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Hell to heaven project

Rich people compete to buy and restore a devastated area
  (+7)
(+7)
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After reading an article about the Aral Sea RSVP and about the Dead Sea which is slowly dying away, about the rain forests in Nigeria, but also watching Willy Smits restoring a rainforest it seems like an interesting idea to have rich people buy an area and have it restored to a beautiful place to live in within a restored natural habitat.

Maybe with the help of a tv show...

pashute, Apr 13 2014

Aral Sea village documentary https://www.kicksta...-a-documentary-film
[pashute, Apr 13 2014]

Willy Smits restores a rainforest http://www.ted.com/...stores_a_rainforest
[pashute, Apr 13 2014]

Chevy-in-the-Hole http://detroit.cbsl...ite-to-become-park/
Not a private enterprise, but was in the news this morning. [RayfordSteele, Apr 14 2014]

Butchart gardens http://en.wikipedia...ki/Butchart_Gardens
[pashute, Apr 22 2014]

Newspapers these days pose facts as questions http://content.time...001_2016083,00.html
[pashute, Apr 22 2014]

[link]






       [+] (Mainly in principle). This has reactivated an ancient obsession of mine with the fundamentals of (utilitarian, I suppose) economic behavior. Whatever anyone acquires at some or other cost, one acquires in order to obtain some "value". That's the simplified and utterly obvious core of the matter.   

       And so?   

       Well we all forget this. Instead of value-seeking, we slip into conformity. We slip from being human into being mechanical, to put it in the melodramatic terms I like to use.   

       In concrete terms, here's someone rich trying to make all that money add to her quality of life by buying another villa on the Amalfi Coast. And it doesn't work. The villa is nice and so on, but really you can only ever properly, fully own one house or palace. The quality of life return is lousy. You don't get "value" in the way I mean.   

       In concrete terms, the best way someone who has "everything" can get themselves more value is by propagating their Values. And that's where the hells that can be reheavened come in.   

       You get my drift?
skoomphemph, Apr 13 2014
  

       You'll like this story [pashute]. There is a place here Called Butchart gardens which began as a quarry and cement plant. When the lime was depleted the owners' wife insisted on cleaning up his mess and turned the wasted area into one of the most spectacular gardens in our little corner of the world.   

       The dead sea is dying?   

       That is not dead which can eternal lie
And with strange aeons even death may die
Loris, Apr 14 2014
  

       <semi-obligatory waggling fingers under chin Cthulu-tentacles-stylee>
not_morrison_rm, Apr 14 2014
  

       I'll post a link to the Dead Sea dying and to the butchart gardens after our holiday next Tuesday. I like your idea skoomph, but without the concrete.
pashute, Apr 18 2014
  

       I'll have to get a ... thesaurus.   

       I think the intelligent rich kind-of do this to some extent already. However, with a clearer concept of what it is - or could be - all about, they could get a bit more satisfaction from it.   

       -- How to use being worth quite a bit, to make yourself ... worth quite a bit - just to couple up some more value-laden terms in a way that fits quite maybe not quite nicely enough, together.   

       Of course if someone is basically just a fatter caterpillar than the others on the leaf, such musings won't make it through. In that in which they are poor, they will remain poor - a bit like the rest of us (when measured by what we do, rather than what we say.)
skoomphemph, Apr 22 2014
  

       Rich people tend (that I've noticed) to fund projects to improve the lot of people, rather than the environment: it's more news and tax-writeoff worthy.   

       [+] But yeah, there does need to be more TV shows showing rejuvenation of trashed areas.
FlyingToaster, Apr 22 2014
  

       I agree and also award my bun. I want to believe something like this would be possible, but I have a hard time imagining that those burdened by excessive wealth would compete to be rid of it. From what I've seen, rich people seem to like giving their money to charities that make it really easy for them.
Alterother, Apr 22 2014
  

       What [skoomphemph] said.[+]
Voice, Apr 22 2014
  

       What I'm saying is that environmentalist architects and planners develop a restoration plan that will be a beautiful place to live in and own. It includes the restoration of viable income for the people who lived there for generations. Imagine restoring the now dry and hot town to become once again a fishing resort town with the millionaire owning a beautiful mansion nearby. All people in the area and wildlife gain. It's a win win situation.   

       The same would be with poor countries that are cutting down the rain forests. If someone invested in real estate and landscaping they would have an incentive for forest preservation, and would find ways to support the local population in a none destructive way while raising their cooperation and support of their habitat preservation and restoration.   

       See the Dead Sea link. If somebody bought land at the north part of the lake and invested a few millions of dollars in the environment the potash factories would even be happy. The villagers on both sides of the Jordan river and border would be grateful and so would the Bedouin tribes.   

       Money could be a strong incentive in getting this going.
pashute, Apr 22 2014
  

       And the rich people wouldn't lose their money. They are buying property at dirt cheap value and making it worth millions that everybody envies. Their rivals will want to buy the property from them at a higher price. Meanwhile the foundation that goes "with the property" has established laws that force the owner to comply with environmental preservation and restoration, otherwise the property is taken from him (assuming an anti-environmentalist male millionaire or billionaire)
pashute, Apr 23 2014
  
      
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