When it’s winter, and your house is subjected to blustery winds, and sub-zero temperatures, it takes a lot of BTU’s to keep warm. Your power bill tells all. If it’s below zero with wind chill, then you have to heat to 70 degrees. Nearly half of our energy use is in heating and cooling and lighting our buildings. If, on the other hand, your house were built underground, your mean surrounding temperature is about 50 degrees. It makes more sense to heat a house from 50 than it does from zero. Underground, earth-sheltered, and bermed buildings make a lot of sense in a crazy world. As do hay bale and hempbale homes. These should be our thrust. When I grew up in Sparks the northern hills were beautiful. Now they are filled with endless icky boxes that are grossly inefficient, and wasteful. We could have build those houses into the hills, artfully, unobtrusively, and efficiently. But we didn’t. Shall we continue with the ecological disasters we still build, or can we all work toward enabling the crafty construction of sane abodes? We certainly should do this. Will we do this? Additional advantages to undergrounds are that they are quiet, require less upkeep and maintenance, probably require less firefighting infrastructure, are less subject to firestorms and conflagrations, could conceivably lower your insurance premiums, they’re unobtrusive, and finally, are more of a protection from Weapons of Mass Destruction which may come at us from terrorists, the Chinese, the Russians, the French, the English, the Pakistanis, the Israelis, or other WMD possessors. Existing housing cannot be abandoned, but must be retrofitted, and perhaps eventually the materials can be reused for undergrounds. Other great tools are Haybale and Hempbale structures. Made from non-exotic locally available materials, they are super-Insulated and do not nearly contribute to our carbon load. Underground houses built from used tires are an especial way to kill 2 birds with one stone. We must also consider plumbing and water concerns. We will eliminate or downsize our water disposal and water use requirements. I am absolutely convinced that we can provide for the domestic disposal of our liquid and sewage wastes using solar hot air evaporators and anaerobic digesters as are commonly found in India. Then perhaps we can quit flushing our wastes into our clean water supplies. What is left from evaporators will be a powdery sterile substance which can be used on our small lawns, trees, and above ground-bearing vegetables. This will allow the reduction or elimination of expensive sewer piping. Once a year you can shovel out the desiccated crap and spread it around your acreage. Another good concept is to build facing South. The ancient Greeks and Romans built entire cities planned on a southern axis. With overhangs, they were cooler in summer and warmer in winter. To build an efficient solar house: insulate it like a thermos bottle and have windows facing South. The Earth is a pretty darned good thermos bottle. All new buildings should be LEEDS approved.