Eight passionate people enter a new world they'd built themselves, becoming the first Biospherians. What incredible things did we learn from what went right and what went wrong during their mission?
This is the title I would give an article promoting the new Biosphere 2 film, Spaceship Earth. I recently watched this documentary and although I've already read about most of the information they included, I never realized that they had filmed so much of it. For those of you who do not know the background of the group that established the Biosphere, I recommend this film for an excellent overview of their origins as well as their time in the Biosphere. It was cool to see it all actually happening and what everyone looked like back then. For a more detailed recounting of Biosphere 2's roots I recommend "Dreaming the Biosphere: The Theater of All Possibilities" by Rebecca Reider. In her book she interviews several of the original people involved. There are several quotes from this text that I can identify which resonate with me and my beliefs more than anything else I've ever read. All of the following quotes are from the aforementioned novel.
"The Biosphere's builders were widely quoted proclaiming their enormous and varied aims: to prove that humans, technology, and wild nature could coexist harmoniously under one roof; to make bold scientific discoveries about the workings of the Earth; and to create a prototype for ecological space colonies to settle other planets."
"When you create a new world, you end up with all the problems of the world," - one of Biosphere 2's creators.
"The ingredients in the alloy of Synergia Ranch would be diverse: ecology, art, theater, philosophy, meditation, hard work on the land, intense examinations of group dynamics, and young, energetic people. Out of these pieces, the synergians believed they could create a reality far greater than the sum of its parts. Their inner goal was nothing less than a new civilization, a "synergetic civilization", as they liked to call it."
"Soon the group's modest goal emerged: to draw on the best of world civilizations and create something new."
"We were trying to become artists, scientists, and adventurers," - Phil Hawes.
If you have read my blog post titled "My Journey", you probably understand why these quotes are so significant to me. They are proof of this mindset that I didn't know anyone else had ever had. This is why I say I have never known another group of people with whom I resonate with so greatly. Both the book and the documentary do such a fine job of revealing the intent behind these people and their mission of successes and failures.
Since I was not alive when this took place, I was witnessing for the first time how unkind the media has been towards the group and this mission while watching the film. Although I know that people call the Biosphere 2 experiment a failure, I had not heard what the people who say this must have heard repeatedly on every news network. I now have a sense of this from the movie and Reider's book, as well as the articles being released now describing the documentary of the formation and accomplishments of the group that would send eight of their own into a closed environment for two years.
My mother shared a Daily Mail article with the above title. I was surprised to see that the story is still met with such negativity from the media. I was happy to see her sharing news of the documentary, but why was this the article she happened upon? I know she does not agree with the claims made in this column. Her comment was: It was a great experiment. One of the most remarkable places I've ever been, The science and engineering is like nothing I have ever read about. ... In one aspect it failed but in many others it was a success. "Failure defeats losers but it inspires winners."
"Failure defeats losers but it inspires winners"
I was also tagged in a post made by The Guardian with an extremely pessimistic title and introduction. It turns out if you read the article it goes on to tell the story covered in the film and even concludes with this statement including a quote from Matt Wolf, the director of Spaceship Earth:
Even if history does judge Biosphere 2 a failure, is that really so bad? “The media can be very dismissive of people trying new things,” says Wolf. “So much so that people hesitate to try for fear of criticism or failure. If everybody feared failure, they would never try new and ambitious things.”
I found it interesting that this article was self-aware of their use of a negative outlook on the story to pull people into reading. "The horrors of life inside the bubble" is not what any of the Biospherians experienced at all. In The Guardian article they even say that both Linda Leigh and Mark Nelson admit that they would happily go back in Biosphere 2 and were transformed by the experience. However the media keeps pushing this negative narrative thinking it will grab our attention. I think this is because the group challenged traditional society and the people watching were afraid of anything that threatened their way of living. But the biospherian way of life has taught us many things and each member gained a unique perspective on our place in the world which was anything but a failure. I also noticed that many people in the comment section of this article were in agreement with me. Here are some anonymous quotes:
It sounds to me like it didn't go wrong. It was meant to be an experiment. It just didn't go the way they had hoped or expected. Lessons were learned and plans adapted
This is such a dismal view of the whole thing. It wasn't a failure, so much about our ecosystem was learned. Biosphere 2 is still used as a giant research laboratory today. Always a fun visit.
Just the title paves the way for a very poorly researched article... there are plenty of peer reviewed scientific studies that explain Biosphere 2. Perhaps the writer should have googled even one!
It was reassuring to know that the people of the internet were not going along with this ploy. In summary, don't listen to the naysaying article titles you may see about the documentary. Go watch it, do your research and learn for yourself!