YouTuber locks himself in greenhouse to raise awareness of climate change

A scientist and YouTuber from Canada is sealing himself inside an airtight biodome for three days to raise awareness of climate change.

Twenty-eight-year-old Kurtis Baute from Vancouver will be living inside the mini-greenhouse of his own construction with roughly 200 plants to clean his air and provide oxygen.

The sealed structure measures 1,000 cubic feet and contains roughly 30,000 litres of air, the average amount Baute believes would sustain a human for three days.

Exposure to levels of carbon dioxide above 10% in air can be extremely dangerous, so Baute will be living with plants to introduce oxygen into the environment.

The greenhouse will be equipped with carbon dioxide sensors and alarms, and there will be a paramedic on call.

Baute said: “I am putting my health at risk here, but if we don’t do something now we are risking the lives of millions of people around the world.”

Baute is undergoing the experiment to raise awareness of climate change and the effect of greenhouse gasses on the earth’s delicate atmosphere.

Talking about his experiment on Twitter, Baute said: “The messed up thing about my experiment is that some of my abort values, eg 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.”

Baute said: “I hope that people will understand how the environment works a little bit better, or at least start wondering about that.

“Eat less meat. It is one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions, perhaps the biggest, and it’s for something we don’t need. Drive less. Cut down their commute times.

“I’m optimistic in a sense that humans will make it through this, but I think it’ll require a lot of changes and loss of life. I hope we can minimise that as much as possible.”