“245,000 shots aboard the Space Station, 2,500 posted on social networks, 300, just over 300 in this book.” This is the astronomical number of photos that Thomas Pesquet took during his space missions. From the International Space Station, the French astronaut immortalized our planet from every angle. Pictures that he often shared on his social networks. But through his lens, the scientist saw much more than the beauty of the Earth, he also witnessed natural disasters, linked to climate change.
“We are first attracted by what is pretty, by the beauty of the Earth, because it is fascinating, and then it is magnificent. But very quickly, we realize, in fact, that on the right, on the left, there are little things that are wrong, that we see the traces of climate change, that we see, unfortunately, the consequences harmful human activities. Then, we try to immortalize that a little bit, to share it and then show people: ‘Well, look, the Earth, it’s magnificent, it’s an oasis, but to the right, to the left, there is also things that are wrong‘” he shows.
In particular, he observed the fires that were destroying the forests. “We feel helpless, we may even feel a little guilty, because climate change affects everyone, unfortunately. So we say to ourselves: fine, we are there well sheltered watching this, but there, inside, there are people, there are firefighters who are fighting. There are some who die, moreover, it happens. And then there are people who have their houses going up in smoke, there is obviously a lot of nature going up in smoke, so it’s a really a little weird feeling… We try to do what we can, because it’s true that astronauts can be called upon to react to disasters. In fact, the control center tells us: ‘We would need your photos of these areas to help the emergency services on the spot.’ Obviously, we comply with pleasure, but we feel a little helpless.”