Page 32 - aruba-today-20190706

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 6 July 2019
Biosphere 2 legacy lives on more than quarter century later

By ANITA SNOW in our portfolio for under-
Associated Press standing climate change,"
ORACLE, Ariz. (AP) — They he said.
lived for two years and 20 Biologist John Adams, Bio-
minutes under the glass of sphere 2's deputy director,
a miniature Earth, com- has been with the project
plete with an ocean, rain since 1995, when he was
forest, desert, grasslands a new University of Arizona
and mangroves. Their air graduate. "It's always been
and water were recycled, an audacious, ambitious
and they grew the sweet project," he said.
potatoes, rice and other Adams said 55 people now
food they needed to sur- work at the site, including
vive. 30 researchers. Bass donat-
About 1,500 people were ed $30 million to Biosphere
invited and some 200 jour- 2 last year and sits on its ad-
nalists were on hand as visory board.
the eight original inhabit- "They have been doing
ants of Biosphere 2 left their a really great job, laying
glass terrarium a quarter- some strong foundations
century ago last month in for their science," Jane
two groups that no longer Poynter, one of the eight
talked to each other amid original Biosphere 2 inhabit-
the stress of sharing a small ants, said of the current re-
space and disputes over In this July 31, 2015 photo, a tourist walks to the main entrance of the Biosphere 2 facility while on search. "Twenty-five years
how the project should be a walking tour in Oracle, Ariz. after we came out it's still
run. Detractors called the Associated Press very forward-looking."
$150 million experiment a Poynter said that since she
failure because additional That means researchers Hopkins University is help- around it. and the other "Biosphe-
oxygen was pumped into from the Global Institute ing scientists test theories Like Dukes, independent rians" emerged from the
what was supposed to be for Water Security at the about water movement ecologist Christopher Field, greenhouse, much of the
a self-sustaining system. University of Saskatchewan on three artificial hillslopes director of the Stanford original animosity has fad-
A power struggle in sub- in Canada don't have to known as the Landscape Woods Institute for the En- ed away.
sequent months led Texas worry about harming the Evolution Observatory, a gi- vironment, said Biosphere The initial project was the
billionaire backer Edward environment while study- gantic Earth science labo- 2 has proved useful for sci- brainchild of systems ecol-
P. Bass to hire investment ing how plants in the tiny ratory. ence in its current iteration. ogist John Allen, and Bass
banker Stephen Bannon, rainforest adjust their water The university assumed "You have to separate it was financial backer when
who was later President consumption. management of Biosphere from what it was originally the first group of four wom-
Trump's chief strategist, to The miniature ocean is be- 2 in mid-2007 and in June to see its worth today," said en and four men entered
bring the project back from ing renovated so research- 2011 announced full acqui- Field, adding that con- Biosphere 2 on Sept. 26,
financial disarray. ers from places including sition of the glass-enclosed trolled environment facili- 1991. Now almost 90, Al-
Today, Biosphere 2 is a dif- the University of Hawaii can area of just over 3 acres ties like Biosphere 2 "are a len lives quietly in Santa Fe,
ferent kind of place, a Uni- continue experiments on a (1 hectare) that reaches powerful way to help us un- New Mexico.
versity of Arizona site where miniature reef without hurt- as tall as 75 feet (23 me- derstand the way the world A mission by a second
researchers from around ing reefs in the Pacific. A ters) in some places, and works. " group was terminated ear-
the world can study every- $550,000 grant from Johns the buildings and grounds "It is an important piece ly after Bass ousted Allen
thing from the effects of and other top managers
the ocean's acidification in April 1994 and tempo-
on coral to ways of ensur- rarily made Bannon act-
ing food security. ing director during a man-
"It started out as a great, agement dispute. Bannon
big kind of societal experi- led the project for about
ment and was transformed two years, and Columbia
by pure ingenuity into University then took over,
something else that has changing the once virtu-
proved useful," said Jeffrey ally airtight structure to a
S. Dukes, director of the "flow-through" system and
Perdue Climate Change manipulating carbon diox-
Research Center. "It's also ide levels to study global
a really cool facility to tour." warming.
Joaquin Ruiz, a geologist Poynter and Taber Mac-
who directs the project in Callum later married and
the Sonoran Desert about settled in Tucson, where
30 miles (48 kilometers) they operate World View
northeast of Tucson, said Enterprises, a company
Biosphere 2's controlled en- that is pioneering flight to
vironments allow research- the edge of space with
ers to conduct experiments high-altitude balloons.
they won't try outside "be- They met during training for
cause you don't want to In this Friday, July 31, 2015, photo, tourists walk through the enclosed coastal fog desert ecosys- Biosphere 2, and their ro-
have unintended circum- tem of the Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Ariz. mance flourished after en-
stances." Associated Press tering the enclosure.q