As the Paris U.N. Climate Conference winds down, negotiators are still hammering out the details of a global deal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. With close to 200 governments a part of the conversation, it’s important to remember perspective, in this case a global one. However, most of the negotiators are pinned to the ground. Besides images and videos, it’s safe to say a majority have never seen the blue marble called Earth from the vantage of space.
Speaking with Popular Science, astronaut Scott Kelly, R&D Magazine’s Scientist of the Year, threw in his two cents regarding what negotiators in Paris should consider when making these decisions.
“When you’re standing on the ground and you look up, the sky just looks enormous, but up here it doesn’t,” he said. “It looks…very thin and fragile and something that we need to protect because it’s the only thing that’s really protecting us from space.”
He noted that from the International Space Station, it’s very easy to see pollution in certain parts of the world, especially in Asia where it is almost “constant.” Additionally, he’s seen weather patterns and systems crop up in unexpected places.
