An Astronauts View of a Changing World
As a NASA astronaut, Mark Kelly got to look down on the earth from space. While the view was breath-taking, he told me that within the space of ten years he has seen how the world is changing.
After hurricane Irma I received a lovely message from Mark, who is an old friend, who wished all of us in the BVI a speedy recovery. He also said how we need to get the US government to wake up and face the fact we have a looming catastrophe on our hands that could kill millions before the turn of the next century.
I experienced three storms – including the devastating Hurricane Irma - within the space of a month in the BVI last year, all far greater than have happened before. Sadly, I think this is a start of things to come.
Mark flew his first space flight in 2001 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. Around a decade later he commanded that same space shuttle on its final flight. In an article for CNN, Mark has detailed how a planet that is 4.5 billion years old has changed in just a decade. He has seen the scars that climate change is leaving on our planet.
He writes about how you can see the pollution and deforestation as you look down from space:
“When I first looked down upon the Amazon rainforest in 2001, I saw vast areas of jungle and a wide and winding copper coloured river that went on and on and on. A river that was impossible to miss and like no other on the planet.
photo credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center