The Eden Project

The Eden Project: one of the great green success stories of the Twenty First Century.   These guys bought up an abandoned and derelict china clay pit and have transformed it into a wonderland of bio-diversity in just 15 years - a project that cost 141 million pounds to establish. 

It claims to have the two largest 'greenhouses' in the world (the domes you see in the background) and the largest 'captive' rain forest in the world.  In fifteen years it has become Cornwall's biggest tourist attraction - and at a guess is probably the largest private sector employer in the county.   It's layouts are very well designed - and have a more ethno-botanic approach than most gardens.  For example in the rain forest biome they have examples of a Malaysian home garden, explain the significance of cashew, cocoa, sugar and banana production.  Similarly the Mediterranean biome explains the cultural and economic importance of different crops.  They deserve full marks for combining a 'family day out' with a strong green message that people can take home with them, for the quality and provenance of their food, for using recyclable disposable plates, cups and cutlery and many other attempts to exemplify sustainable practices.  It was well worth a visit - and I (who do a lot of work in these fields) learnt a lot from it. Yet I still felt uncomfortable with the sheer size of it.   Perhaps mass tourism just isn't for me.