Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
What is an earthship? From Wikipedia:
An Earthship is a type of passive solar house that is made of both natural and upcycled materials such as earth-packed tires, pioneered by architect Michael Reynolds.Doesn't this sound like an ideal home for people in Gaza? These homes can reduce the need for power, sewage treatment, and even water.
An Earthship addresses six principles or human needs:
Thermo-solar heating and cooling
solar and wind electricity
self-contained sewage treatment
building with natural and recycled materials
water harvesting and long term storage
some internal food production capability
Earthship structures are intended to be "off-the-grid-ready" homes, with minimal reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels. They are constructed to use available natural resources, especially energy from the sun and rain water.
They are designed with thermal mass construction and natural cross-ventilation to regulate indoor temperature.
The designs are intentionally uncomplicated and mainly single-story, so that people with little building knowledge can construct them.
Given that the people who claim to be so pro-Palestinian are often also the people who claim to care about saving the planet, why have we not seen anyone working to help Gazans build inexpensive, energy-independent homes?
For some reason, no one seems upset that instead of using earth-filled tires to build homes, Gazans are using their tires in a completely different and environmentally damaging way, to burn them during riots:
Once again, we see that being "pro-Palestinian" means attacking Israel, not helping Gazans in any meaningful way. Or else we'd be seeing lots of organizations working to help Gazans build these homes that can actually help everyone.
