Urban Experience - Babcock Ranch

 





Babcock Ranch Solar Farm
I am someone that is obsessed with solar energy and sustainable energy all in all. Babcock Ranch seems to have this same obsession as I do as the area has its own solar field. This field powers the entire town and whatever extra energy is produced is sent to the grid. Energy is a lucrative and essential resource that we use. One of the most frequent arguments that anti-green energy people use is that green energy, especially solar and wind, would never be sufficient to actually power anything. Babcock Ranch takes this argument and proves it wrong. " We live at the beginning of an energy transition, from a world powered by fossil fuels to one powered by sun and wind" and Babcock Ranch is one of the first places to prove that it is possible for that transition to take place (Robertson, 179).

A Rain Garden
Babcock Ranch also takes a novel approach to handling South West Florida's water quality problem. Unlike traditional infrastructure which uses concrete and pipes, Babcock Ranch uses rain gardens and filter marshes to clean their water. Instead of using massive facilities, which use a lot of energy and resources, to filter their wastewater and ensure cleanliness, Babcock set up rain gardens with "native wetland plants that clean the water they hold" (Babcock Talking Points). I can only see this interaction as a form of mutualism. The wetland plants benefit as they are planted and kept healthy. No facilities are created which could use green spaces and little energy is used in comparison. Babcock in return is able to easily clean their water using a simple ecosystem service. Humans are part of the natural world, it is up to us to choose when we want to use the tools that are part of our world.

One intriguing part of Babcock Ranch is how preserves and green are built into the town. Most towns and cities allocate specific areas for nature. Babcock Ranch instead combines nature and the human areas together. One of my favorite quotes from Nature-Deficit Disorder is "Those with a window view of trees, bushes, or large lawns, experienced significantly less frustration and more work enthusiasm…" (6). Babcock Ranch exists alongside the natural world and is not a town with a divide between where humans are and where nature is. Both coexist and thrive together. I would not be surprised to find out that the people that live in Babcock Ranch feel more fulfilled with their lives and have fewer problems with attention. I hope that more towns and cities transition to the same style as Babcock Ranch. I would love to be able to raise children outside of the concrete jungle and beside the natural world. Hopefully, there will be a significant change in the next ten years to make that possible.

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