Astronaut reveals his 'sobering realization' when he saw the earth from space
Astronaut Ron Garan has revealed the sobering effect of seeing planet Earth from space for the first time.
The luxury of seeing planet Earth from space is something that very few of us will experience our lifetime, unless of course Elon Musk gets a move on with SpaceX.
Although we have plenty of photos and videos of our home planet readily available at the click of a button, it's still pretty hard to fathom what it would be like the real thing with our own eyes.
In fact it's pretty weird to imagine being off Earth at all.
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Turns out this isn't an uncommon thought either, with many astronauts who have visited space reporting that they have had 'sobering' realizations about their home after seeing it from the window of a spaceship.
Often referred to as the 'Overview Effect', the phenomena has been described as a 'unexpected and overwhelming emotion' which astronauts experience during space travel.
Many have even returned to Earth with a newfound sense of appreciation for the planet's beauty and preciousness.
Explaining his first-hand experience with the Overview Effect in an interview with The Big Think, Garan said that seeing Earth from space made him realise how connected everyone and how problems such as global warming, deforestation, biodiversity loss should be viewed as 'planetary' issues.
Garan went on to explain that he believes society as a collective needs to shift the way it thinks in order to continue our 'evolutionary process'.
"It's obvious from the vantage point of space that we're living a lie. We need to move from thinking economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy," he said.
"There's this light bulb that pops up where they realize how interconnected and interdependent we all are."
Comparing the experience to the allegory of Plato's Cave, Garan said mankind needs to work out a way to 'leave the cave' and shift our perspective.
"We're not going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality," he added.
Now anyone who's quick to brush off Garan's comments as idealistic should note that he is not the only person who has gone on record to talk about his experience with the Overview Effect, with several other astronauts saying similar things.
Apollo 11 crew member Michael Collins recalled how surprising it was to see Earth appear so 'fragile' and 'tiny' while Apollo 14's Edgar Mitchell said the experience gave him an 'explosion of awareness'.
The phenomena was even experienced by Star Trek's William Shatner on a sub-orbital space flight, with the actor saying: "The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands... things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind."
Brenna Cooper