's also how we re-discover what we've lost
>from the past.

Then dream on. I assume you live in a cave, right? 

>I hope to h*ll that no one is such a sensitive soul that they heed the
>narrow-minded cynicism normally regurgitated by "GlobalCircleNet".

I practice what I preach. Do you? And I don't play the game of "more sustainable than thou" ... 


paul, tradingpost at gilanet.com
http://medicinehill.net

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.
   - Wendell Berry