Dreaming the Biosphere (Audible Audio Edition) Rebecca Reider Anne Hancock University Press Audiobooks Books
Download As PDF : Dreaming the Biosphere (Audible Audio Edition) Rebecca Reider Anne Hancock University Press Audiobooks Books
Biosphere rises from southern Arizona's 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.
The book is published by University of New Mexico Press.
Dreaming the Biosphere (Audible Audio Edition) Rebecca Reider Anne Hancock University Press Audiobooks Books
this is by far the most objective and thorough book on the Biosphere2 project. If you only read one book on the subject, or if you're wondering which one to delve into first, this is the one.Reider is not only a journalist, but has degrees in environmental science and was a student in Columbia's program back when they were running the facility. She goes to great lengths to view the overall Synergia experience, and she shows all the different sides of the issues.
In my other reviews of the Poynter and Alling books on Biosphere2 I raised several questions that "Dreaming" covers. The oxygen problem was a result of too much organic matter (cow poop) in the soil inside the facility, coupled with cement that wasn't completely cured before the first mission began. So why did they put so much organics into the soil, far more than actually needed for the two-year mission? According to Reider, it was simply because the builders intended the facility to be used for a century or more, so they wanted to provide enough carbon at the beginning to sustain plant growth for the entire lifespan of the facility. So there was some method behind their madness, but they never considered the side effects of all that organic material (namely, that it would generate carbon dioxide and methane faster than the plants inside could absorb it and emit breathable oxygen, and that the cement would bond with the atmospheric CO2 and thus permanently remove oxygen from the air).
Another question I asked was why the Synergia management didn't seem to have learned anything from the Russians' and NASA's experience with space stations and Antarctic research posts. It seems like they would have had plenty of advanced warning of crew personality clashes. Well, according to Reider's interviews with the Synergia managers and the Bioshperians themselves, they did have plenty of warning. John Allen, the mastermind behind the whole "Ecotechnics" umbrella organization, warned the crew before closure that they were likely to split into factions during the mission. So everybody knew what was likely to happen, but were powerless to prevent it. And apparently nobody even today quite understands why or even how all the power struggles and hostility happened.
A third question I raised in my other reviews was why the designers tried to cram so many different ecosystems into a roughly two-acre wilderness area. Reider shows why this was so important to the Synergists and was a core of their overarching philosophy. They were trying to encompass the breadth of Earth's biodiversity (or as much of it as possible given the space and money constraints), basically trying to show that by careful husbandry mankind could not only sustain but improve the entire ecosystem of this planet.
Reider also goes into a lot more detail not only about the major topics covered by Poynter and Alling, but also a lot of other issues the crew had to deal with not even mentioned in the other two books. And she gives a brief account of the second mission, which ended abruptly after only six months once Allen and his staff were locked out of the premises by Ed Bass's money men. She also brings up the delicious irony of a group of fanatic ecologists building a huge greenhouse that required the electrical generation capacity of a medium-sized city, just to support eight people and three acres of plants. Apparently none of the Synergists have ever noticed this.
So well done, Ms. Reider! She's done a remarkable job covering a topic that's clearly very dear to her, and she's done all us armchair Biospherians a great service in bringing the entire project to life.
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Dreaming the Biosphere (Audible Audio Edition) Rebecca Reider Anne Hancock University Press Audiobooks Books Reviews
With reverence and pizzazz, Rebecca Reider has unveiled Dreaming the Biosphere. Based upon a concept first developed by Sir Thomas More in 1516, known as Utopia, The Biosphere is a breath of fresh air. Far from Utopia, the Biosphere hoped to bring about a new way to view surviving on a planet troubled with uncertainty. She also poses a broader question that addresses what we need to do once we leave earth, raising deep concerns about colonization outside of our blue sphere.
Instead of a pile of chapters, Reider combs through four "acts" Seeds, Genesis, Pioneering, The Reset Button and an epilogue, in which she explores the multi-faceted sterility of Dreaming the Biosphere . She does not pretend to exhibit her work in anything but a human experiment. In so doing, she has accumulated a chronicle of dedication to the task of discovering just what constitutes our living sphere and how we can live in it, ensuring our intense interest in further development.
Her book is an inspiration, a canvass to build upon for those bold enough to undertake the effort and research to better understand our living environment and a reflection on the human need to understand our world.
This book is a very good study of how complicated our planet is and how complicated people are. It was well written and held my interest. Although I know how the project ends the story of the journey kept me reading to the end.
Great Item! Would buy again. Did not disappoint.
Wonderful in depth review of the biosphere experience. Too bad the media tangled things up the way they did!
Excellent story about the philosophy, the dream and the characters behind the Biosphere 2 project. The author is a scientist with a rare knack for storytelling and the ability to challenge mainstream science.
Informative, but frequently rambling with lots of conjecture and (frequently unsuccessful) attempts to place in profound historical perspective (seems written as an academic thesis). Author seems biased in favor of the importance of the "experiment."
As objective an account of the Arizona based Bio2 project as any I have seen. Although I was able to spot just a few factual errors, in the main I think she has got it right. She manages to convince how the project went so quickly from the darling of the press to its villain. If you have any interest in this extraordinary visionary project, one that was way ahead of its time, you must read this book.
this is by far the most objective and thorough book on the Biosphere2 project. If you only read one book on the subject, or if you're wondering which one to delve into first, this is the one.
Reider is not only a journalist, but has degrees in environmental science and was a student in Columbia's program back when they were running the facility. She goes to great lengths to view the overall Synergia experience, and she shows all the different sides of the issues.
In my other reviews of the Poynter and Alling books on Biosphere2 I raised several questions that "Dreaming" covers. The oxygen problem was a result of too much organic matter (cow poop) in the soil inside the facility, coupled with cement that wasn't completely cured before the first mission began. So why did they put so much organics into the soil, far more than actually needed for the two-year mission? According to Reider, it was simply because the builders intended the facility to be used for a century or more, so they wanted to provide enough carbon at the beginning to sustain plant growth for the entire lifespan of the facility. So there was some method behind their madness, but they never considered the side effects of all that organic material (namely, that it would generate carbon dioxide and methane faster than the plants inside could absorb it and emit breathable oxygen, and that the cement would bond with the atmospheric CO2 and thus permanently remove oxygen from the air).
Another question I asked was why the Synergia management didn't seem to have learned anything from the Russians' and NASA's experience with space stations and Antarctic research posts. It seems like they would have had plenty of advanced warning of crew personality clashes. Well, according to Reider's interviews with the Synergia managers and the Bioshperians themselves, they did have plenty of warning. John Allen, the mastermind behind the whole "Ecotechnics" umbrella organization, warned the crew before closure that they were likely to split into factions during the mission. So everybody knew what was likely to happen, but were powerless to prevent it. And apparently nobody even today quite understands why or even how all the power struggles and hostility happened.
A third question I raised in my other reviews was why the designers tried to cram so many different ecosystems into a roughly two-acre wilderness area. Reider shows why this was so important to the Synergists and was a core of their overarching philosophy. They were trying to encompass the breadth of Earth's biodiversity (or as much of it as possible given the space and money constraints), basically trying to show that by careful husbandry mankind could not only sustain but improve the entire ecosystem of this planet.
Reider also goes into a lot more detail not only about the major topics covered by Poynter and Alling, but also a lot of other issues the crew had to deal with not even mentioned in the other two books. And she gives a brief account of the second mission, which ended abruptly after only six months once Allen and his staff were locked out of the premises by Ed Bass's money men. She also brings up the delicious irony of a group of fanatic ecologists building a huge greenhouse that required the electrical generation capacity of a medium-sized city, just to support eight people and three acres of plants. Apparently none of the Synergists have ever noticed this.
So well done, Ms. Reider! She's done a remarkable job covering a topic that's clearly very dear to her, and she's done all us armchair Biospherians a great service in bringing the entire project to life.
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