Our Home Planet - A New Perspective

The earliest photographs of Earth from above the atmosphere were taken on October 24, 1946. The photographs were taken at an altitude of 65 miles over the Earth by a V-2 missile that was launched at the White Sands Missile Range. The blurry, black and white photographs clearly showed the curvature of the Earth, though at that low altitude only a partial view of the planet was possible.

It was not until 1961, with the beginning of NASA manned missions into space, that the world could see stunning pictures of the Earth from space -- pictures that transformed everything.

To view the Earth from space meant obtaining a point of view never before available to Earthbound humans. From space no arbitrary boundaries, no dividing lines between countries, no racial or religious divides are visible. Instead we see that our planet is a shimmering blue-green sphere hanging in utter darkness.

Even from afar, the evidence of ever-present life is clear: 77% of the globe is covered with sparkling blue water; white-cloud weather patterns move around the Earth; and the glorious shades of green alert any observer to the presence of photosynthesis-based plant life.

On December 24, 1968 NASA crew member William A. Anders snapped a famous photograph from the Apollo 8 spacecraft in lunar orbit as it emerged from the back side of the moon. NASA commander Frank Borman exclaimed, "Oh my God, look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up!"

Earthrise, as this photograph came to be named, is surely one of the most powerful and evocative photographs ever taken of the Earth from Space. We see the watery fertility of our life-filled planet contrasting with the barren moon's surface below, set against the backdrop of vast and empty Space.

Noted outdoors photographer Galen Rowell has called this image "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."

Maybe we are jaded, after all this time. A space agency website catalogs some 745,000 photographs of Earth from space. Yet these photographs call up a sense of place in a way that language cannot. They can call up again that sense of awe we felt when we first saw Earthrise -- and to strongly remind us how vast and beautiful and vulnerable is this Earth.

Artist Lance Hidy says that the pictures of Earth from Space changed history. We can no longer deny the vulnerability of our planet, nor the necessity of cooperation to effectively care for the environment.

David Yarian, Ph.D. DavidYarian.com DavidYarian.com is a practicing Psychologist in Nashville, TN and a lifelong environmentalist. Visit SavingTheEarth.net SavingTheEarth.net for recommended books and resources on the environment, renewable energy, global warming, green living, conservation, the best nature writing and more. Dr. Yarian also authored The Guide to Self-Help Books Books4SelfHelp.com Books4SelfHelp.com an online resource with recommended titles and book reviews.

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