PARIS: A French space explorer announced back on Earth’s environmental change harm as seen from space on Thursday, considering it a “miserable sight” in a discussion with President Emmanuel Macron.
Thomas Pesquet, on his second visit at the International Space Station (ISS) circling the planet, told Macron by video interface that the ruinous effect of human action was turning out to be increasingly apparent, even from 400 kilometers (250 miles) away.
“Tragically that is the situation, Mister President,” Pesquet said. “Through the openings of the space station, we unmistakably see Earth’s delicacy,” he said. “We see the harming impacts of human movement, contamination of waterways and air contamination.” He said the space travelers at the station had noticed “whole areas consuming, as in Canada. We saw California shrouded in a haze of smoke, we saw the flares with our unaided eyes,” he said.
Comparative destruction could be found in Greece and southern France, the pilot said, additionally portraying “the tragic sight of rehashed typhoons”.
Asked by Macron whether things had changed since Pesquet’s first mission in 2016, the space explorer said: “OK, the climate peculiarities are speeding up at a disturbing rate.” Visibly struck by that perception, Macron stayed quiet briefly, and afterward said: “We should accelerate our responsibilities and their execution considerably more. That is the target of the COP26,” he said, alluding to the continuous UN-supported environment meeting.
Pesquet, a space explorer for the European Space Agency, is the current ISS leader.
He is to get back to Earth before long after a second half year stretch at the station, five years after his first ISS visit.
