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Inside the Off-Grid Earthship Community in New Mexico

Peter Santenello

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Far out in the high desert of New Mexico is one of the most interesting communities in America. Here live the inhabitants of Earthships: off-grid, ultra-efficient homes creatively designed from the most basic materials. Join the locals and me as we explore this unique desert community to experience what this alternative lifestyle is like.

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20 Comments

@PeterSantenello Creator 10 months ago (edited) Pinned

Thanks for watching!
► Go to https://incogni.com/santenello for 60% off annual plan and get your privacy back.
► My new book "Your Fellow Americans" is out now! Order here:
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@dnbhead1 10 months ago

80 years old with this much passion and vigour is something to admire

@tomlynx2008 10 months ago

This guy is 80 years old and sharp as a tack and filled to the brim with ideas! The stage 4 cancer doesn't seem to be slowing him down any bit. . Wishing him and that Community well ..... just mad respect for you all!

@LooshChipper 10 months ago (edited)

The government DOES NOT want people to be self sufficient..

@xakarooo 9 months ago

" live simply so that others may simply live!" What a wonderful philosophy

@vdubz67 10 months ago

"I'm 80 and I just got a handle on what I'm doing" there's something insanely inspirational about that

@TheGermanInNewMexico 10 months ago

I love the Earthships, they're absolutely wonderful. I do hope Mike Reynolds beats the cancer and lives another 50 years, there is a lot to do.

@AdventureAryck 10 months ago

Peter is hands down the best documentarian of our generation!

@CarolSteinfeld 9 months ago (edited)

I've interviewed some folks who have lived in Earthships and I also visited them. The Earthships have their issues, such as too much indoor moisture from indoor planted wastewater systems, leading to fly outbreaks (gnats or sewage flies that like damp nitrogenous places). This can be worked around by installing a glass wall or sliding glass doors between the planted bed and the rest of the house. Like all self-sufficient systems, stuff needs to be managed. Turbines make noise, gardens need tending. It takes a lot of labor to pound earth into tires, so it's best to do this barnraising style. The houses I toured felt as magical as you see here. They demonstrate ways to do conventional housing differently (and many houses already incorporate these features without the bottles and earth-rammed tires). I wish the narrative on these was more about what's working than how Mike gets pushback.

@michellechavez5401 10 months ago

Me! I'm one of those students that helped build that last house! I learned how to use a jackhammer building that greenhouse. Amazing to see it completed, thank you. I always wondered how it turned out.

@Deutschtown 10 months ago

6 years in my earthship..never had a power outage...more water than I can use and free heat in N.M.

@pamelamusante5343 10 months ago

I lived in Taos in 2008. My brother was Mike's neighbor. He built his earth ship. His idea was on a napkin. He built it. My other brother built one on Crooked River Ranch in Oregon. They are amazing homes. I love Mike. He's an amazing visionary.❤

@womeninhorizon 9 months ago (edited)

I helped build three Earthships in early 90’s — loved living off grid outside Taos!

@rotbot4u 10 months ago

I hate that the government has been messing with this guy all his life and all hes trying to do is make the world a better place , love you micheal ! You’re a hero !

@HawaiiLimey 10 months ago

Every year creative people innovate fantastical solutions to age old problems and in response every year bureaucrats create new ordinance to constrain the expansion of the human spirit.

@Jort_No 10 months ago (edited)

I really wish Mike could live another 50 years. I'd love to see what this man would do with that time.
“He needs to make this available for the common people,” he says. What a drive and determination to do good.

Mike is an absolute treasure. I hope his crew carries on long after he kicks the can. The planet needs more people like Mike who actually carry out good ideas that create systemic change.

Thanks to you Peter and Natalia for yet another fantastic video and for being the inspiration you are. I live in Scandinavia, work at a nonprofit, helping people in need, and absolutely love learning about other parts of our world through your videos. I hope that, like Mike, you keep sharing and educating us until you’re 80, and maybe another 50 years after that. Who knows what technology will bring us by then right? :)

By the way, have you ever considered shining a light on the situation at initiatives like Feeding America? Would love to learn about what happens behind the doors at food banks and pantries around the world. You seem like the perfect guy to go teach us. :)