58 GERMINATION.CA JANUARY 2019 ON OCT. 23, 2018, British Columbia’s “whimsical scientist” Kurtis Baute — son of Dave Baute of Maizex Seeds — stepped inside a 10x10x10-foot homemade greenhouse filled with plants that he erected in his brother’s yard. His intention was to, in his own words, make a “crash course video series on YouTube about the air and how we interact with it and how our interactions affect the environment.” Here’s a step-by-step guide to Baute’s experiment and what it tells us about the important work plants do, and the effect humans have on climate change. Baute creates his jar, nine square feet in size, using a wooden frame and one continuous sheet of plastic sealed with duct tape and silicone. He fills the biodome with 200 plants (including corn, sunflowers and a cactus) and about 80 litres of water. 1. At midnight on Oct. 23, he steps inside, seals himself in and begins the experiment. He live-tweets using the hashtag #KurtisInAJar to keep the world updated on his progress. The world is definitely interested — Baute’s experiment makes it onto CNN, the BBC and beyond. 2. Carbon dioxide levels begin to increase soon after he enters. He knows he won’t make it three days inside the jar but is confident the plants will begin to use up the excess CO2 and create fresh oxygen, allowing him to stay inside longer. 3. DID YOU KNOW? The air we breathe is only about 21% oxygen. The rest is nitrogen and other assorted gases including CO2 (which itself only makes up about 0.04% of the air we breathe). WHYKURTISBAUTESEALED HIMSELFINAGREENHOUSE