I listened to Jane Poynter’s talk at the TED conference, filmed in March 2009. Jane was one of the original crew-members of Biosphere 2 (they call themselves “Biospherians”) who were closed inside the facility for two years and twenty minutes, from Sept. 26, 1991 to Sept. 26, 1993. The project teetered on the edge between commercialism-as-science, or science-as-extravaganza: the idea was to hermetically enclose several ecosystems found on the earth, complete with plants, animals, and human, in the hope that the entire system would become self-sustaining. The facility is the 2^nd Biosphere, the first of course is the Earth…(even the smartest eyes rolled when they heard that one)

Part science experiment part theme park, the creators of Biopshere 2 are not shy about the publicity frenzy their “experiment” will incite. The buildings and greenhouses are made to seem as futuristic and scientific as possible, while behind the glass, the picturesque scenes of mini-nature would make a museum scenographer squeal with delight. Tons of concrete are poured to form soaring cliffs in the ocean ecosystem, plants species are scientifically/aesthetically arranged, while not forgetting exactly where school children will stand, craning their necks to peer inside.

It is ironic that the close attention paid to making the innards look natural nearly caused the project to fail. Within 6 months of sealing the facility, oxygen levels had dropped from 20.6% to 14.5%, creating an atmosphere equivalent to one 13,400 ft above sea level.

The Biospherians began suffering from sleep apnea and lightheadedness. CO2 levels were also on the rise: 1,000 ppm in the winter and up to 4,000 ppm in the summertime (currently, CO2 in the atmosphere is at 387 ppm and rising).Biosphere 2 was experiencing global warming and oxygen depletion while on the outside, we were all still worried about the hole in the Ozone layer (that mess seems pretty quaint now).

A program of carbon sequestration was begun in the savanna and farming ecosystems of the Biosphere: fast growing grasses were planted and left to mature. When the grasses were cut, they were stowed away in the underground mechanical passageways, thus removing them from the “closed” system. If they were not allowed to decompose as compost, the carbon they had captured throughout their life would not return to circulation. Still, increased CO2 levels would be met by increased Oxygen levels (more CO2 means more plants, means more Oxygen, means more Oxygen consuming microbes, means more CO2…) Something was throwing off the balance.

Jeff Severinghaus and Wallace Broecker of Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory searched in vain for the answer, until they turned to the scenery. They tested the exposed, un-treated concrete that made the mini-ocean look so much like an ocean and found that the CO2 in the atmosphere was reacting to create Calcium Carbonate. Science is beaten at its own game, with Disney World calling its bluff!