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A successful failure
Five years ago
when Steve and I visited the western states we fell in love. Not
with each other — we’d already done that over 35 years ago — but
with Arizona and New Mexico. But though we reveled in the beauty
of the natural landscape, it was a man-made structure that
intrigued us the most: Biosphere 2. Planted in the middle of the
Arizona desert, it appeared in the wilderness like a mirage. I
had never forgotten our visit so when I saw an article on the
Internet describing how it was finally fulfilling its scientific
promise I was relieved, because its mission and sheer beauty had
been in danger of disappearing back into the desert.
The name,
Biosphere 2, comes from earth’s life system known as Biosphere
1. Built by Space Biosphere Ventures between 1987 and 1991 at a
cost of $200 million, it was designed to be a completely sealed
off ecological system. Its 3.15 acres was used to explore the
web of interactions within ecosystems. It held five natural
ecosystems: a rainforest, a tropical ocean with a coral reef,
mangrove wetlands, a savannah and a fog desert. There was also
an agricultural area and a human living/working space to study
the interactions between humans, farming and technology with the
rest of nature. (www.wikipedia.com)
Biosphere’s
crew was completely sealed off from the world. From 1991-1993
eight researchers were locked inside along with a number of
animals, including goats, chickens, birds and fish. The
agricultural system produced 83 percent of their total diet,
which included crops such as bananas, papayas, sweet potatoes,
beets, peanuts, beans, rice, and wheat. (www.b2science.org)
Can you
imagine being locked in an enclosed space for two years with
seven other people? Not being able to run outside for a quick
trip to the library, the mall, the movies? Not being able to
open a window? If I’m stuck in the house for a day I already
long for fresh air and socialization. As you might have guessed,
there were problems — both scientific and psychological:
Factions among the
researchers developed. Romantic relationships blossomed and
died. In terms of science, due to a series of improper
calculations, oxygen levels plummeted over the two-year period
as carbon dioxide spiked. Ants and cockroaches overran the
facility and a great number of the animals died.
Financial and managerial problems plagued the project as well,
forcing the facility to shut down altogether in 1994. All in
all, if Biosphere 2 was meant to demonstrate a possible future
for the human race, that future looked rather bleak. (David
Knowles, Biosphere 2’s Second Chapter: Climate Change)
Only one more
crew was sealed up and they lasted only seven months. Finally,
in 1995, the Biosphere 2 owners transferred management to
Columbia University, which ran it as a research site and campus
until 2003. During that time Biosphere was open to visitors for
the first time. It was then that Steve and I visited the site.
Imagine
traveling on a desert highway, then turning off to suddenly have
a huge glass ziggurat appear before you. We would later learn
that it enclosed the rainforest but at that moment we felt like
we had entered a sci-fi movie. The illusion continued as the
rest of the structure came into view. White towers, a glass skin
covering different leveled buildings, a geodesic dome and all
surrounded by the mountains in the distance. It hung in the
desert like a dream.
We visited the
compact quarters where the crews had lived, wondering how they
lasted for two years. We walked through the ecosystems — all
surreal yet eerily beautiful. We passed through the rain forest
where we could hear birds and small animals skittering through
the trees. The mangrove, savannah and the desert were all
lovely, but it was the ocean that was truly magnificent. Hearing
the soft splash of the waves, surrounded by palm trees and yet
seeing the Arizona mountains through the glass skin that covered
it all, we felt like we had somehow left earth. Our tour guide
explained that the ocean had been a favorite get-away spot for
the crew members, and I could understand why.
We left sadly
when we heard that no one knew what would happen to this vital
site once Columbia’s lease ran out. But then on June 26, 2007,
the University of Arizona took over its management, using the
site to study climate change among other things. So last week
when I read David Knowle’s article I was excited and relieved.
Under Columbia’s
supervision the focus of the project shifted to the study of how
the high concentrations of carbon dioxide inside the structures
affected plant life. Biosphere 2, it turned out, was a great
laboratory for tracking the effects of climate change on a
number of different ecosystems.
“They were able to show that as more carbon dioxide enters the
atmosphere, coral reefs are endangered and die off,” said
Joaquin Ruiz, dean of the College of Science at the University
of Arizona, who now oversees Biosphere 2.
According to Ruiz, Biosphere 2’s initial attempts at creating a
fully enclosed system have produced a unique tool to study a
similarly enclosed environment: Earth’s.
“We like to say that the
Biosphere 2 was built slightly before its time,” Ruiz said.
Failure can
be beautiful. Not only does it engender learning but it can also
plant the seeds for insight and success. And thanks to Biosphere
2, our future may not be as bleak as we feared.
January 21, 2010
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