A former NASA astronaut has shared his profound experience of viewing Earth from space, describing it as a ‘sobering realization’.
Ron Garan, an ex-NASA astronaut and author, spent 178 days in space. During his time on the International Space Station, he encountered the ‘Overview Effect,’ a cognitive shift that occurs when astronauts see Earth from space for the first time.
NASA describes the ‘Overview Effect’ as a powerful experience that changes “the way astronauts view and think about our planet and life itself.”
Garan, who has traveled “more than 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits of our planet,” had a moment of clarity when he looked down at Earth. “Certain things become undeniably clear,” he noted.
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 lightning 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.”
This realization was that our planet and all its inhabitants are sustained by a “paper-thin layer.” He continued, “I saw an iridescent biosphere teeming 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 vantage point of space that we’re living a lie.”
Garan reflects on this moment as a ‘light bulb that pops up,’ revealing “how interconnected and interdependent we all are.”
Since returning to Earth, Garan has been committed to advocating for a “cleaner, safer, and more peaceful planet,” urging others to reframe their thinking: “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.”