Eden Project

A cathedral of a different kind today. We visited the Eden Project just a few days after it opened, and went back today to see what had changed. It's greener than it was. Which is the point of the Eden Project. I mused that the only thing at all religious or spiritual about the place was the name. But it does take an interest in God's creation in a unique and inspiring way. And so a pit in Cornwall now sports a vast green cathedral: a complex of futuristic "biomes", containing climates and plants from tropical and mediterranean zones.

As the website says,
"The Eden Project is an unique organisation - a tourist attraction, educational charity and social enterprise."

The Eden Project is a world-class attraction, with over a million visitors a year. And that's really a bit of a problem for a supposedly Eco-friendly attraction. They'd like it to be otherwise, but almost everyone arrives by car, (with a few coach trips too.) It's not exactly easy access down there on the Cornwall peninsula.

I finished reading iCar magazine tonight. That's the one about "efficient, intelligent, fun" motoring (Launch Issue). It went into impressive levels of detail with plenty of infographics on exactly how much CO2 is produced by manufacturing the plastics for a hybrid car, or precisely how bad the CFCs in an air-conditioning unit are.
The conclusions are that there isn't really much to choose between a fuel-efficient diesel, a fully electric car, and a hybrid (petrol/diesel engine plus batteries). A hybrid just about comes out eco-best. But you need to keep it at least 5 years. According to their expert, batteries don't have the energy density for long distances. So unless you just drive a few miles around a city, an all-electric vehicle won't do. (I like the concept of energy density. It also explains why we eat too much fried food.) Anyway, if you have enough money, get a plug-in hybrid. The new Ampera looks great. If only it didn't cost twice as much as our Honda.


Now today's verse. Resisting the temptation to misquote "Moses came down the mountain in his Triumph", or "they all were in Accord", I'll go for the bit of Genesis where no-one thinks a day is a day:

Genesis 2:15-17
15 Then the LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. 16 He told him, "You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, 17 except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day."

Location:Cornwall