Not only Nelly cares for spoonbeaks. Eco-friendly towns anyone?

[mätzyboy]

I just read this article in Wired. The article is mainly focusing on the guy behind the project, but I'm more interested in the concept. What do you think of the probability of success of this project? Building an eco-friendly town in order to, amongst others, preserve the Spoonbill population.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.05/feat_popup.html

Why is it that no big scale efforts like this are ever done in the "west"? Any ideas or comments?

[Ali]

This sounds like an interesting prospect, and not just because of the tenuous connection with my game. It promises both economic and environmental improvements in China, which is enormously ambitious. If it works, then it will be a great thing.