Project Eden

cwernli writes "Project Eden [had to] visually provide a spectacular theater high enough to house the towering trees of the rainforests, wide enough for the sun-baked escarpments of the Mediterranean and, oh yes, become the eighth wonder of the world. Easy!?""

Comments

Why /.?

[Triskaidekaphobia]

Project Eden opened a year ago, and won't be worth visiting for at least a year (when all the plants have grown and the ecology is sorted out).

Re:Why /.?

[paul_clarke]

OK I went there a few months ago. I was /very/ dissapointed. To think I'd persuaded my Family who I was on Holiday with in Lizard, to drive all the way there instead of Lands End on the last day..

If I recall correctly, it was £9.50 to get in and all looked very impressive but once you're in, its hard to get over the fact its just a load of plants in a big dome with a heater.

The European section was just plants outside. Then we got to look at some large plastic fruit in a garden shed.

Ohh and when you come out of the large tropical biome sweating because of the heat, they are kind enough to sell you small tubs of ice cream at extremely expensive prices. How kind of them.

/rant off/ :)

Re:Why /.?

[waterbiscuit]

Dare I say this, but er, what did you expect? Basically all it is, and all in claims to be, is one giant greenhouse. Of all the projects that the UK undertook for the millennium, the Eden project has undoubtedly got to be the most successful, but in terms of innovation and drawing visitors.

As for a tropical biome being a bit hot and humid, well that's what the plants need, that's why they're not outside, and thats why you go and see them inside the biome in the correct conditions for their growth. Ice cream too expensive? You tried buying it at the cinema these days? Of course it's a rip off, that's why you take along your own bottle of water. European plants are outside because England is in Europe, so has the right conditions for those plants outdoors, because that's where they are meant to grow!

£9.50 is an extremely reasonable price for any attraction nowadays. It is a good day out for the price of a pizza and coke in a cheap restaurant. I think perhaps you went along with your hopes too high. You expect to see plants, and that's what you got. I for one was really extrememly impressed and have recommended many people to give serious thought to a visit there.

A sad commentary on our society

[none2222]

Why? What is the point?

Real rainforests are being decimated at an alarming rate, all in the name of corporate profits.

This 'Eden Project', designed to appeal to arm chair 'environmentalist' yuppies, can only harm the environment. The amount of resources it took to construct must be staggering. The cash (£86 billion, IIRC) should have been put towards conservation efforts. The steel never should have been mined. The petrochemicals for the should have been left in the ground. God knows how much habitat was destroyed to build this monstrosity.

If you want to see a rainforest, go to the real thing. Not if you're just a tourist, though; in that case you have no business disturbing nature. If however, you are an eco-warrior, by all means go to the rainforest and help derail logging efforts.

What is sad, is that within the next century, cheap imitations like this may be all we have left of nature. One hopes the government will soon develop bioweapons that let us wipe out the burgeoning population of ignorant, third-world slash-and-burn farmers, before it's too late.

Candidates for 8th Wonder...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, this Eden project looks really cool, but there are definitely other candidates for the 8th wonder of the (modern) world: The Baha'i Gardens:
http://www.tour-haifa.co.il/BahaiShrine/indexEng.h tml
http://www.bahaiworldnews.org/terraces/ And as for the ancient world here is a candidate eighth wonder: Banaue Rice Terraces:
http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/forgotten/ban aue.html
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/mm-cn.htm

Moody Gardens in Galveston

[SwellJoe]

It isn't quite the same concept or as big but has a lot of the same elements and is wonderful to behold (I think I probably enjoy the pyramid architecture by I.M. Pei at Moody Gardens better than I would like the domes of Eden--and I'm pretty sure Galveston has better weather outside of the buildings). When I was living in Houston I made it a regular summer trip. The butterflies are lovely, and they have very interesting tropical rainforest 'rooms'.

Well worth a trip, if the UK isn't in the travel plans anytime soon, and Texas isn't too far out of the way for you (Galveston is a nice destination for a lot of reasons). I've always enjoyed myself, and always find something new, even though I've been several times.

Read more about them here (and forgive them for hiding the pyramids deep into the site--they are the most striking thing as you approach from any direction): The Moody Gardens Website.

First-Hand View

[BSDevil]

I was down in Cornwall about nine months ago (last September) and spent a day at Eden. It was cool then, and the longer one waits before going the better it will seem - I suspect that it will reach it's highlight (and design parameters) in about five years or so, maybe more for the Mediteranian biome. Even then it was a fairly spectactular entrance, but once all the site had matured it will be quite a sight coming over the hill and droping down into the complex (it's in an empty old quarry so it's fairly far down).

As for the biomes themselves, I much preferred the Tropical (left-side) one. Not only was it significantly more mature, but it was also better landscaped and had more interesting (to me) and exotic plants in it, along with a huge waterfall and stream down the middle of it. You could see lillies that looked like frying pans, manilla trees (and you thought manilla envelopes were made of normal paper), and little mini-pinapples growing. And aside from a design-your-own-banana exhibit that didn't really work, they didn't chintz it up like you'd expect. The climate inside was also amazing; it was cold outside, and within ten minutes inside and starting to walk up to the top of the waterfall I was down to a t-shirt and had rolled up my pants.

The Mediteranien (smaller right-hand) biome was kinda weak and undeveloped, but as guess that's to be as expected, especially comparing it against the tropical one. For it's benefit, it did accurately reproduce a Med feeling (even down to the hordes of loud Brits), but things just don't grow as fast there as they do in the other biome. Give it a few years and it'll rock though.

Is this place cool? Hells yeah. Is this the eighth wonder of the world? No. Will it be in five years? No doubt.

Re: the point is largely the local area.

[pacman on prozac]

Having lived in the area of the Eden project for a long time I can tell you it wasn't totally done for enviromental reasons. I seem to remember it origonally being represented as more of a large experiment which would attract lots of tourists. It has however generated huge amounts of revenue for the area, £120mil being quoted for the first 12 months. It may not save much of the enviroment but it saves hundreds of businesses and jobs around here, and has paid for itself already. And it's not like we know everything there is to know about biology yet so more research isn't a bad thing.

I totally agree with your arguments, I've not been to visit despite it only being 20 minutes away, but it's impossible to ignore the good it has done. Also don't forget the average slashdot reader probably isn't particularly interested in horticulture but this doesn't represent the population as a whole. I've met many people here who go up there regularly.

What is sad, is that within the next century, cheap imitations like this may be all we have left of nature.

You don't know much about the South West of England eh :) Probably 95% of the land is countryside, we have 2 huge national parks that are protected. We're not in any great danger of running out of natural habitats here yet.