An Adventure Beyond the Border

All it took was the  press of a button; one button, and everything changed: send. On the morning of February 10, the Campus Sustainability Office sent out a campus-wide email informing students, staff, and faculty about an upcoming trip to Montreal, Canada. All who attended would be visiting both the Biodome and Biosphere. Many showed up and took the long journey north in order to view what these two museums had to offer. In the end, students regarded the trip as being “mind-blowing,” and wanted to do a similar excursion sometime in the future. This is what they saw.

The Biosphere and Biodome are two different museums which offer separate, yet similar, messages. The Biosphere consists of exhibits exploring themes related to meteorology, climate, and water and air quality. The exhibits are intended to give visitors a better understanding of environmental issues and encourage environmentally responsable choices.Transitioning from each area, one tends to reflect on what they saw before. One exhibit displayed hanging plastic bottles and everyday trash — a symbol of the waste and greed which courses through the blood and bones of humanity. If this toxic and immortal refuse clogs our rivers and buries our forests, all of the beauty one has seen in the previous rooms are temporary, and very soon one will have to look at pictures in order to remind themselves of the natural beauty this world once held. We head now to the Biodome.

Transitioning from each area, one tends to reflect on what they saw before. One exhibit displayed hanging plastic bottles and everyday trash — a symbol of the waste and greed which courses through the blood and bones of humanity. If this toxic and immortal refuse clogs our rivers and buries our forests, all of the beauty one has seen in the previous rooms are temporary, and very soon one will have to look at pictures in order to remind themselves of the natural beauty this world once held. We head now to the Biodome.

After a hearty meal at the Biodome Cafe, one tends to forget the depressing lesson that haunts the halls of the Biosphere, and they are now ready to walk among the animals! The Biosphere consists of exhibits inhabiting exotic species of plants. Cacti, Bonsai, and other jaunty plants weave over every nook and cranny; however, there are exhibits which are much less appealing, and yet equally important.As you accustom yourself to the foreign temperatures within each exhibit, you cannot help but stare in awe at the variety of habitats and animals who live there. A popular stop along the way is the Sub-Antarctic Islands habitat. Why is it so popular? One of the attendees, Kathleen Keck, said only “the penguins!!!” Other popular sites include the Tropical Rainforest, the Gulf of St. Lawrence,  the Laurentian Maple Forest, and the Labrador Coast, which Kathleen remarked as being a “very cool exhibit.”

Lurking through the halls of low-hanging branches, or frolicking among the penguin, there is a greater message working at your mind. Deep inside the soul, a hint of fear, entangled in doubt, is making its way to the surface. Several will not ask the question until they have smuggled it back to the U.S. border. Only then will they be courageous enough to pull it out of their minds and ask, “How long will it last?” The trees will one day wither away; the penguins will grow old and pass on to the next stage of life, but for the time being, we having replacements in our zoos and aquariums. There will be a day when we shall search high and low, near and far, and no plant or animal will be left. Deforestation, poaching, pollution, and urbanization are ridding the world of what’s pure and natural. But that time has not yet come. The hour is not yet over. There is still time! And if you are not going to save the planet, might as well check out the Biosphere and Biodome in Canada while these beautiful organisms are still alive!