I don’t know if you’ve heard about it yet, but California environment activities are all up in arms about a project that U2 guitarist The Edge is planning on undertaking. The short version of the story is that he wants to build five – not one, but five – eco-friendly houses on top of a ridge in Santa Monica. So what’s wrong with wanting to build houses when they’re going to be “friends of nature” anyway?
This is what’s wrong, according to famed journalist Steve Lopez:
The U2 guitarist is lining up political muscle and environmentalist star power to support constructing his eco-friendly castles on a pristine ridge near Malibu. What’s greener? Not building at all.
And I can’t keep a straight face when I tell you that the five eco-friendly castles Mr. Edge wants to carve into the top of a pristine ridge near Malibu already have names. There’s “Clouds Rest” and “Panorama,” “Shell House” and “Blue Clouds.” And my personal favorite, “Leaves in the Wind.”
I think that the phrase “pristine ridge” says it all. As much as I love U2 – as much as I admire The Edge – I cannot find an argument convincing enough that would support tearing down that prime piece of untouched nature. Not even eco-friendly houses. It just seems extremely excessive to me. Why would his family need FIVE houses? Sure, he has the money to go all out; but that money could go somewhere else without having to tear down something that cannot be replaced, don’t you think?