Pirate's Cove

Definitely not a cult

This Canadian is trying to show the impact of climate change on the Earth by constructing a 'micro, nano, tiny version of Earth in a jar,' and living in it for three days as 'lethal' carbon dioxide levels build up. https://t.co/ba7tTqWks2

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) October 24, 2018

From the link

A local science enthusiast is sealing himself inside a biodome of his own construction Tuesday at midnight to illustrate how Earth’s delicate atmospheric balance is increasingly threatened by human-made climate change.

Kurtis Baute, Vancouver’s self-proclaimed “whimsical scientist,” said that if all goes according to plan, he’ll safely spend three days living inside the isolated environment, with roughly 200 plants to keep him company and clean his air.

“Basically I’m trying to recreate a micro, nano, tiny version of Earth in a jar,” Baute said in an interview. “And to do that, I need to think a lot about, mostly, air.”

The so-called biodome is a 10-foot-by-10-foot-by-10-foot wood frame with a sheet of heavy-duty plastic wrapped around it “like a gift” and then sealed tight with tape and silicone. That 1,000 cubic feet of space — built on his brother’s property near Courtenay, B.C. — contains roughly 30,000 litres of air, which Baute estimates would normally sustain a human being for around three days.

“But, and that’s a big, crucial ‘but,’ the carbon dioxide levels would build up before that (time) to the point where it would probably be lethal,” he said.

The U.S. CDC has determined that a lethal level of CO2 is at 100,000ppm, though it can be lethal at 84,000ppm for 60 minutes. The current Earth atmosphere is just above 400ppm. This is never mentioned in the article

Carbon dioxide acts as an asphyxiant, and exposure to levels above 10 per cent in a given volume of air can cause convulsions, brain damage, coma and death, according to the National Centre for Biotechnology Information.

And would need to be much, much higher than 400ppm.

But the reward, said Baute, will hopefully outweigh the risk.

“The most important thing,” he said, “if anyone has any take-aways, is that we need to be doing something about the environment.”

No worries. Plants freaking love 400ppm of CO2.

But, hey, if he wants to live like this, go for it. But don’t try and force this down everyone else’s throat by government dictate.