Earth’s Vital Signs Revealed: A View from Space for Action on Earth

Professor Dava Newman, Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics

Recent space science missions include reaching Pluto and Jupiter, the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, and ocean worlds missions to find life elsewhere in the Solar System. Humanity will become interplanetary, reaching the Moon in a few years, and Mars in the 2030s. However, Mars is not ‘Plan B’. Spaceship Earth, our pale blue dot, is the most magnificent planet to inhabit. Earth is speaking to us – are we listening? The past few years have been the hottest recorded on Earth since we began measuring global climate for the past 140 years. Hundreds of gigatons of ice have been lost in Greenland and Antarctica, and levels of trapped greenhouse gas top 415 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Earth’s vital signs tell a story of a planet in trouble, threatening sea-level rise, ocean acidity and plastic pollution might have disastrous implications for the health of communities worldwide. Professor Dava Newman, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, MIT Apollo Professor of Astronautics will offer an orbital view of planet Earth’s interconnected systems through supercomputer data visualizations and stories to demonstrate risks and positive actions for the future. Having circumnavigated Earth on s/v Galatea, this is personal. A “life project”. EarthDNA (Data iNto Action) is partnering with the UN and ICC with a goal to connect and empower individuals as well as SMEs (small medium enterprises) to act sustainably, providing solutions to help regenerate Earth’s oceans, land and air subsystems. Collective actions already underway shine a light on a healthier future between humanity and our home planet.