From the International Space Station (ISS), he saw Earth in a way that few people ever will, experiencing what is called the “overview effect.”
This effect is a mental shift that many astronauts feel when viewing Earth from space, often described as a sense of awe and a profound emotional reaction. While in space, Garan traveled over 114 million kilometers and orbited Earth 2,842 times.
During that time, he realized that many of the things people worry about are not as important as we think. Instead, we should be more concerned with issues such as global warming, deforestation, and the loss of biodiversity.
Garan said, “When I looked out the window of the International Space Station, I saw flashes of lightning like paparazzi, I saw auroras that looked so close you could reach out and touch them, and I saw the incredible thinness of our planet’s atmosphere. At that moment, I was struck by the sobering realization that this thin, paper-like layer keeps every living creature on our planet alive. I saw a shimmering biosphere teeming with life. I didn’t see the economy. But since our human-made systems treat everything as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the global economy, including the very life-support systems of our planet, from the perspective of space, it’s clear that we are living a lie.”
Garan continued, “Instead of thinking economy, society, planet, we should think planet first, then society, and finally economy. Only then will we continue our evolutionary process. There’s a light bulb that goes off when you realize how interconnected and interdependent we all are.”
Since returning to Earth, Garan has advocated for better care of our planet and encourages people to prioritize each other’s well-being over the demands of modern life. He added, “We will not have peace on Earth until we recognize the fundamental fact of the interconnected structure of all reality.”