After spending six months in space, Ron Garan returned to Earth with an urgent message: we’re getting it all wrong. The NASA veteran, who logged over 71 million miles in orbit, describes how seeing our planet from space shattered his worldview.
“The biggest lie we tell ourselves,” Garan explains, “is that the economy matters more than the ecosystems that keep us alive.” From his spacecraft window, he witnessed Earth as a glowing blue marble—its atmosphere shockingly thin, its beauty heartbreakingly vulnerable.
This “overview effect” compelled Garan to dedicate his life to environmental action. Through his clean water initiatives, he’s turning his cosmic perspective into tangible change, proving that when we see Earth as astronauts do, everything looks different.
