In September 2018, The October Gallery hosted a talk by Dr. Mark Nelson, a member of the eight-person ''biospherian'' crew for the first two-year closure experiment. He is a founding director and the chairman 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 the author of The Wastewater Gardener: Preserving the Planet One Flush at a Time and co-author of Space Biospheres and Life Under the Glass: The Inside Story of Biosphere 2. In his book Pushing Our Limits, Nelson presents the goals and results of the experiment, addresses the implications of the project for our global situation, and discusses how the project's challenges and successes can change our thinking about Biosphere 1: the Earth.
In the emerging era of the Anthropocene, where human impacts on Earth are a major threat to biodiversity and health of our biosphere, Nelson provides lessons and insights into a fundamental realignment in thinking and behaviour.
Nelson was the silver recipient of this year’s Evergreen Medal for Nature Conservation for his book Pushing Our Limits: Insights From Biosphere 2.
