November 29–December 12, 2021
MOUNT WASHINGTON — I heard the voices of sensitive humans from outer space. They spoke of living in awe of the beauty of a blue planet — Earth — hanging in the blackness of space. The uniqueness of Earth in the cosmos astounded them, charged them with emotion. They observed the Sun white in the great blackness, not as we know the shining orb seen through our blue atmosphere, the sky. Stars — viewed with no atmosphere between eye and star — are vivid, steady lights of different colors: red, orange, yellow, blue, white.
“Nothing could prepare me for the phenomenon of the fragile atmosphere. The thinness of the atmosphere: paper thin.”
Deep sea researcher-turned-astronaut Ron Garan and astro-physicist-astronaut John Grunsfeld related experiences that shaped their world view, perspectives gained from residencies on the International Space Station, 200 miles above Earth. I was tuned in to a livestream of their discussion at the recent International Dark Sky Association’s “Under One Sky 2021” global conference.
“We live on a planet,” Garan emphasized, returning to the once-ubiquitous moniker, Spaceship Earth. “There are no passengers, all Earthlings are crew mates on planet Earth.” There is one biosphere for all. There are no boundaries. Our fate is totally interdependent with all life: our actions on land, water, sky are interconnected.
Listen up! It is required of each of us that, superseding the directive to act globally, we are called upon to be guided by a planetary perspective.
The “overview effect,” i.e. human consciousness awakened to living on Earth as a planet in the universe, is expressed in different ways. For the astronauts, it was a full-body experience of wonder and gratitude. Hear them from Under One Sky 2021 and you may be as moved as I was. It is not necessary to go to space to be inspired to act from a planetary perspective. As Ron Garan observed, “We’re surrounded by miracles, awe, and wonder everyday and we ignore them.” A critical support for a planetary world view comes to us when we look up to find the universe in the night sky. Most people on Earth are denied a dark sky by ubiquitous light pollution.
John Grunsfeld related that, during night on Earth, the lights seen from space are scars on the landscape. The amount of wasted electricity we expend to send light into space amounts to billions of dollars a year for inefficient, poorly designed lighting. He quipped that travelers from a faraway planet seeing the disastrous waste of light would conclude that “no intelligent life” exists on Earth. The astronauts urged that fighting light pollution is a “fight worth fighting.”
To learn more, visit the International Dark Sky Association website.
ADDENDUM
“Under One Sky 2021,” a Global Conference of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), based in Tucson, Arizona, took place around the world, virtually, from Friday, Nov. 12–Saturday, Nov. 13. Over the course of 24 hours, participants chose from a program of workshops and speakers that are now offered to the general public. IDA works to protect night skies for present and future generations. The greatest threat to our view of the cosmos is light pollution. The menace is heightened by space satellites.
As the website notes, “IDA’s Dark Sky Advocate Network is a global community united in its efforts to protect the night from light pollution. Check out the work of some of our advocates and submit your interest in joining. Register for the next live IDA Light Pollution 101 training. Training Session 1 is December 14, at 12 p.m. EST. Session 2 is December 14 at 8 p.m. EST. After attending this training, you will be invited to join IDA’s global communication platform, be given access to exclusive advocate resources, and invited to join additional monthly advocate trainings on various aspects of light pollution and dark sky conservation.”
