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Jane Poynter tells her story of living two years and 20 minutes in Biosphere 2: a completely natural and alternative micro world. Her experience has provoked her to explore how we might sustain life in the harshest of environments. This is a demonstration of the necessity to be conscious of our impact on the world we live in for a better future.

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In Oracle, Arizona there is a 3.15-acre complex unlike any other. Known as Biosphere 2, this structure is a man-made, materially-closed ecological system, built to explore the complex web of interactions within life systems. Jane Poynter, president of the Paragon Space Development Corporation, tells the story of her insightful, and sometimes difficult, two-year experience in Biosphere 2.

Biosphere 2 contains almost everything that planet earth does, but on a much smaller scale: a rainforest, an ocean, marshlands, savannah grassland, and a fog desert. Although it might seem like a fun experiment, Jane Poynter, an environmentalist who spent two years and 20 minutes inside of Biosphere 2, explains how challenging the experience could sometimes be.

The name Biosphere 2 comes from Earth’s biosphere, Biosphere 1, which is the only biosphere currently known. Biosphere 2 was built with to help give environmentalists a better understanding planet Earth, as well as to re-energize movements concerned with space travel and life on other planets. Poynter was one of the eight crew members to give up a substantial portion of their lives to live in Biosphere 2.

Poynter’s experience was eye-opening in many ways. In her testimonial, she points out: “In Biosphere 2, I totally understood that I had a huge impact on my biosphere, everyday, and it had an impact on me, very literally”. Scientifically, the experiment was enlightening; the scientists were able to gain invaluable hands-on experience with malleable life systems in a closed environment. Poynter had direct impact on the biosphere not only through the physical labor, but also just by breathing and circulating the oxygen and carbon-dioxide.

However, life in Biosphere 2 was often hard work, and things did not always run smoothly. In fact, at one point the structure started losing oxygen at a dangerous rate, and the crew had to resolve the situation before they ran out of oxygen altogether. Nonetheless, her experience had a lasting impact on her life – after Poynter finally emerged from the structure, she had a completely different outlook on the human existence.

Hopefully Biosphere 2 is only the beginning of these types of experiments. In the future, if we plan on exploring Mars and beyond, it is imperative that we are able to sustain life wherever we end up. Furthermore, these types of experiments help expand our knowledge of basic life systems and how we all fit into Earth’s composition.

More info:

• http://www.janepoynter.com/
• http://www.b2science.org
• http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_poynter_life_in_biosphere_2.html

Tags: Arizona, Biosphere 2, experience, Jane Poynter, world