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Sarkozy turns Paris into the First Post-Kyoto City
French Preident Nicolas Sarkozy has unveiled a brave new plan to turn Paris into the first self-sustainable city. The world's ten best architects from around the world have collaborated to present their plans for more parks, green patches, better mass transportaion systems, skyrails, and even flying CARS.. hmm well maybe not, but still it is a great new move towards our ecologically conscious future. The result has been wildly ambition re-thinkings of that city: Sure the Gare du Nord is beautiful and old and important, but it’s inefficient and should be replaced by a major high-speed train hub, said one designer. Another proposed moving all trains underground, and replacing the land with sprawling parks.
Now lets not get upset now. These ideas are now being carried over to the US. With Barack Obama pressing support for green growth, in Fort Myers, Florida the first fully solar powered self sustanbily city is being built. These homes are not yet inhabited but finally it is being done people!
Babcock Ranch, a solar-powered, sustainable city planned for Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The ranch will create 19,500 homes and 20,000 permanent jobs. The state’s largest utility company, Florida Power & Light, which has previously invested in local solar projects, plans to build a $350 million, 75-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant with smart-grid technology for the planned city’s six million square feet of commercial and civic space. Other planned features of the ranch: solar recharging kiosks for electric cars; a “dark skies” plan that aims to save energy by lighting up the ground instead of the sky; and rainwater harvesting.
Not everyone has been a fan of the project. According to a 2006 New York Times article, the Sierra Club had initially tried to block Mr. Kitson’s purchase of the 94,000-acre Babcock ranch, on which the city is to be built. A deal struck with the state of Florida carved out 80 percent of the area for a nature preserve, which helped close the deal — and the Sierra Club has since become a supporter of the project.
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