Shannon Glynn is one of 50 college students at Biosphere 2 (Arizona) participating in Columbia University’s “Earth Semester,” an innovative four-and-a-half-month, 16-credit undergraduate program. Since 1996, more than 250 students from around the world have participated in the program.
Stellar faculty and students are chosen through a rigorous application and interview process–no slackers here. The days are long and the work is hard. A typical day begins with a hike around campus, followed by morning classes such as Conservation Biology, Planetary Management and a course in Law, Politics and the Economics of Global Change. Lectures and research occupy the afternoons and evenings.
Originally constructed as a miniature version of Earths biosphere, the $200 million glass-and-steel structure covers three acres and contains five wilderness biomes: a coastal desert, a marsh, a savanna, an equatorial rainforest and an artificial ocean. In 1991, eight people passed through an airlock to spend two years as human guinea pigs in the land-locked space station. Although things went well for the first year, the second was plagued by a mysterious drop in oxygen, high levels of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, and massive crop failures. Regarded as pseudoscience by many academics, the Biosphere was finally shut down in 1994 amid a flurry of bad press.
Today, under Columbia’s guidance, Biosphere 2 functions as a credible one-of-a-kind research facility for the study of global climate change. William Harris, executive director, says, We’re establishing Earth stewardship as a fundamental part of core education.”
Students conduct research working alongside leading scientists studying the effects of climate change on various ecosystems. While Glynn’s project centers around the effects of increased carbon dioxide levels on the growth of coral reefs, other students study thermal tolerance of particular rainforest vegetation, the impact of climate change and ozone depletion on biodiversity and environmental health, and western water management.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a student who hasn’t been transformed in some way,” says Harris. “This is an unsurpassed icon for planetary understanding.” Glynn agrees: “I’d go back in a minute.”
Biosphere 2 Center Undergraduate Education and Programs
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FROM E Magazine
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