The Center For Planetary Identity
Description: Overview Effect - The Case for Planetary Awareness
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A long envisioned New Space Age is beginning at the very time that the world is consumed by a perfect storm of crises that threatens the very sustainability of civilization. To say that we are at a turning point in world history is a vast understatement. Our scientific and technological capabilities are expanding at a geometric rate, but the human mind and society resist such rapid change.
An important example is the seeming dichotomy between the futuristic, science fiction-inflected vision of space travel and our immediate concerns for the future of the world. Many advocates working on solutions to problems in the environment, international conflicts and a host of humanitarian challenges view expensive and risky human space programs, as a diversion of resources from these urgent Earth-based concerns - making these "world-change" activists among the most vocal critics of human space efforts.
But it's a false dichotomy! The missing piece is the profound space-induced shift in worldviews described by the majority of astronauts since the beginning of spaceflight. Frequently these shifts sensitized them to many of these very same crisis issues. Widely known in the space community as the Overview Effect , it is little known by the general public and poorly understood even by many space advocates.
The Center For Planetary Identity