Explainer: What manmade biospheres can tell us about climate change

Over 30 years ago, a group of eight hippy-turned theatre troupe-turned sustainability enthusiasts voluntarily entered a manmade biosphere for a two-year period.

What was once deemed a failed experiment is one of humankind’s most famous attempts to recreate an Earth-like environment, but one that is now providing research opportunities to better study planetary health.

Biosphere 2 was designed to mimic what its creators described as Biosphere 1 – the Earth. A biosphere is essentially a collection of Earth’s ecosystems and, accordingly, Biosphere 2 had its own ocean, rainforest, mangrove swamp, farm and savanna. It remains the world’s largest mesocosm – an outdoor experimental system simulating the natural environment under controlled conditions.