A self-proclaimed scientist locked himself in a small air-tight plastic foil with 200 plants to see if they can convert CO2 into oxygen to keep him alive. Kurtis Baute sealed himself in a 3m by 3m plastic-wrapped biodome in his brother’s backyard in British Columbia, Canada. He announced his plans to his YouTube fans in August. He was hoping to find out if by surrounding himself with plants; the Co2 produced by him can be converted into oxygen to allow him to survive in the sealed enclosure for atleast three days.
Baute had to abort the experiment only after 15 hours since the CO2 reached a dangerous point where he risked suffering brain damage or even falling into a coma. He wrote on his website, “I could probably survive in the jar for three days. But my goal is not to ‘not die,’ my goal is to end this project without having turned blue, developed brain damage, gotten heat stroke, or just generally caused lasting harm to my body.” It turned out that he risked his life since the 200 plants he took with him into the airtight biodome were unable to keep up with his needs. This was because the clouds in the sky stopped the sunlight which was needed to perform photosynthesis. Therefore, the recycling of CO2 was not fast enough.
He tweeted about his little experiment saying, “Plants are great at soaking up CO2, they love the stuff. But they can only handle so much, and since it isn’t a bright and sunny day (its overcast) they aren’t getting the light they need… Which means CO2 keeps rising. Will have to abort today if this keeps up.” After fifteen minutes into the experiment, he reached the set danger threshold and ended the experiment. He declared the experiment to be a success since his main goal was showing the effects of climate change and CO2 emissions. He said, “The messed up thing about my experiment is that some of my abort values (e.g., If CO2 is too high I escape) are just everyday experiences for many people on this planet. Everyone deserves clean air, but not everyone has it.”