"You don't see borders, you don't see religious lines, you don't see political limits. You only see the Earth"

During the launch of Artemis II in NASA's lunar mission, CNN interviewed William Shatner, the actor who played Captain Kirk in the series Star Trek. Shatner didn't just navigate the Universe in fiction. In 2021, at ninety years old, he traveled to space with Blue Origin. When asked about the experience of seeing Earth from so far away, he confessed that he felt immense sadness. In his memoirs, he explained that he couldn't stop crying: “My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration and, instead, it was a funeral. It was one of the most intense sensations I have ever experienced. The contrast between the ruthless coldness of space and the protective warmth of Earth, down there, filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day we learn of new destructions of Earth caused by ourselves: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna... things that have taken five billion years to evolve and which, suddenly, we will never see again due to human interference. It filled me with dread”.

When astronaut William Anders photographed Earth from Apollo 8 on September 24, 1968, he didn't imagine that image would transform our conception of the world: “We came all the way here to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered Earth”. Until then, Earth was just a map, a drawing. But that photograph turned it into a complete and isolated ecosystem floating in space. Now we have normalized the image, but almost sixty years ago, Earthrise changed the understanding of our place in the Universe. It strengthened environmental movements in the United States and contributed to integrating the word ecology into popular culture. That image of Earth became embedded in human consciousness, giving a new perspective on what it meant to be part of the planet.

In 1987, philosopher and writer Frank White coined a term to describe the experience of seeing Earth from space: the overview effect. It could be translated as the panoramic effect. White noted that, for astronauts, the experience of observing planet Earth suspended in space profoundly altered their perception of themselves, our planet, and the future. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space in 1992 aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, summarized it thus: “When you’re up there, you realize the world doesn’t belong to anyone. It’s not about ownership, but about responsibility.” Samantha Cristoforetti, on her missions to the International Space Station, highlighted the paradox: “It strikes you not only for its beauty, but also for the absence of borders. It’s a reminder that the divisions we insist on are not visible from above.” Christina Koch, who completed three space missions, emphasized: “You realize that every person you know is sustained and lives within that green line, and everything outside of it is completely inhospitable. You don’t see borders, you don’t see religious lines, you don’t see political boundaries. You just see Earth and you realize we are much more alike than we think.” Anousheh Ansari, the first space tourist woman aboard the Soyuz TMA-9 mission, described the impact of the experience as follows: “It reduces things to a size where you believe everything is manageable. All those things that seemed big and impossible, we can do them! Peace on Earth? No problem! Give people that kind of energy, that kind of power, and I’ve lived it.” But the most drastic, without a doubt, was Edgar Mitchell, who traveled with Apollo 14 in 1971: “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world and a compulsion to do something about it. From up there on the Moon, international politics looks so petty. You feel like grabbing a politician by the scruff of the neck, dragging him four hundred thousand kilometers and saying, ‘Look at this, you son of a bitch.’” An absolutely relevant comment.