What other poor billionaire could survive if Zuckerberg can’t escape collapse with a comfy, well-stocked bunker in paradise?
Mark Zuckerberg is no fool; he knows precisely what is happening with the climate crisis with its many tentacles connected to civilization and the natural world. I call this collapse as each tipping point gets closer and closer.
OFF THE TWO-LANE highway that winds along the northeast side of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, on a quiet stretch of ranchland between the tourist hubs of Kapaa and Hanalei, an enormous, secret construction project is underway.
A 6-foot wall blocks the view from a nearby road fronting the project, where cars slow to try to catch a glimpse of what’s behind it. Security guards stand watch at an entrance gate and patrol the surrounding beaches on ATVs. Pickup trucks roll in and out, hauling building materials and transporting hundreds of workers.
Nobody working on this project is allowed to talk about what they’re building. Almost anyone who passes compound security—from carpenters to electricians to painters to security guards—is bound by a strict nondisclosure agreement, according to several workers involved in the project. And, they say, these agreements aren’t a formality. Multiple workers claim they saw or heard about colleagues removed from the project for posting about it on social media. Different construction crews within the site are assigned to separate projects and workers are forbidden from speaking with other crews about their work, sources say.
“It’s fight club. We don’t talk about fight club,” says David, one former contract employee. WIRED has agreed to withhold his real name because he was not authorized to speak to the press. “Anything posted from here, they get wind of it right away.”
Zuck is an enabler and a propagandist for the fossil fuel industry. He made The Guardian’s list of the world's top climate villains.
Zuckerberg, whose net worth is $120bn, shows a consistent willingness to profit off the spread of climate denial on behalf of the fossil fuel industry. In April 2021, Zuckerberg told Congress climate misinformation was “a big issue”, yet Facebook has done little to rein in climate denial or challenge the fossil fuel industry.
Last year, pro-fossil fuel Facebook ads were viewed 431m times. In just the first half of 2020, ads on Facebook calling climate change a hoax were viewed at least 8m times in the United States alone.
In 2019, an article falsely attributing climate change to Earth’s solar orbit went viral, accumulating millions of views without intervention by the company. And this year, one report found that in just the first two months of 2021, Facebook spread climate denial to more than 25 million people, including posts about wind turbines being to blame after Texas froze over in February.
Meanwhile, Facebook has muzzled actual climate scientists trying
Wired magazine wrote on the Hawaiian compound, and other publications soon followed suit. According to Wired Magazine reporting on building permits, his ranch, Ko'olau (not to be confused with the O'ahu Pali mountains), will have its own natural water supply and agricultural fields and even raise livestock for food. What is most astonishing is Mark and Priscilla's plans for a 5,000-square-foot bunker with an escape hatch below the palace.
There are other unusual features to the ranch. The compound will include 12 buildings, and the underground bunker will have a concrete-reinforced blast-proof metal door with all kinds of secret security features throughout the bunker's vast expanse. Eleven tree houses will be built, similar to an Ewok Village, and rope bridges will connect all. There will be thirty bedrooms and thirty baths throughout the campus, though it is unclear if that includes the bunker.
The house will be two mansions with a "gym, pools, sauna, hot tub, cold plunge, and tennis court," among other luxurious amenities.” Zuckerberg will be just another billionaire joining Oprah Winfrey, Larry Ellison, Pierre Omidyar, Robson Walton, Michael Dell, Laurene Powell Jobs, Gordon Moore, Charles Schwab, Marc Benioff, and Bennett Dorrance, all of whom piss off residents, and in particular native Hawaiians.
According to public records and a secret source, Wired shares that the estate is nearly complete. The main quarters are said to consist of over a dozen buildings, with at least 30 bedrooms and 30 bathrooms. The area is centered around two massive mansions comparable in size to a professional football field, containing offices, elevators, conference rooms, and an industrial-size kitchen. And, reminiscent of a sci-fi movie, many of the compound’s doors will be soundproofed, operated via keypad, or will be “blind doors,” made to imitate the design of the surrounding walls.So, what exactly is Zuck building?
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The plans show that the two central mansions will be joined by a tunnel that branches off into a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter, featuring living space, a mechanical room, and an escape hatch that can be accessed via a ladder. “There’s cameras everywhere,” David says—and the documents back this up. More than 20 cameras are included on plans for one smaller ranch operations building alone. Many of the compound’s doors are planned to be keypad-operated or soundproofed. Others, like those in the library, are described as “blind doors,” made to imitate the design of the surrounding walls. The door in the underground shelter will be constructed out of metal and filled in with concrete—a style common in bunkers and bomb shelters.
According to sources and planning documents reviewed by WIRED, the compound will be self-sufficient, with its own water tank, 55 feet in diameter and 18 feet tall—along with a pump system. A variety of food is already produced across its 1,400 acres through ranching and agriculture.
As construction progresses on this high-profile project, Zuckerberg's Hawaiian retreat raises questions about the necessity of such elaborate security measures in a tropical paradise. The development continues to capture attention as one of the most expensive private properties in Hawaii. Meanwhile, an X user claimed to have been tracking the underground fort Knox of the Meta boss. The user produced satellite images of the progression of the ongoing construction. The photos show a tunnel connecting the two mansions and the completion of the project. The user also raised concern regarding Zuckerberg selling nearly $200 million worth of stock earlier and a sudden influx of trailers on his bunker property.
The native Hawaiian take on Zuckerberg and his land grab since 2015.
Mark Zuckerberg has added 110 acres to his controversial 1,500-acre estate in Kauai, Hawaii, dropping $17m for the purchase.
The 110 acres of land that the Facebook founder and his wife recently bought includes the Ka Loko reservoir, a century-old reservoir whose dam broke in 2006 and released 400m gallons of water that killed seven people on Kauai’s north shore.
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Zuckerberg’s recent purchase comes after two previous acquisitions - a $100m 750-acre purchase made in late 2014 and a $53m 600-acre purchase made in March that includes a public beach and working cattle ranch.
Zuckerberg’s massive estate has met with criticism and controversy in the past. In 2016, Zuckerberg angered neighbors when he constructed a 6ft stone wall around his property that blocked easy access to Pila’a Beach, in an attempt to decrease highway and road noise.
“This is the face of neocolonialism,” said Kapua Sproat, a law professor at the University of Hawaii to the Guardian in 2017. “Even though a forced sale may not physically displace people, it’s the last nail in the coffin of separating us from the land.”
“For us, as native Hawaiians, the land is an ancestor. It’s a grandparent … You just don’t sell your grandmother,” Sproat added.