As You Like It: 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.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=926

Posted by Joan Florek Schottenfeld on Jan 21 2010. Filed under As You Like It, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.