“...sophisticated ventilation system...
AKA: random tunnels”
Yep, they are called Air Tubes and have been in use in Earthships for 50 years.
The author of this piece has missed a fundamental truth. As anyone who has ever had an ant farm, or sliced a termite mound open on the Serengeti knows, the insects keep cool by THERMAL MASS, not “sophisticated ventilation systems”. I doubt that anything with a brain would be content to live in windowless buildings with 40 foot thick walls, but you might approach the same thermal efficiencies as a termite mound.
” Earthships”
We were forced to watch a documentary on this by the state of California when I was employed briefly by the state. They were asking for volunteers to go help build this “green” monstrosity. Even when I was young and stupid I saw how ridiculous and brilliant this was. The guys funding their personal houses had idiots volunteer to round up junk (old tires, old bottles, rotten hay bails) and bring them to their property. Then other volunteers hauled dirt and rocks to make the walls. And other idiot volunteers performed all the labor for free. Once finished and planted these guys got a massive house built by chumps at a very low cost.
I saw this on “eco-farms” all the time when I lived on Kauai. Idiot rich people would gain their environmental indulgences and volunteer to go work on some farm. Awful work, like picking the snails out of the Hanalei taro patches and pulling weeds on muddy cocoa orchards. What a great deal. Spend thousands on a vacation to do yard work for someone else.