Interview with Abigail Alling of Biosphere 2
It is customary in Antarctica to watch The Thing because it gives us a good laugh at the popular image of Antarctica while also having a few impressionistic points of accuracy. Did you ever watch Silent Running while in the Biosphere?
I loved Silent Running. Not for the story, but for the images and it was an extremely important film in that regard for all of us.
Yeah, I lose interest in Silent Running when he tries to teach the robots to play poker. What exactly do the Biospherians find important about it?
We were fascinated by the imagery — beautiful, inspiring and very real. I hope the future of humanity will strive to create cosmic biospheres like those illustrated in Silent Running.
While you were in Biosphere you watched an episode of Star Trek "about a colony of humans from Earth who were living in a biosphere situated on the polar regions of a barren planet." What did the Biospherians say to each other or laugh about from the show?
I do remember it, but not in specific detail. I remember thinking it was fun they had a biosphere, but the show itself did not seem too interesting.
I found a synopsis of the show on the web. If it’s the same episode, it was called "The Masterpiece Society" about a colony of genetically-superior humans sealed inside a biosphere. Though faced with impending destruction by some external catastrophe, the colony refuses help from the Federation because that would upset the delicate balance of their technological biosphere.
The plot seems to exploit the social prejudice that anyone seeking to cut themselves off from society will sooner or later get into trouble or endure terrible suffering and will need to be rescued by the very society they’ve split from, and implies also that such people are dogmatically irrational. Did you ever encounter people who expressed this herd mentality in regards to Biosphere 2? Did anyone ever call you “elitists” or “cultists” or “fanatics”? Were there people or groups who, for some reason or another, felt threatened by what you were doing?
Everyone had a theory for what we were doing, and a lot of people felt threatened for sure. In the end, very few people understood or appreciated the Biosphere Experiment. A real shock. But I learned how little people think, and certainly how few people can “see” the biosphere or global ecological systems.
Was there any particularly ridiculous press you received that made you laugh?
French news said that we left the Biosphere in December of 1991 gasping for air.
When I went to Biosphere 2, the tour guide told us a story about how some mangrove trees were brought there from Florida. But because someone managing the project didn't clear the trees to pass through Arizona customs, the trucks carrying all these mangrove trees just sat in New Mexico for a few days until the paperwork came through. "This place reminds me more of Antarctica each minute," I thought as I heard the story.
The mangroves were held not because we did not have the paperwork, but because someone holding them thought they were mangos, which were not allowed to cross the border!!!
Who are some of your personal heroes or influences?
Sylvia Earle and Jane Goodall.
I’ve read that the roots of the Biosphere 2 project lie in a New Mexico commune named Synergia Ranch, which was influenced by the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, the infamous Armenian mystic. I’m presently reading Meetings with Remarkable Men, and I’m fond of Gurdjieff because no matter how abstract or metaphysical his proposals, he seldom fails to ground them in the concrete, mundane world of doing business or learning pragmatic trades. “Life Under Glass” reads: "The ability to improvise and to 'jury-rig' equipment when necessary was a crucial aspect of living in a closed system." and "Without Biosphere 2, there was no study of biospherics, hence our number one objective was to keep all systems operating." Of course Gurdjieff didn’t invent pragmatism, but have you read his books?
I can't answer for Synergia Ranch and how it was inspired. I have read Meetings with Remarkable Men and recall seeing the film when I was about seventeen, and thought it was a beautiful film.
Your jumpsuits were designed by one of Marilyn Monroe's clothes designers simply because he was interested in your project. Who were some other famous individual sponsors?
No other famous individual sponsors come to me but famous individuals stopped by such as Marlon Brando.
Brando died recently, and I’m not sure his interest in Biosphere has ever been recorded. What was the nature of the visit?
I did not meet with him personally. But prior to his death I spoke to him about coral reefs and his concern for the death of corals on his atoll of Tahiti.
You say it was William Burroughs who urged you to include simians in the Biosphere and that you named a monkey after him, that was eventually killed by exploring its way into a power transformer box. What was the Biospherians' connection to William Burroughs?
William Burroughs was a very closed friend of the founder of BIO2, John Allen, and of one of the directors, Kathelin Gray. We met him through them. William expressed to John that BIO2 really influenced him, specifically with regards to people's intentions towards the planet, and the increased attention-through-rapid-change montage, of which the biomes of BIO2 provided profound experience. We had three primates inside BIO2, and one of them during Mission Two was killed by a power transformer box.
Gaie Alling is presently CEO of the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission "to preserve and protect the earth's coral reefs through pioneering programs in science, technology and education."
For more extensive history of Biosphere 2, visit www.biospheres.com. For information about tours of Biosphere 2, visit www.bio2.com.