Last night after posting the Biospere 2 blog I starting reading a book by Joyce Poynter, one of the participants. It wasn't far into the book when I realized that I might have over-epiphanized (if there is such a word).
When you know that your long-held social positions are long-held simply because you are stubborn, then it is tempting, when presented with evidence that those long-held beliefs may be full of crap, to quickly abandon those long-held beliefs and replace them with more politically correct short-held beliefs. (Which is precisely what I did.)
(Boy - that was a run-on sentence if I ever wrote one!)
It turns out that, (at least in case of the author), the project may have been conceived, planned, and executed by a bunch of socially rebellious trust fund babies and X - Haight Ashbury types. It also turns out that the sealed system Biosphere in fact was powered by electricity from the grid and actually had to have supplemental oxygen pumped in after only 6 months.
Anyway, I'm rescinding all my mushy, overly touchy feely, kum-bay-a commentary from yesterday pending further research.
(Could be that "stubborn" doesn't go away very easily.)
It was still an interesting visit, and I am not critical of the project since its intentions were good, .... and it was almost completely funded (about 200 million) by one very rich individual.
Brad
I remember how snarky the critics were when they had to add oxygen. But I think that was a good reminder that the resources of Biosphere 1 should be EVEN MORE conscientiously handled since there won't be any outside help coming, unlike Biosphere 2. Anyway, big dreams get extra credit points for audacity even if they aren't complete successes.
ReplyDeleteThe book mentioned something about microbes unexpectedly consuming O2 without producing CO2. My theory is that if the microbes just would have eaten the humans, all the Biosphere 2 would be back in balance again.
ReplyDelete