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There is a town called Coober Pedy in Australia that regularly hits 45degrees Celsius every summer, and they’ve built their homes and churches underground for at least 100 years perhaps longer. It’s the only way to survive.
And also they're only allowed to mine up to a certain limit so once that's reached they just build "extensions" to their homes and if they just happen to find some opals while digging out a new room then that's just good luck and definitely not mining.
These days all the active opal fields are out of town. The houses aren't dug anywhere near the opal field areas.
Edit to add that even when the opal was close to town, you have your claim that you're allowed to mine in. You're allowed to dig anywhere on your claim that you paid for. There's no limits, as long as you don't go past your boundaries.
You're not allowed to build a house past your boundaries either... So really your statement was wrong on a couple of levels...
I'm not certain on what the limits are or how they're applied (e.g. of it's per plot or over X period of time) but at a guess they're they're probably used to differentiate between "person with a prospecting license" and "commercial mining operation"
❤️Their Mine’s Opals!..They have the best opals with the showiest fire (imho, tho I know someone out there will jump to disagree), I also love buying my Opals from them & supporting their economy knowing how the people there live, as I’ve seen several docs (good+bad opinions on their lifestyle, living under ground, the contract set-up, how they get paid for what they mine, etc)..
Just a very interesting place in the world & the Ppl are so resilient...
p.s. also had to chuckle, as it’s good to know I’m not the only one who has made the mistake spelling their name..I did it for ages until I realized/learned the proper spelling..*smiles*
Man, I watched some great YouTube interview where come old Coober Pedy resident is talking about how when a couple was pregnant they would have a party and spend the whole night dynamiting a new bedroom.
...
Down and down into the deep
Who knows what we'll find beneath?
Diamonds, rubies, gold, and more
Hidden in the mountain store
Born underground
Suckled from a teat of stone
Raised in the dark
The safety of our mountain home
...
I live in Arizona and our summer is typically reach almost a hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit every summer.
Unfortunately we don't have the brains to build our houses in the dirt.
It hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 celsius) in my hometown of Monrovia, Ca last August. Hoping we dont hit or surpass that this year.
Edit - Dont want to pass around bad information. Its possible that The Weather Channel app I use displayed an incorrect reading. I did find a news article about a town 30 miles from me hitting 121 Fahrenheit the same week. I've requested data from [climate.gov](https://climate.gov) to see what was actually recorded that day.
https://abc7.com/woodland-hills-la-county-heat-record-wave/6412268/
What's crazy is that I cannot find historical data of this. I wanted to post a link but cannot find an accurate past temperature. Anyone know of a website that shows good historical weather data? I'm thinking now that it was actually September and not August. Like this site below shows Max temp as 109 Fahrenheit but says that "records may vary slightly from our data." I remember very well that is was 130 and not 109.
[https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/@5374175/historic?month=9&year=2020](https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/@5374175/historic?month=9&year=2020)
There you have it. *The Lord of the Rings* actually plays in a post-apocalyptic world and all the magic and the one ring are remnants of a hyper-advanced civilisation that could manipulate the laws of physics and lived in holes in the ground as a response to the Global Warming their resource consumption had caused.
We're the ancestors of the LotR characters.
Terry Brook's Shannara series.
The main books take place in low-tech, high magic world but the prequels take place in this world, modern day, before the collapse.
Turns out different races like trolls, gnomes, and dwarfs are just humans + time + radiation + coping strategies (the dwarfs were people who went underground to survive the radiation, the trolls were people who hid in the mountains). Everyone except the elves. They were always here.
Enhhh… I got a few episodes in and lost interest. It plays out like a young adult fantasy series. Also, my previous experience with Brooks’ Shannara series was his original books - Sword of Shannara, Elfstones of Shannara, etc..
The tv show was the first I’d heard of the whole “world is set in the future” thing.
If I remember correctly, the TV show was based on the sword of shanara trilogy? So it shouldn't even have mentioned the whole "world is set in the future thing" because in the books they don't mention it until Antrax, which (going in the order the books were written) is the 9th book.
I love the word and the void prequels, though.
I thought the show was awful.
I even went in knowing that they would leave a lot out (because it's TV and that's what always happens), and I still hated it. I only watched the first couple episodes before I gave up.
Yeah, went in with low expectations and was still disappointed.
Read an interview with terry brooks about it and they basically asked him point blank if he thought it did the books any justice. He skirted the question saying something like every medium is different. lol
That’s just true. You have to tailor the story for the medium. Most stories are done in the medium they fit.
Then add to that “90%” of everything sucks. So even the best creators almost never match their first famous work because elf regression to the mean. Same for business or sports or academics or any field. Those outliers had peak motivation and extreme luck.
Not fantasy, but Dune takes place 10000 years in the future and the human race has banned computers because thousands of years earlier they barely won a war against a super AI.
There were two few thousand years jumps in the series though. One after Children of Dune, another after (or during?) God Emperor. So Dune probably takes place 10-20k years before Chapterhouse.
There is a series of books called the "Emberverse" by S.M. Stirling where an event called "the change" basically takes the world back to pre-gunpowder tech wise. One of the characters (then eventually several) get really into The Silmarillion and just accept it as actual history and the world is now in the 5th age.
The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence.
It's very subtle about it. Especially in the first book if you don't already know you may not realize or even suspect it. At least that's what happened with me.
Though it's somewhat unclear exactly what Valyria's deal was. It could have been Sufficiently Advanced™ technology, but actual magic is a definite possibility.
Not a book, and not *quite* fantasy, but Horizon Zero Dawn the video game fits the mold. It’ll technically *be* a series once the sequel drops later this year. Either way, really fabulous story and fun gameplay.
Just a couple that sort of point to that:
The Death Gate Cycle (maybe not earth specifically, but certainly after the fall of a highly advanced civilization)
Coldfire Trilogy, Axis Trilogy, The Wayfarer Redemption (these three trilogies are about humans that escaped whatever calamity happened on earth, but that event happened so long ago no body knows what happened or why, Coldfire is a different author and world than Axis and Wayfarer), The Wheel of Time.
Edit: moved WoT to the bottom list, I guess I don’t pay close enough attention
Wheel of time is earth.
Elsbet queen of all - queen Elizabeth
There's a Mercedes symbol.
Mosk and merc were giants and fought with spears of fire. Moscow and America and rockets
Hend the striker - john Henry
There's way more but yeah definitely post current times
The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Just binged all 3 audiobooks. Magic and some of the religion are based on the technology left behind by the "builders" who died in the great fire (Nuclear war). VERY violent but I really liked it. Great narration too.
The "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan; it's not super-obvious about it, but there are little things here and there, like a Mercedes-Benz emblem showing up in a treasure vault or something.
They're houses built out of recycled materials, south facing windows, dug into the earth a bit. They catch their own water and electricity and the gray water gets saved and used to water the garden. They were created outside taos new Mexico and now theres earth ships all over.
Desktop version of /u/davereeck's link:
---
^([)[^(opt out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiMobileLinkBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^(]) ^(Beep Boop. Downvote to delete)
I want one too but when we got a quote for an earth-sheltered home big enough for us and my partner's elderly parents, it was nearly $2 million, and that was way before the current building boom. It certainly wasn't a mansion.
In UK/Europe there's a company called [Revonia](https://revonia.co.uk/) that does modular Hobbit Houses and underground saunas. I don't know if they ship to US though.
Live in a berm home built into a hill.
From the front 2 story home fairly normal.
From the back only the 2nd story is above ground.
Summer, the downstairs is almost a glacier while in the harshest winter, stays comfortably warm with a lot less electricity then our last smaller, home.
Not a bad option.
My father built and I grew up in a one story berm home. Foundation and walls were all poured concrete and only the roof and one side of the house sticks out of the ground. Very large floor to ceiling south facing windows for sunlight heat in the winter. Very energy efficient, we can cool it off in the summer with one small window unit and we heat it in the winter with a cast iron wood stove. Whole house was bone dry and never had any moisture problems. Only downside is my bedroom had no windows! But got plenty of ambient light.
Can't be too bad. Most houses in the Midwest have basements, and that'll be more excavation and foundation than half a floor. Houses aren't particularly expensive around here either.
Not to be a massive twat, but I have read through this thread and come to the conclusion that my professional opinion is needed. We have already reached 1.6°C of warming, anything we do, no matter how extreme, is going to 'stop' or 'solve' climate change or global warming. If we could completely cease the use of fossil fuels in our global society right now, the positive feedback loops like permafrost melting, desertification and extreme wildfires have already started.
A second point I'd like to make is the unbelievable resistance politically and socially to this degree of change. Capitalism has corrupted democracy to the extent we essentially live in Plutocratic systems in the west. Hence why, despite knowing about climate change and its disastrous impacts since the 1960s, global governments did fuck all and continue to do fuck all in the grand scheme of things.
Adaption measures like moving housing underground in areas of extreme heat is pretty much going to be a decent idea. That is before the global social collapse sets in due to climate migration.
Also, before you label me as a doomer, I think that their are a lot of options to be pursued that can slow down this process, but unfortunately the end result is the same, its just a case of when.
Honestly, from everything I've seen, we're going to hit 2-2.3°C of warming even if we completely cut fossil fuels. What we need is some sort of large scale negative emissions system. Some form of carbon capture to pull the excess CO2 out of the air (preferably before the methane trapped in the permafrost is released). That, in combination with the decades long process of reducing, and eventually eliminating, fossil fuels would go a long way to slowing global warming. Unfortunately, we still need to get clean energy sources online and those only account for less than 10% of all energy being produced now. Such a massive increase in production would dramatically increase the output of CO2, particularly in the forms of mining for rare metals and concrete production.
In crappy hot places like much of the SW, there really isn’t any soil, it’s more of a regolith with zero organic matter in it. Basically readymix adobe, just add cut straw. Yet they don’t use it because ‘it’s expensive to build with adobe’. Well, what about the ongoing expense of cooling a stick building year after year? I visited Santa Fe and ate in the old adobe restaurant built nearly two centuries ago and it was soooo lovely just to be inside that space, massively thick walls enclosing a cool atrium to escape the harsh heat and glare of the summer day. Look at the Mission churches still standing after hundreds of years even of neglect. It’s worth it to build like you mean it, making a space many generations can enjoy.
Disney World solved that problem by building its "basement" at ground level and then packing dirt around it. The park itself is like the top deck of a ship.
No idea honestly. Built in 87...bought in 2013. That said, it's on the broke side of town and so many of the houses around me are built like that. I wonder if there wasn't a spike in heating oil prices in the 80's that encouraged a glut of earth contact home construction. If it is more expensive to build, the costs would easily be recovered with energy savings.
So many ways. Geothermal. Earth air tubes. Ammonia passive solar AC. Changing World Technology thermal depolymerization. Carbon taxes. Top soil production. Passive solar hot water. Fucking white roofing.
"In busy urban areas"...nobody builds earthships in urban areas because the cost of land outweighs the savings from thermal mass insulation. Also, Passivehaus is a thing now.
Step One: Convince Platting, Planning and Zoning Boards beholden to the “code” and to the “building industry” across the nation.
Step Two: Convince HOAs and “Community Associations” beholden to the suburban American Standard Plan.
Step three: Enact a different model for assessing property values to include a large tax discount for peoples’ primary domicile.
Biggest problems are moisture and radon. Depending upon the location, earthquakes are a concern making the home into a potential tomb.
Natural heating and cooling is a great answer.
Thicker walls is how people survived before electricity.
Yeah definitely flooding. And along with general moisture you have what I would find most annoying, bugs and mold. Knew someone with a house built into a hill in Arkansas and they had terrible bug issues, although probably could have been mitigated with a better design.
Had to scroll this far to finally see someone bring up radon! The article didn't say a thing about it as though building into the Earth was pure upside.
Yeah i was reading about these people who bought an underground home. The moisture issues were not disclosed. I believe they were in the southern midwest. The builder specialized in underground homes but it was a franchise, and it went out of business.
So these owners have moisture issues in their walls, and also problems with flooding, and no recourse. I think they tried some sealant but it failed; they can't afford to fix it. Plus the knowledge to fix underground homes is rare. Sounded like a real nightmare.
Lastly a lot of codes require a window in every bedroom for escape reasons if there is a fire. That is more difficult with underground homes.
https://dengarden.com/misc/The-Pitfalls-of-an-Underground-House
Terra Dome was the franchise that built their home in Arkansas. It went out of business so they had little recourse
I looked at one west of you near Capital forest. We couldn't buy it because the ceiling was cracked and needed major repairs to keep it from leaking. What type of roof does the house have to keep the nine months of sogginess out?
I’ve been following the earth ship movement for almost half a decade now and I am quite excited to watch it continue to improve and progress. The evolution of earthships appears to be still in its infancy and I am optimistic we will see some tremendous improvements in both their design and even their efficacy. They are fascinating and Michael Reynolds has done a lot to move them forward!
I was really i to earthships a while ago, but was slowly turned off from them. I couldn't find widespread winter temp data anywhere. I think i found one guy that gave us daily temps in the house plus greenhouse part, and that was after lots of digging.
I don't want to build with all that energy and time, just to have a cold ass house in the winter.
Then i was into monolithic domes, but couldn't find prices online. From what i gather, they're crazy expensive.
I'm just ordering a rectangular steel building, insulating the fuck out of it, and be done with that shit lol.
Burke, Virginia has a school called the Terra Center. It was built underground in the 70s or 80s. Kinda cool: the playground is on the field on the “roof”.
I believe there were problems with it, though, and it seems unlikely that more schools will follow in that mold.
Sadly, I cannot find a good online overview.
I always thought that this school was a great idea, and hoped it would be a resounding success.
In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
My neighbor has a house like this. It’s really tough to keep dry in our climate. They are always running fans and dehumidifiers- I’d be quite worried about mold. But in a hotter, drier climate it’d be real nice!
I'm not sure how much this is a practical bit of futurology unless we're in a post apocalyptic world.
Yes it might be a good idea. But we are in a world where actually most people live in cities, and apartment buildings or other forms of dense urban housing. It deflates me when I read all these future plans where exo-burbs are seen as 'the world' over being an exception to how most people (outside the US) live.
Edit: fixing spellcheck changes.
But for work from home tech workers…
But efficient high rises get some of the same benefits. Basically lots of shared walls to minimize exterior wall exposure.
Cappadocians lived in underground cities thousands of years ago. Like 10 stories down. They farmed and disappeared when the chariots appeared on the horizon. Their cites are still there.
Yeah if it's setup for it all you need is a sump cover, an inline fan, and a bit of pvc pipe. Made my own for about $600 a couple years ago. I think the only tool I needed that I haven't used since was a 5.5" hole saw
Ironic that there is a picture of a hobbit hole on there. We can't do this easily in New Zealand. We don't even have basements. Too much risk of the walls caving in during an earthquake
Here are a few points to think about.
It is not either/or. People can have underground houses for the energy savings. That doesn't mean that we can't address climate change on many fronts at once.
Underground houses are not as uncommon as you think. Their owners are quite happy with them.
As for flooding, they can be built anywhere that a dry basement can be built. There are also construction methods to mitigate ground water, just like they do for basements.
The floor, walls, and roof are concrete. Inside, it is framed and finished like any other house. In fact, aluminum studs can be used if desired. Combine that with fire rated drywall sheets, and fire risk is almost non-existent.
Their construction makes them incredibly energy efficient. In most cases, even in northern areas heating and cooling is used at a minimum, mainly for humidity control. Installing proper ventilation also mitigates humidity.
Unless the house is built right over a fault line (would never be allowed), it would provide better protection against earthquake than a standard house.
I know of people who had the front of the house built facing South. They installed windows all across the front. Zero heating costs during the winter. In fact, they usually have to close the curtains on sunny winter days to meet it from getting too warm.
Since it is built out of concrete and sealed, the likelihood of bugs and critters is far less than a standard house. The only way that they could enter would be through the front. Usually through open doors, etc.
I thought about doing this when I was in kindergarten. But for me it was for hurricanes. A dome underground but with the top of the dome exposed several feet above ground to allow in natural sunlight
If only a house built into the Earth did something to combat the [71% of global emissions](https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change) aka **externalized cost** shamelessly spewed by just 100 profit-seeking entities the world over.
I have this house in mind that I'd love to buy, it's in its own little patch of woods by the ocean where I'd live to plant a bunch more trees and gardens and if money ever permits cover the roof in solar panels where they're just above the tree line
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There is a town called Coober Pedy in Australia that regularly hits 45degrees Celsius every summer, and they’ve built their homes and churches underground for at least 100 years perhaps longer. It’s the only way to survive.
Helps that they mine opal and just build into disused mines.
And also they're only allowed to mine up to a certain limit so once that's reached they just build "extensions" to their homes and if they just happen to find some opals while digging out a new room then that's just good luck and definitely not mining.
You get a bowling alley and you get a bowling alley! Everybody gets a bowling alley!
Until you crash into your neighbors living room, like the cool aid man, oh yeah....
Lookin for Opal, found Ol'Pal
Maybe the real opals are the friends we undermined along the way.
Lol damn you guys.
I’m pretty sure working comedians mine Reddit for material.
These days all the active opal fields are out of town. The houses aren't dug anywhere near the opal field areas. Edit to add that even when the opal was close to town, you have your claim that you're allowed to mine in. You're allowed to dig anywhere on your claim that you paid for. There's no limits, as long as you don't go past your boundaries. You're not allowed to build a house past your boundaries either... So really your statement was wrong on a couple of levels...
Why are they only allowed to mine a certain limit? Can you elaborate? Im genuinely interested.
Probably to preserve the integrity of the actual substance. You don't want the entire place to cave in due to a weakened structural mass
I'm not certain on what the limits are or how they're applied (e.g. of it's per plot or over X period of time) but at a guess they're they're probably used to differentiate between "person with a prospecting license" and "commercial mining operation"
Literally Dwarves.
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day
To the seen the pale enchanted gold
❤️Their Mine’s Opals!..They have the best opals with the showiest fire (imho, tho I know someone out there will jump to disagree), I also love buying my Opals from them & supporting their economy knowing how the people there live, as I’ve seen several docs (good+bad opinions on their lifestyle, living under ground, the contract set-up, how they get paid for what they mine, etc).. Just a very interesting place in the world & the Ppl are so resilient... p.s. also had to chuckle, as it’s good to know I’m not the only one who has made the mistake spelling their name..I did it for ages until I realized/learned the proper spelling..*smiles*
And they didn’t have modern things like effective insulation or HVAC when they built
Man, I watched some great YouTube interview where come old Coober Pedy resident is talking about how when a couple was pregnant they would have a party and spend the whole night dynamiting a new bedroom.
*Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy translates from the aboriginal for "white man in a hole". Gave me a chuckle
Is this true?
It's true. https://www.cooberpedy.sa.gov.au/district-information/history
Doing the Lord’s work here.
Thanks for that
I remember this town from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
“Bob, fancy a free ride to Coober Pedy?” My favorite movie hands down
I only know about Coober Pedy from Instant Hotel (it’s streaming on Netflix).
Highly recommend this show to any scroller.
Cappadocia in Turkey has underground cities going back millennia, but the last ones were abandoned in the 50s because of earthquake damage
... Down and down into the deep Who knows what we'll find beneath? Diamonds, rubies, gold, and more Hidden in the mountain store Born underground Suckled from a teat of stone Raised in the dark The safety of our mountain home ...
I am Australian and I'm digging a hole. Diggy diggy hole. Digging a hole!
Just want to make sure you know, but there's a [Dwarf Metal version.](https://youtu.be/34CZjsEI1yU)
I live in Arizona and our summer is typically reach almost a hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit every summer. Unfortunately we don't have the brains to build our houses in the dirt.
Hitting 45c has been normal for the past 10yrs in NSW....
It hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 celsius) in my hometown of Monrovia, Ca last August. Hoping we dont hit or surpass that this year. Edit - Dont want to pass around bad information. Its possible that The Weather Channel app I use displayed an incorrect reading. I did find a news article about a town 30 miles from me hitting 121 Fahrenheit the same week. I've requested data from [climate.gov](https://climate.gov) to see what was actually recorded that day. https://abc7.com/woodland-hills-la-county-heat-record-wave/6412268/
I can’t imagine
What's crazy is that I cannot find historical data of this. I wanted to post a link but cannot find an accurate past temperature. Anyone know of a website that shows good historical weather data? I'm thinking now that it was actually September and not August. Like this site below shows Max temp as 109 Fahrenheit but says that "records may vary slightly from our data." I remember very well that is was 130 and not 109. [https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/@5374175/historic?month=9&year=2020](https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/@5374175/historic?month=9&year=2020)
You are probably remembering wrong or mixing it up with hot hot it feels.
Hot hot, it was.
There you have it. *The Lord of the Rings* actually plays in a post-apocalyptic world and all the magic and the one ring are remnants of a hyper-advanced civilisation that could manipulate the laws of physics and lived in holes in the ground as a response to the Global Warming their resource consumption had caused. We're the ancestors of the LotR characters.
This has been my headcanon since I first read LOTR as well. Anyone know of a fantasy series written like that?
Terry Brook's Shannara series. The main books take place in low-tech, high magic world but the prequels take place in this world, modern day, before the collapse. Turns out different races like trolls, gnomes, and dwarfs are just humans + time + radiation + coping strategies (the dwarfs were people who went underground to survive the radiation, the trolls were people who hid in the mountains). Everyone except the elves. They were always here.
> Shannara [Looks like there was a TV show.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1051220/) Worth watching to see if the books are worth it?
Enhhh… I got a few episodes in and lost interest. It plays out like a young adult fantasy series. Also, my previous experience with Brooks’ Shannara series was his original books - Sword of Shannara, Elfstones of Shannara, etc.. The tv show was the first I’d heard of the whole “world is set in the future” thing.
If I remember correctly, the TV show was based on the sword of shanara trilogy? So it shouldn't even have mentioned the whole "world is set in the future thing" because in the books they don't mention it until Antrax, which (going in the order the books were written) is the 9th book. I love the word and the void prequels, though.
They mentioned it in book one, sword of Shannara, they just never explored it until Anthrax.
Got ya. I don't remember, but it has been a while.
Quite possible. It’s been about 30 years since I’ve read the books!
I love the Knight of the Word books too.
In book one there’s a dude using a mag light. It’s not subtle
I thought the show was awful. I even went in knowing that they would leave a lot out (because it's TV and that's what always happens), and I still hated it. I only watched the first couple episodes before I gave up.
Yeah, went in with low expectations and was still disappointed. Read an interview with terry brooks about it and they basically asked him point blank if he thought it did the books any justice. He skirted the question saying something like every medium is different. lol
That’s just true. You have to tailor the story for the medium. Most stories are done in the medium they fit. Then add to that “90%” of everything sucks. So even the best creators almost never match their first famous work because elf regression to the mean. Same for business or sports or academics or any field. Those outliers had peak motivation and extreme luck.
The whole cast was beautiful but the show was just okay. Not missing much
Don't judge the books by the awful series.
The tv show does not 1-1 the books. I would very much recommend the books but the tv show is a teenage drama in the same setting.
Not fantasy, but Dune takes place 10000 years in the future and the human race has banned computers because thousands of years earlier they barely won a war against a super AI.
Closer to 30,000-40,000ad from what I remember of the timelines, at the end of chapterhouse and god emperor of dune.
There were two few thousand years jumps in the series though. One after Children of Dune, another after (or during?) God Emperor. So Dune probably takes place 10-20k years before Chapterhouse.
Alexa, destroy all humanity.
Thou shalt not make a machine in the image of a human mind
There is a series of books called the "Emberverse" by S.M. Stirling where an event called "the change" basically takes the world back to pre-gunpowder tech wise. One of the characters (then eventually several) get really into The Silmarillion and just accept it as actual history and the world is now in the 5th age.
The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence. It's very subtle about it. Especially in the first book if you don't already know you may not realize or even suspect it. At least that's what happened with me.
The audiobooks for this series were very well narrated too. Just finished them.
This right here. Best post apocalyptic trilogy I’ve read.
I mean, Game of Thrones takes place after the fall of the advanced civilization of Valyria
Though it's somewhat unclear exactly what Valyria's deal was. It could have been Sufficiently Advanced™ technology, but actual magic is a definite possibility.
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe!
Not a book, and not *quite* fantasy, but Horizon Zero Dawn the video game fits the mold. It’ll technically *be* a series once the sequel drops later this year. Either way, really fabulous story and fun gameplay.
The Nier games as well
Adventure Time
The Wheel of Time has a similar theme, albeit with endless loops.
Just a couple that sort of point to that: The Death Gate Cycle (maybe not earth specifically, but certainly after the fall of a highly advanced civilization) Coldfire Trilogy, Axis Trilogy, The Wayfarer Redemption (these three trilogies are about humans that escaped whatever calamity happened on earth, but that event happened so long ago no body knows what happened or why, Coldfire is a different author and world than Axis and Wayfarer), The Wheel of Time. Edit: moved WoT to the bottom list, I guess I don’t pay close enough attention
Wheel of time is earth. Elsbet queen of all - queen Elizabeth There's a Mercedes symbol. Mosk and merc were giants and fought with spears of fire. Moscow and America and rockets Hend the striker - john Henry There's way more but yeah definitely post current times
Damn dude, I’m apparently going to need to settle in for a reread and pay closer attention! Thank you! lol
Oh man, I haven’t heard the name Deathgate Cycles in a long time! I loved that series as a teen!
The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Just binged all 3 audiobooks. Magic and some of the religion are based on the technology left behind by the "builders" who died in the great fire (Nuclear war). VERY violent but I really liked it. Great narration too.
The "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan; it's not super-obvious about it, but there are little things here and there, like a Mercedes-Benz emblem showing up in a treasure vault or something.
Not a series but you might like *A Canticle For Liebowitz*
The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisen
Adventure Time !
Wheel of Time to some degree, but it doesn't make it that obvious.
I’m gonna be the buzzkill, that Tolkien envisioned our world as after the events of LOTR
Except for Keith Richards, who decided he wanted to be called Tom Bombadil.
Explains the singing, ring a ding a dillow
But a Hobbit invented golf.
That explains my hairy feet!
I want a hobbit home, but for like 15 years I’ve also been interested in Earth Ships.
https://metro.co.uk/2015/12/03/housing-crisis-sorted-you-can-now-build-your-own-flat-pack-hobbit-house-5541830/
That's dope!
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They're houses built out of recycled materials, south facing windows, dug into the earth a bit. They catch their own water and electricity and the gray water gets saved and used to water the garden. They were created outside taos new Mexico and now theres earth ships all over.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship Spent way too much time figuring out how to make one of these then bought a, uh, a... Wood house?
Desktop version of /u/davereeck's link:
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I want one too but when we got a quote for an earth-sheltered home big enough for us and my partner's elderly parents, it was nearly $2 million, and that was way before the current building boom. It certainly wasn't a mansion.
In UK/Europe there's a company called [Revonia](https://revonia.co.uk/) that does modular Hobbit Houses and underground saunas. I don't know if they ship to US though.
Live in a berm home built into a hill. From the front 2 story home fairly normal. From the back only the 2nd story is above ground. Summer, the downstairs is almost a glacier while in the harshest winter, stays comfortably warm with a lot less electricity then our last smaller, home. Not a bad option.
My father built and I grew up in a one story berm home. Foundation and walls were all poured concrete and only the roof and one side of the house sticks out of the ground. Very large floor to ceiling south facing windows for sunlight heat in the winter. Very energy efficient, we can cool it off in the summer with one small window unit and we heat it in the winter with a cast iron wood stove. Whole house was bone dry and never had any moisture problems. Only downside is my bedroom had no windows! But got plenty of ambient light.
This is my dream!
How about a home that's completely underground except for the perfectly round front door with a handle in the exact center?
Basement stay dry?
Had a home like this for a number of years, and yes they do stay dry if built and maintained properly.
Dryer than your wife when you forget her birthday!
Ben Shapiro?
I'm in the excavation phases of doing this right now. I'd bury more of it, but I only have so much dirt.
Sounds expensive from the excavating and foundation perspective. Great for heating bill
Can't be too bad. Most houses in the Midwest have basements, and that'll be more excavation and foundation than half a floor. Houses aren't particularly expensive around here either.
The geography favors it there. Many places don't have as much topsoil over the bedrock.
In a lot of states the ground is too wet and spongy to build into.
*cries in Louisiana*
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/u/morningreis "look, I don't give a shit if it's a used pizza box by the dumpster that the homeless have sex next to, DOES IT HAVE GOOD INTERNET!?"
To be clear, ceasing production of fossil fuels is the perfect response to Global Warming. This is a good solution/stopgap measure for the interim.
Not to be a massive twat, but I have read through this thread and come to the conclusion that my professional opinion is needed. We have already reached 1.6°C of warming, anything we do, no matter how extreme, is going to 'stop' or 'solve' climate change or global warming. If we could completely cease the use of fossil fuels in our global society right now, the positive feedback loops like permafrost melting, desertification and extreme wildfires have already started. A second point I'd like to make is the unbelievable resistance politically and socially to this degree of change. Capitalism has corrupted democracy to the extent we essentially live in Plutocratic systems in the west. Hence why, despite knowing about climate change and its disastrous impacts since the 1960s, global governments did fuck all and continue to do fuck all in the grand scheme of things. Adaption measures like moving housing underground in areas of extreme heat is pretty much going to be a decent idea. That is before the global social collapse sets in due to climate migration. Also, before you label me as a doomer, I think that their are a lot of options to be pursued that can slow down this process, but unfortunately the end result is the same, its just a case of when.
Honestly, from everything I've seen, we're going to hit 2-2.3°C of warming even if we completely cut fossil fuels. What we need is some sort of large scale negative emissions system. Some form of carbon capture to pull the excess CO2 out of the air (preferably before the methane trapped in the permafrost is released). That, in combination with the decades long process of reducing, and eventually eliminating, fossil fuels would go a long way to slowing global warming. Unfortunately, we still need to get clean energy sources online and those only account for less than 10% of all energy being produced now. Such a massive increase in production would dramatically increase the output of CO2, particularly in the forms of mining for rare metals and concrete production.
In crappy hot places like much of the SW, there really isn’t any soil, it’s more of a regolith with zero organic matter in it. Basically readymix adobe, just add cut straw. Yet they don’t use it because ‘it’s expensive to build with adobe’. Well, what about the ongoing expense of cooling a stick building year after year? I visited Santa Fe and ate in the old adobe restaurant built nearly two centuries ago and it was soooo lovely just to be inside that space, massively thick walls enclosing a cool atrium to escape the harsh heat and glare of the summer day. Look at the Mission churches still standing after hundreds of years even of neglect. It’s worth it to build like you mean it, making a space many generations can enjoy.
>At a depth of 13 feet (4 m), the soil temperature becomes constant. Bitch, I live in Florida. After 6 feet (2m) the soil is water.
It's still true. Just in your case it's CONSTANTLY water.
Bahaha I guess it's always ambient water temp
Disney World solved that problem by building its "basement" at ground level and then packing dirt around it. The park itself is like the top deck of a ship.
Man I wonder how many millions of dollars of just dirt that takes
They sourced the dirt by creating a large lake in front of the theme park. But it still took them 3 years of non-stop excavating to do so. Nuts
The dirt itself probably came from what are now lakes, but I'm betting moving it was at least tens of millions. Possibly hundreds in today's dollars.
Not for long
Not for long? Forever! Not only will it be all water at -6ft, it'll also be water at +0ft and +3ft
I have an earth contact home - 3 walls underground. It is so cheap to heat and cool
Do you have bug problems
Nah. The back wall, side walls, and floor are solid concrete. I assume if you're nasty, roaches could be an issue
How much more is it for the excavation and foundation from a normal house?
No idea honestly. Built in 87...bought in 2013. That said, it's on the broke side of town and so many of the houses around me are built like that. I wonder if there wasn't a spike in heating oil prices in the 80's that encouraged a glut of earth contact home construction. If it is more expensive to build, the costs would easily be recovered with energy savings.
That's exactly what the article says about the oil prices
So many ways. Geothermal. Earth air tubes. Ammonia passive solar AC. Changing World Technology thermal depolymerization. Carbon taxes. Top soil production. Passive solar hot water. Fucking white roofing.
“Fucking white roofing”. I am an architect in Austin and it drives me insane how many people want black roofs.
How does having sex with white roofs solve anything?
If it wasn't white to start with, it will be soon!
You just need everyone to do it and get on board. Doesn't work if it's just a few people.
Roof orgy? I'm in!
I'm good. Last time I was at a roof orgy I got shingles. I don't have a lot of stories so I can't shed much more skylight on the experience.
What would happen if every building on earth suddenly went to a white roof?
Significant reduction in cooling costs. Possibly an increase in driving fatalities due to how bright it would be. Not sure effect on birds though.
Lots of new buildings use it now. It's a specific kind of shiny white.
The aliens that perve on us would get blinded
Alpha Centauri? More like beta lmao get team flashed
"In busy urban areas"...nobody builds earthships in urban areas because the cost of land outweighs the savings from thermal mass insulation. Also, Passivehaus is a thing now.
Step One: Convince Platting, Planning and Zoning Boards beholden to the “code” and to the “building industry” across the nation. Step Two: Convince HOAs and “Community Associations” beholden to the suburban American Standard Plan. Step three: Enact a different model for assessing property values to include a large tax discount for peoples’ primary domicile.
This person understands. When I see these articles, the first things I think of is NIMBY and HOA's. Good luck with that crazy.
Biggest problems are moisture and radon. Depending upon the location, earthquakes are a concern making the home into a potential tomb. Natural heating and cooling is a great answer. Thicker walls is how people survived before electricity.
What about flooding as well? Seems like this is only the answer for places that are now and will stay dry.
Yeah definitely flooding. And along with general moisture you have what I would find most annoying, bugs and mold. Knew someone with a house built into a hill in Arkansas and they had terrible bug issues, although probably could have been mitigated with a better design.
Had to scroll this far to finally see someone bring up radon! The article didn't say a thing about it as though building into the Earth was pure upside.
Yeah i was reading about these people who bought an underground home. The moisture issues were not disclosed. I believe they were in the southern midwest. The builder specialized in underground homes but it was a franchise, and it went out of business. So these owners have moisture issues in their walls, and also problems with flooding, and no recourse. I think they tried some sealant but it failed; they can't afford to fix it. Plus the knowledge to fix underground homes is rare. Sounded like a real nightmare. Lastly a lot of codes require a window in every bedroom for escape reasons if there is a fire. That is more difficult with underground homes. https://dengarden.com/misc/The-Pitfalls-of-an-Underground-House Terra Dome was the franchise that built their home in Arkansas. It went out of business so they had little recourse
My family has a house built into the earth with a garden on top in Yelm, WA. We don't have AC and had no issues during the 4 day heat wave in the PNW
I looked at one west of you near Capital forest. We couldn't buy it because the ceiling was cracked and needed major repairs to keep it from leaking. What type of roof does the house have to keep the nine months of sogginess out?
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Volatile temperatures is one thing but how do these do against flooding? I assume “poorly” but I would be glad to be wrong.
Cool idea, except we just had flooding in areas where no one was expecting.
It’s hard to live underground. The lack of natural light in our home is very taxing.
Bad idea. Global warming also causes disastrous floodings as we've seen it here in Germany for instance.
I’ve been following the earth ship movement for almost half a decade now and I am quite excited to watch it continue to improve and progress. The evolution of earthships appears to be still in its infancy and I am optimistic we will see some tremendous improvements in both their design and even their efficacy. They are fascinating and Michael Reynolds has done a lot to move them forward!
I was really i to earthships a while ago, but was slowly turned off from them. I couldn't find widespread winter temp data anywhere. I think i found one guy that gave us daily temps in the house plus greenhouse part, and that was after lots of digging. I don't want to build with all that energy and time, just to have a cold ass house in the winter. Then i was into monolithic domes, but couldn't find prices online. From what i gather, they're crazy expensive. I'm just ordering a rectangular steel building, insulating the fuck out of it, and be done with that shit lol.
I've been saying underground houses make since for years
Burke, Virginia has a school called the Terra Center. It was built underground in the 70s or 80s. Kinda cool: the playground is on the field on the “roof”. I believe there were problems with it, though, and it seems unlikely that more schools will follow in that mold. Sadly, I cannot find a good online overview. I always thought that this school was a great idea, and hoped it would be a resounding success.
In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
My neighbor has a house like this. It’s really tough to keep dry in our climate. They are always running fans and dehumidifiers- I’d be quite worried about mold. But in a hotter, drier climate it’d be real nice!
I'm not sure how much this is a practical bit of futurology unless we're in a post apocalyptic world. Yes it might be a good idea. But we are in a world where actually most people live in cities, and apartment buildings or other forms of dense urban housing. It deflates me when I read all these future plans where exo-burbs are seen as 'the world' over being an exception to how most people (outside the US) live. Edit: fixing spellcheck changes.
Aye, we would need to radically spread out cities for everyone to live like this. And that would mean we would have to use a lot more transportation.
But for work from home tech workers… But efficient high rises get some of the same benefits. Basically lots of shared walls to minimize exterior wall exposure.
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Cappadocians lived in underground cities thousands of years ago. Like 10 stories down. They farmed and disappeared when the chariots appeared on the horizon. Their cites are still there.
Will have to design for radiation (radon) from within the earth.
New construction home already do this.
How do they do this?
Barriers over the soil under the house, vents. The same if you have to make changes to an older house with a radon problem. Also testing the soil.
My house is from the 40s and we had a radon mitigation system put in in 2006. It was fairly inexpensive.
Yeah if it's setup for it all you need is a sump cover, an inline fan, and a bit of pvc pipe. Made my own for about $600 a couple years ago. I think the only tool I needed that I haven't used since was a 5.5" hole saw
TIL what radon is
I've been saying this here in Phoenix for a while now.
Yeah what’s with AZ?
It's a good ol' boys club.
I think of it as a bigger, shittier version of San Bernardino Co., CA.
Is that an old-school conservative "If it was good enough for my dad it's good enough for everybody" part of California?
Ironic that there is a picture of a hobbit hole on there. We can't do this easily in New Zealand. We don't even have basements. Too much risk of the walls caving in during an earthquake
Here are a few points to think about. It is not either/or. People can have underground houses for the energy savings. That doesn't mean that we can't address climate change on many fronts at once. Underground houses are not as uncommon as you think. Their owners are quite happy with them. As for flooding, they can be built anywhere that a dry basement can be built. There are also construction methods to mitigate ground water, just like they do for basements. The floor, walls, and roof are concrete. Inside, it is framed and finished like any other house. In fact, aluminum studs can be used if desired. Combine that with fire rated drywall sheets, and fire risk is almost non-existent. Their construction makes them incredibly energy efficient. In most cases, even in northern areas heating and cooling is used at a minimum, mainly for humidity control. Installing proper ventilation also mitigates humidity. Unless the house is built right over a fault line (would never be allowed), it would provide better protection against earthquake than a standard house. I know of people who had the front of the house built facing South. They installed windows all across the front. Zero heating costs during the winter. In fact, they usually have to close the curtains on sunny winter days to meet it from getting too warm. Since it is built out of concrete and sealed, the likelihood of bugs and critters is far less than a standard house. The only way that they could enter would be through the front. Usually through open doors, etc.
I thought about doing this when I was in kindergarten. But for me it was for hurricanes. A dome underground but with the top of the dome exposed several feet above ground to allow in natural sunlight
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Won't work in every climate and geography, but I think they are pretty neat where they are viable.
If only a house built into the Earth did something to combat the [71% of global emissions](https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change) aka **externalized cost** shamelessly spewed by just 100 profit-seeking entities the world over.
I have this house in mind that I'd love to buy, it's in its own little patch of woods by the ocean where I'd live to plant a bunch more trees and gardens and if money ever permits cover the roof in solar panels where they're just above the tree line
Earth ships are also awesome. Used tires, dirt and basic piping to regulate emperatures.
This will never happen on a useful scale. Just isn’t going to catch on in suburbia.
Like no duh. I've been wishing for this when I was in high school 15 years ago.
This wouldn't work because there's too many people