The Borkum Riffgrund 2 off-shore wind farm is 54km from the German coast and uses about 200km of cables to supple power, using 5,800 tonnes of copper that will ultimately be abandoned on the ocean floor once the wind farm reaches its end-life. It doesn't seem to me to be a reasonable use of resources, even if it makes sense, economically, at this point in our economy.

https://hell.twtr.plus/media/c47570072a3add25a2047aa354ed247db09758933bf3a54c204f54632d7ec534.file

The oldest building in Iowa is the 1828 Louis Arriandeaux log house, built in local logs with the typical New World chink infill rather than the Scandinavian solid log technique. It has a "dogtrot" open space in the middle which makes for superb natural ventilation in hot weather, and two fireplaces that might not be original. The building was located in downtown Dubuque until 1915 when the board cladding and roof was removed and it was decided to move it for preservation. It moved again in 1967 this time completely dismantled so the chinking is definitely not original. Plank floor interior on a natural stone foundation. Simple, cheap, thoroughly green.

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The Amana Colonies was a German religious communal society founded in Iowa in 1855. Some of their architecture remains today, large communal buildings housing several families in sandstone, brick from local communal brickyards and pine log cabins. The oldest house remaining is a 1857 sandstone home (today Lace Lodging), sensibly built to last without a hint of decoration: everything follows best practices of building with durable natural materials, as we can easily see in building quality. Another good example of the sensible Amana architecture is the 1864 Noé House built of brick from clay dug and fired on site. Still standing in excellent condition.

https://hell.twtr.plus/media/8a1b1f84738e487d742f455ee8d72fca1a784071df1712280bbfb42b51ab9318.file
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The water damage on this amateurishly badly maintained wall in Kyoto looks like a silhouette of what the Kyoto skyline itself actually looked like before the war.

https://hell.twtr.plus/media/164997714f648fc1b3cee50711217c98d1c7cefb8b0f049821cd5fc215550fbf.file
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Exceedingly simple to build this kind of cladding: just press shells into wet lime mortar. Even collecting enough shells is simple if you have a friendly seafood restaurant nearby. For bonus points you can even make the mortar out of the very same scallops to begin with. Using natural materials is inherently Green.

https://hell.twtr.plus/media/a2a1a956fd710ebc7062a1aae3c0ae49c4c84a8c4e2a8a7cb6ae3f4943f24c8b.file
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A long time friend of mine here has written on the chances of all these dead and missing 'scientists' etc. You know the story. His writing is more entertaining than the scary tweets.

The importance of eaves is clearly visible here. The bands of earth plaster are nearly in mint condition at the top under the eaves, the ones near the bottom, buffeted by both rain from above and below (splashback) has taken a beating. Still beautiful and fascinating though.

https://hell.twtr.plus/media/6358553cc0665b04b2d3a1256a524f2f92830d166844b63e6208c12898cb7c6a.file
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How long does an earth wall last? It depends on quality of construction, size of eaves and foundation, the strength of any plastering, direction, climate, rain, etc. This wall at Shosei-in in Kyoto was built after the 1864 fires and it uses a lot of the damaged tiles that remained in the ashes, turned into a charming pattern. It has obviously seen minor maintenance since then but it is easy to see where winds and rain and pollution do the most damage to the earth and straw wall. With this kind of wall the earth takes a lot of damage in the first ten years leading many people to panic, but erosion soon slows down considerably as the earth heals and stronger elements protect the weaker behind. It can be easily maintained of course with simple hand tools and methods any kid can learn in a few hours, but there's kilometers of these walls to maintain so I assume the temple only maintains it as little as possible. Even with this minor erosion it is a beautiful wall to walk along.

https://hell.twtr.plus/media/33e78e612cfcf237b9192bfc2635ebcee2e10039abafcbf21fdf20536c618a29.file
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This architect, Boberg, studied architecture 1882-1884 at the Royal Institute of Technology. Archives have preserved 100% of the curriculum that taught him how to accomplish these extraordinarily well made designs, and by luck we even have access to his own notes, drawings, photographs etc. from where he noted his inspiration and ideas. A serious school could simply revive and clone his entire education if necessary and start mass-producing these any time we chose to and the public, the people, the demos, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, education or class would overwhelmingly be in favor of it.

https://hell.twtr.plus/media/c7245d5e7265b493ad5c51e58a2fc0451b99d155ff54a7415fb9bd76c0005863.file
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We have to close the nutrition loop any way possible: “Animal and human waste in the U.S. could theoretically meet 102% of nitrogen and 50% of phosphorus needs for the nation’s agriculture, a value of more than $5.7 billion annually. But they also identified a major hurdle: a frequent mismatch between the location of the waste – often in areas densely populated with people or livestock – and agricultural regions with the highest fertilizer needs.” https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/04/animal-and-human-waste-could-slash-synthetic-fertilizer-use-us

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Coastal areas are using so much groundwater water that ocean water infiltration will permanently damage local water sources: "Over the next 50 years, drinking water shortages could arise in all coastal areas of the world. This poses risks not only to the water supply of coastal populations—accounting for more than 30% of the world's population—but also to local food production and ecosystems.” We are basically destroying the life support of future generations of humans on this planet and this has nothing to do with climate change but is due to extremely actionable and relatively low hanging fruit that can be solved or addressed at any level or scale we wish by any local government. https://press.uni-mainz.de/drinking-water-near-coasts-is-under-threat-worldwide/

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RT @[email protected]:

HELP US BUILD EUROPE´S FIRST SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE & CRAFTS: No one can do everything but we all can do something to re-ignite the flame. Belgian Nadia Everhard and French Noé Morin are two young classical architects passionate about craft. They have started what is to become Europes first school of classical architecture and crafts. They have a great resume of organizing summer schools but now they are aiming for a permanent school to make Europe beautiful again. You can contribute to this and every donation counts! Click on the link for more information! https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-build-europes-first-school-of-architecture-crafts-en

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