Darwin and the world’s first (and only?) experiment of “Terraforming”
Turns out Darwin had a secret experiment that not many people know about…
At the end of his 5 year mission exploring new worlds and studying their fauna and flora, Darwin stopped at Ascension Island. A small volcanic island 1600km from Africa and 2250km off the coast of South America.
At the time it was just a big rock, bright red volcanic cones and rugged black lava. Not much else… until Darwin, his botanist friend Hooker and the Royal Navy came up with the idea of transforming it into a green Oasis.
The idea was simple yet elaborate. Lets ship trees from all over the world and put them on top of the highest peak. They will collect mist and enable other things to grow.
And you know what? It worked! Ascension is now the strangest island where an artificial ecosystem was implanted with trees and plants that did not evolve to live together.
You can read more about this crazy story on the BBC website.
