Long hours with his feet off solid ground gave him a unique and privileged outlook on our planet. Her Instagram account is full of beautiful pictures of “the blue ball we call home”. But beauty is tarnished. Pesquet says that the effects of climate change are visible from space as well.
He says that since his last trip to space in 2016, the consequences of human activity have become even more apparent, with glaciers apparently retreating, and an increase in extreme weather events.
Concern for the environment inspired him to become a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Goodwill Ambassador. As an astronaut aboard the ISS, she supported FAO’s research into agricultural innovation and food production methods. Limited resources in space provide an opportunity to model human behavior on a planet with dwindling resources, and Pesquet seeks to highlight the parallels between life on a spacecraft and life on Earth.
CNN spoke to Pesquet at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity,
CNN: What does Earth look like from “outside”?
Pesquet: When you look at Earth from the space station, it’s absolutely magical. You’re not that far away, so you still have a relatively close view. But you can see the curvature and you can see the atmosphere. It glows blue. It is absolutely breathtaking when you see it for the first time. This is the most beautiful view you can imagine.
When you are on earth, you feel that everything is so vast, everything is endless. You have a hard time understanding how limited we are. Then, when you take a step back and see Earth in its entirety, you suddenly realize that we live in an oasis in the universe. There is nothing around us, no life, blackness, emptiness, absolutely nothing – everything we need to sustain human life, and life in general, other than this blue ball, which Absolutely delicate.
It makes you want to cherish and protect the Earth, the more you see it from space.
CNN: What are the real effects of climate change as seen from space?
Pesquet: You can see a lot of the results of human activities from space. Some of that is from climate change, and some of it is just plain old pollution, like river pollution, air pollution.
The most visible effect is the retreat of glaciers year after year and mission after mission.
But what you can see are extreme weather events as well. They are getting stronger and stronger every year. My first mission was 2016-2017, and my second mission was five years later in 2021. I could see a net increase in frequency and strength of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, such as wildfires.
CNN: What can an astronaut contribute?
Pesquet: There’s a ton you can do to help the planet from space. First, as a space agency, we have satellites that can observe Earth and measure variables such as wave height, ocean temperature, ice on the retreating polar cap.
But we can also go a little deeper. We have experiments that are geared towards protecting the planet — experiments on liquids, for example. Liquids in orbit behave differently, so our research is trying to understand the movement of magma and lava inside the planet and the movement of waves in the ocean. It can help us predict some extreme weather events affecting our environment.
Importantly, we have to manage our limited resources on the space station. We have limited environment, limited water, limited food. And so the way we deal with everything aboard the space station gives us techniques that we can apply to Earth because the situation is parallel. I think people on Earth can learn a lot about how space technology deals with water, how we recycle water, how we recycle air oxygen.
CNN: Does it affect family life when you’re in space for several months?
Pesquet: It’s not easy for us to be there, and it’s not easy for the people we leave behind. The hardest part is being deprived of your loved ones, and constantly worrying that you can’t help them if something happens to them. I think it’s a nightmare for all astronauts, that something happens to their families on Earth when they’re away.
I believe there is an element of selfishness in me for going to space because it is a wonderfully magical experience. But I also firmly believe that what we do has a hugely positive impact on society in general; Because of research, because of international collaboration. So I think we have to do it, even if there is a price to pay. It’s not easy, but I think it’s a good thing to do.
CNN: As a climate advocate, do you think about the environmental cost of space travel?
Pesquet: As an astronaut, you see the fragility of planet Earth, as well as think, “Wait a minute, what’s my take on all of this? I’m going into space in a rocket, it’s going to hurt the environment.” How does that affect?
Yes, space travel produces some CO2, and it is not entirely environmentally friendly. But I think you have to keep the positives in mind along with the negatives. There have been so few rocket launches that our impact is negligible compared to aviation, cars or other industries. To do satellite research we need activity in space. This benefits the planet a lot. So space travel is a necessary evil.
CNN: Since you returned from the ISS, what have been your hopes for the future security of our planet?
Pesquet: If we set ourselves on the right path, there is nothing we cannot do. We built this incredible facility in space for good reason. We are using it every day in peaceful cooperation between countries that were not always friends. So if we can transfer that model to the way Earth deals with the environment, I think we’ll get there.
We are very creative, we have the technology and we have the will. So I am optimistic about the future. If we can fly a space station, we can save the planet.
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