Gasland  

Silent Spring is considered the primal seed
of the Environmental Movement. Rachel Carson is like the Mother Theresa!
Earth berms are indeed a great way of insulating homes. So is cob or rammed earth construction.
There's also ground-loop heat pumps, commonly mis-labeled as 'geothermal'. These loops take advantage of the stable temp below the frost line to both heat and cool a home by pumping water through the loop to bring it warmed or cooled back up to the home. True geothermal relates to the heat in the earth from magma or volcanic activity, but it's the name that has been slapped onto the ground-loop cuz it sounds sexier. That's rather like the idea of Solar Panels being focused on electricity production rather than thermal generation cuz the magic of PV is 'sexier' than just plain old heat energy.

Haven't seen Gasland yet. I...
Haven't seen Gasland yet. I read Silent Spring after the fact and remember it caused a lot of controversy. Farmers and profit and chemicals. Too old to be an X-er, I'm a card-carrying member of that lesser known group called Generation DDT.
Which has got me thinking of Joni Mitchell and going happily this morning through a lot of youtube versions of Big Yellow Taxi.
Her 2007 version is my favorite, followed closely by the live performance of 1970.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRN6J16qVVM&feature=related