About the Author

Dr. Mark Nelson was a member of the eight-person “Biospherian” crew for the first two-year closure experiment. He is a founding director of the Institute of Ecotechnics and has worked for decades in closed ecological system research, ecological engineering, the restoration of damaged ecosystems, desert agriculture and orchardry, and wastewater recycling. He is Chairman of the Institute of Ecotechnics, and he is the author of The Wastewater Gardener: Preserving the Planet One Flush at a Time and co-author of Space Biospheres and Life Under Glass: The Inside Story of Biosphere 2.

Reviews

A fascinating account of the largest, longest and most important experiment in closed ecosystems ever conducted."" - Chris McKay, Senior Scientist, NASA

""In the early 1990s eight people sealed themselves into a self-contained ecosystem in the Arizona desert. Two decades later, Mark Nelson reflects on his experience inside Biosphere 2 as a microcosm of our global challenges with water, food, and energy. Only with a deep understanding of the biosphere’s workings, Nelson argues, can humanity craft an ethical relationship with the planet Earth."" - Melissa L. Sevigny, author of Under Desert Skies: How Tucson Mapped the Way to the Moon and Planets