A former NASA astronaut talked candidly about his “sobering realization” after taking a spacecraft’s view of Earth.
The ‘Overview Effect’ is a phenomenon that former NASA astronaut and author Ron Garan experienced during his astounding 178 days in space. It happened as he was staring down at Earth from the International Space Station.
When astronauts launch into space and gaze down to observe Earth from that viewpoint for the first time, a phenomenon known as the “Overview Effect” frequently occurs. The experience ‘shift[s] […] the way astronauts view and think about our planet and life itself,’ NASA explains.
Despite the fact that Garan has traveled “more than 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits of our planet,” or 178 days, “certain things become undeniably clear” at that point when he peered down at Earth.
In an interview with Big Think, Garan explained: “We keep trying to deal with issues such as global warming, deforestation, biodiversity loss as stand alone issues when in reality they’re just symptoms of the underlying root problem and the problem is, that we don’t see ourselves as planetary’.
“When I looked out of the window of the International Space Station, I saw the paparazzi like flashes of lightening storms, I saw dancing curtains of auroras that seemed so close it was as if we could reach out and touch them and I saw the unbelievable thinness of our planet’s atmosphere.
“In that moment I was hit by the sobering realization.”
Garan was struck with the thought that a “paper thin layer” exists between our planet and all life.
“I saw an iridescent biosphere teaming with life, I didn’t see an economy, but since our human-made systems treat everything including the very life-support systems of our planet as the […] subsidiary of the global economy, it’s obvious from the vanish point of space that we’re living a lie,” he said.
The astronaut reflects on the moment as being a ‘light bulb that pops up’ when he realized ‘how interconnected and interdependent we all are’.
Since returning from his mission, Garan ‘continues to work towards a cleaner, safer and more peaceful planet,’ urging others: “We need to move from thinking, economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy. That’s when we’re going to continue our evolutionary process.
“[…] We’re not going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.”
