Dreaming the Biosphere

Description

“Biosphere 2” rises from southern Arizonas high desert like a bizarre hybrid
spaceship and greenhouse. Packed with more than 3,800 carefully selected
plant, animal, and insect species, this mega-terrarium is one of the world’s
most biodiverse, lush, and artificial wildernesses. Only recently transformed
from an abandoned ghost dome to a University of Arizona research center, the
site was the setting of a grand drama about humans and ecology at the end of
the twentieth century.The seeds of Biosphere 2 sprouted in the 1970s at
Synergia, a desert ranch in New Mexico where John Allen and a handful of
dreamers united to create a self-reliant utopia centered on ecological work,
study, and their traveling experimental theater troupe, “The Theater of All
Possibilities.” At a time of growing tensions in the American environmental
consciousness, the Synergians took on varied projects around the world that
sought to mend the rift between humans and nature. In 1984, they bought a
piece of desert to build Biosphere 2. Eco-enthusiasts competed to become the
eight “biospherians” who would lock themselves inside the giant greenhouse
world for two years to live in harmony with their wilderness, grow their own
food, and recycle all their air, water, and wastes.Thin and short on oxygen,
the biospherians stoically completed their survival mission, but the communal
spirit surrounding Biosphere 2 eventually dissolved into conflict–ultimately
the facility would be seized by armed U.S. Marshals. Yet for all the story’s
strangeness, perhaps strangest of all was how normal Biosphere 2 actually was.
The story of this grand eco-utopian adventure (and misadventure) becomes a
parable about the relationship between humans and nature in postmodern
America. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of New Mexico Press (April 26, 2010)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 326 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 082634674X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 42
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.23 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.75 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #2,017,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3,555 in Ecology (Books) #4,407 in Environmental Science (Books) #6,724 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
• #3,555 in Ecology (Books)
• #4,407 in Environmental Science (Books)