There are two kinds of homes: the technological marvel that utilizes the latest building techniques and everything else. Any home that is “built to code” becomes obsolete in 10-20 years. Rental communities are expected to update their units as building codes change. Homeowners are legally obligated to do so in some communities but may be grandfathered in other communities. And, honestly, most of the world builds homes without the slightest idea of what “build to code” should mean. They have few or no regulations for building homes.
In an ideal, Libertarian dream society we would all be able to construct whatever homes we wish. Imagine a world where if you want a factory you just set up a few 3-D printers, construct the building, and then populate it with robots. Or if you want a castle you set up your 3-D printers and hire a backhoe to dig your moat. 3-D printers have already been used to build prototype homes. A nascent industry is growing up around the technology. The concept is feasible and should soon become economically sensible.
The process of 3-D printing materials for houses will eliminate certain types of jobs but should create others. For prospective home owners the economics of buying versus builder will change gradually over time. And that is important because global warming will change local environments. When it comes to building a home, most people use factory-delivered goods. It will be environmentally better if we rely more on locally produced materials. Using 3-D printers to create breaks and other components from materials on the home lots will be best.
We’ve been building houses for tens of thousands of years. For most of that time home builders have relied on local materials. Only the very wealthiest kings and conquerors imported home building materials from far away. But the industrial revolution brought us railroads and factories and the automobile revolution brought us highways and freight-hauling trucks. And the Levittown revolution of the 1940s and 1950s brought us suburbs and engineered neighborhoods.
Truth be told, the modern housing revolution probably began when Sears began selling mail order houses. They shipped everything you needed to whatever location required and you hired local labor to assemble the pieces. These old Sears houses remain popular with renovators and nostalgic home investors. Indeed, I’ve heard these were very well-built houses. And manufactured homes remain popular today, especially among home builders who cater to young buyers who don’t yet qualify for large home loans.
Thanks to the Great Recession and the stagnation in real worker earnings, not to mention huge losses in savings and retirement funds, home buyers and home owners are adopting innovative ways to build and improve their homes. Even as the economy begins to recover some of the productivity lost in 2008 global warming now threatens to destabilize everything.
Global warming is creating two problems for communities: rising sea levels make it more expensive and dangerous to live close to the ocean front; and rainfall patterns are changing. Some parts of the world are receiving more rainfall than they were only a few years ago. Other parts of the world are receiving less. Aculeo Lake, once located about 70 km outside Santiago, Chile, is now a desert. Only a decade ago the lake was a thriving freshwater resource, and a destination for tourists.
To compensate for the environmental changes that global warming is bringing about, home builders will have to integrate new technologies to create environmentally-independent housing. As solar panel technology becomes more efficient and less expensive we’ll be able to power more homes directly from sunlight. That’s a great thing for homes in regions that lose rainfall. But there are emerging technologies for capturing moisture from the air. One new technology promises to make fresh water available everywhere. Maybe that won’t be enough to refill dried lakes, but it should be enough to provide future homes with all the water they need.
Provide a house with enough electricity and water and it will be able to heat itself in the winter, cool itself in the summer, and serve as the hub for a green spot. That last part is important. Contemporary desert communities rely on water conservation measures to support growing populations. That means your house will sit on a rocky lot. It’s too expensive to water a grassy lawn or to grow large shade trees. And yet that is exactly what arid environments need to become less arid: more plant-life. If homes can extract enough water from the air they can irrigate their yards and gardens, bringing life back to a parched land. 1 million self-sustaining houses may be able to support 10 million trees, perhaps 20 million.
According to recent estimates, there are 125 million houses in the United States alone. Given proper upgrades, those houses could support 1 billion trees without drawing down our rivers and lakes. That is 10 times the number of trees that California lost in the last 5-year drought to fire and disease. We can achieve all that without fighting over forest land, without demanding that government pay for reforestation projects, and without burdening taxpayers. It won’t all happen at once but state, local, and national governments can incentivize homeowners to upgrade their housing technologies. By extending tax credits to homeowners who invest in these technologies, governments will stimulate manufacturing and help rebuild the environment.
We may not be able to stop global warming from getting worse but even in the worst-case scenario, where Earth becomes much warmer than today, we’ll have an opportunity to engineer our way out of the mess. Investing in technologies that make it possible at inexpensive, individual levels will give society the leverage to throw global warming into reverse. With more efficient power generation systems and access to unlimited fresh water future generations will be able to wait out the warm phase. It may not be all cozy and comfortable for everyone, but sooner or later technology-enhanced survival will become a way of life. The sooner we get started, the better.
