Scott Kelly is a bona fide American hero. He is an American astronaut who has spent more than 500 days in space across six missions. Most recently, he just passed 320-consecutive days on the Space Station as part of a yearlong study.
The study compares the impacts of space and zero-gravity on physical and mental conditions with Kelly’s twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who is undergoing similar tests on Earth. (Incidentally, he is the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011, attracting national attention.)
As Scott Kelly surpassed his 320th day in space last week, he was interviewed by neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta of CNN. Gupta asked Kelly a lot of questions about his unique perspective on the world and his unique situation.
Kelly talked about space travel in the public sector (he hoped that the next president would increase and continue to support funding for NASA) and in the private sector (saying that he views it as an amazing opportunity). But perhaps the most important statement Kelly made was about the apparent “health” of Earth from his one-of-a-kind view.
Specifically, Kelly told Gupta, according to CNN, that “when you look at the … atmosphere on the limb of the Earth, I wouldn’t say it looks unhealthy, but it definitely looks very, very fragile and just kind of like this thin film, so it looks like something that we definitely need to take care of.”
Given Kelly’s statements, the Daily Iowan Editorial Board believes even more confident about the existence of global climate change and the need for substantial action. The unique perspective that Kelly provides may not drastically alter the course of environmental policy, but it provides a focal point to bring the vast, complicated issue of climate change into a simple frame. And, furthermore, Kelly’s opinions and views on the climate change and the sustainability problem provide insights that we’ve never seen before; some pressure will fall on him to stress the importance of change.
Kelly noted that from his perspective, there are areas in Asia and Central America that you must look at through a haze of pollution and that there are weather systems appearing in unusual places on Earth.
While it isn’t necessarily Kelly’s place as an astronaut to say humans are causing climate change or to specifically state what must be done to solve the issues the world is facing, he plays an important role in addressing the world issues.
Kelly will return to Earth in a matter of weeks and bring with him incredible data and information that may prove invaluable as government agencies and private organizations work toward putting humans on Mars.
This past year has been filled with progress for those who believe climate change is a human-caused issue. Candidates have made climate change and energy an important issue in debates and the latest Conference of the Parties marked the greatest leap forward in climate-change international policies in history.
The world is on the brink of making real, sustainable, and effective change to a world that appears to need it (according to scientists including Scott Kelly). Any information or ideas from qualified experts that can further shed light on how to handle environmental issues cannot be ignored. So although Kelly is an astronaut and not an environmental scientist, his comments, based on his vantage point from an orbiting satellite, give us a tangible sense of just how precarious Earth’s situation has become.