Arizona is a peculiar state in North America. Much of it is desert and over much of the territory is an Indian reservation known as Navajo Nation, where no one dances with wolves but rampant alcoholism, drug addiction and obesity. The first white men passed through this hard and dry was the Spanish geography of the Coronado expedition in 1540. Lopez de Cardenas, his junior, discovered the Grand Canyon and had to turn around without being able to cross. As a reward for his feat, received him with a court-martial. Although, certainly, the real hero of this land was Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, who in 1775 achieved arrive overland from New Mexico to California.
Much has changed since then Arizona. In just five years has moved to Florida as a haven for wealthy retirees. There is the humid heat of the Caribbean, no vermin or alligators and, especially, no cyclic hurricanes. What more could you ask? For water and air conditioning to withstand the 45 degrees centigrade summer. Since channeled Roosevelt Lake to Phoenix, the city has increased fivefold metropolitan area. From one end to another of the great city can be more than one hundred miles. The dryness has gone to heaven. A blow on the dollar, bougainvilleas bloom in the dry. As it, should not be so strange encounter with a tropical rain forest sprouting on the desolate rocks of the desert, but to allow size prodigy had to lift a huge greenhouse with claims of parallel world and pressurized.
Since channeled Roosevelt Lake to Phoenix, the city has increased fivefold metropolitan area. From one end to another of the great city can be more than one hundred miles. The dryness has gone to heaven.
In the vast and arid desert that surrounds Tucson existed 1985 a perfect example of the narcissistic arrogance of American capitalist Prometheus. On the dust stands a huge glass dome and fiber that flashes under the sun hurtful. Welcome to Biosphere 2: the story of a scientist with a veneer failure to thrive as urban pitch. The first question is required: Why is called Biosphere 2? Because the first biosphere is the Earth itself. The project of constructing a closed ecosystem cost 200 million to Edward Bass, one of those delicious rich that only occur in the U.S.. In almost half hectare, covered by a glass hood, There jungle, mangroves, forests, and even an ocean with a coral reef. This miniature world is designed to survive self, able to regenerate by itself, feed and recycled. Should not open at all, remain tight and self-sufficient.
But, long since ceased to be complex hermetically sealed. The only crew that now roam within the few tourists are targeted to a necrophiliac and naturalist tour between. The visit is conducted by a guide, half scientific half animator, which explains why theatrical gestures in the South Atlantic there are no hurricanes or how some plants survive without a drop of rain. Meanwhile, metaworld gears for heavy water pipes run. The noise is deafening conditioners. Cool this huge frenzy consumes tons of energy. But where the tour really becomes necrophiliac is to enter the area they occupied the two unfortunate manned missions. The monkeys empty settler and sad personal items are still there give the place an atmosphere of ghost ship, similar to that lived on the ship Nostromos, when fighting Sigourney Weaver in total solitude against the first Alien saga. All missions failed. And 1991 are locked during the first two years. They could feed on what they grew. We had to breathe oxygen because they rapidly exhausted, perhaps because the aerobic bacteria that proliferated uninvited. Were all that proliferated, because almost all other animals died. The second mission was even worse. Began in March 1994, was to last ten months, but in April a fifth column of disgruntled opened all doors to boycott the experiment. It was a real riot that did away with all the self-life project.
But, point as the current project responsible, rebellion itself can be considered an achievement of Biosphere 2. For them, the most notable scientific results of the closed world of the desert were not on the germination of vegetable, but in the fields of psychology containment: those elected to the glory had passed stringent tests for admission, were supposed to mature, stable and committed, but as soon began living together, were divided into factions almost immediately, conspired among themselves, openly hated and even hid food. From a psychosocial point of view, maybe you can say that the experiment Biosphere 2 was a success. Cainites hatred of all the seeds germinated better. Although it could be argued that finding such phenomena of selfishness and conflict, might not have been necessary to spend many millions of dollars and a mangrove planting in the desert. Had only to read Hobbes, who described them very many centuries ago tino.
