Environmental Ills Visible from Space

Eileen Collins, commander of the August 2005 space shuttle mission, drew attention to Earth’s environment during a conversation from space with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other Japanese officials. “Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It’s very widespread in some parts of the world,” said Collins. “We would like to see, from the astronauts’ point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used.” Collins also described her view of Earth’s atmosphere: “The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it’s so very thin. We know that we don’t have much air; we need to protect what we have,” she said.