A YouTuber who refers to himself as a "whimsical scientist," Baute is no stranger to unusual experiments. This one began at midnight Wednesday in the Comox Valley. He sealed himself in a 10x10 airtight greenhouse to raise awareness of climate change.
The idea came about when Baute was studying plants sealed inside a jar for two years. "In that entire time I've kind of been wondering what would happen if you tried to make a jar big enough, just big enough that a human could live in it," said Baute. "And what would that look like?"
That idea developed into the greenhouse cube, which Baute has built on a Comox Valley property.
He planned to seal himself inside the airtight structure for three days with dozens of plants, which he counted on to generate oxygen to keep him alive, but he was forced to call a halt after 15 hours as CO2 levels rose.
The oxygen went down, rose a bit but turned out to be to low in the end. "So cloudy today that CO2 from my breath has been slowly building up all day. Plants haven't had a chance to help me out", he tweeted.
He thanked fans and described the experience as a "huge success".
"I plan to breathe as calmly as possible, because every breath I take will be affecting the environment," he said. "So I'm going to just try to stay very calm about the fact that my breathing will impact the air."