Borders From Space
Sept. 7, 2011
I have always said, “you can’t see any borders from space.” Apparently I was wrong.
On the evening of August 17, 2011, I “flew” to the Cupola, the windowed observatory of the International Space Station, to shoot some photographs for a time-lapse photography project I have been working on for Fragile Oasis.
Before beginning the sequence, I took some practice shots to verify camera settings. As I was about to delete them, something caught my eye. In one of the pictures, a very obvious illuminated line snaked across a large landmass for hundreds of miles.
Initially, I wrote it off as a strange exposure from moonlight reflecting on a river. But, I was intrigued and did some investigating, only to learn this was not a natural reflection at all. Rather, it is a man-made border between India and Pakistan to control passage between the two countries.
This picture depicts the illuminated man made border between India and Pakistan, seen from the north from onboard the International Space Station on August 17, 2011. To the left New Delhi, and the cities of Jaipur and Jodpur. At the right edge: Karachi in Pakistan. The most striking feature is something that is frequently thought not to be visible from space - a border.
Realizing what this picture depicted had a big impact on me. When viewed from space, Earth almost always looks beautiful and peaceful. However, this picture is an example of man-made changes to the landscape in response to a threat, clearly visible from space. This was a big surprise to me.
Since the beginning of human spaceflight fifty years ago, astronauts have reflected on how peaceful, beautiful, and fragile the Earth looks from space. These reflections are not clichés that astronauts say because it feels good. It is truly moving to look at the Earth from space.
The point is not that we can look down at the Earth and see a man-made border between India and Pakistan. The point is that we can look down at that same area and feel empathy for the struggles that all people face. We can look down and realize that we are all riding through the Universe together on this spaceship we call Earth, that we are all interconnected, that we are all in this together, that we are all family.
When we look down at the Earth, we are faced with a sobering contradiction. On the one hand we can clearly see the indescribable beauty of the planet we have been given. On the other hand is the unfortunate reality of life on our beautiful planet for a significant portion of its inhabitants.
It saddens me and compels me to action when I realize that we have the resources and technology to overcome almost all of the challenges facing our planet, yet nearly 2 billion people do not have access to clean water, countless go to bed hungry every night, and many die from preventable and curable diseases.
I believe that we live in a world where the possibilities are limited only by our imagination and our will to act. It is within our power to eliminate the suffering and poverty that exist on our planet.
The answer is quite simple - just do something. The challenges of the world are really about how each of us individually responds to them. In other words, to what extent does humanity, on a person-to-person basis, commit to making a positive difference, no matter how small, or how big?
The vision for Fragile Oasis is to be a vehicle to effect real change. We want to provide a means for people and organizations to collaborate and develop synergy toward overcoming our planet’s challenges. We want to encourage people to make a difference, and we want to help organizations that are striving to make the world a better place reach their goals.
In short, the goal of Fragile Oasis is to help reduce that sobering contradiction that we see when we look at the Earth. We want to assist those that are striving to improve life on Earth so that it is not only visibly beautiful, but life is beautiful for all.
Other posts by this author
- To Be Continued ...
- One Young World Summit - The Key Is We
- Moonshot
- Why Should We Spend Money on Space Exploration When We Have So Many Problems Here on Earth?
- Guardians of Earth
- Do 1 Thing Day - July 20, 2012
- The Orbital Perspective of Nicholas Kristof
- An Invitation to Participate in the International Space Apps Challenge
- LAUNCHing Ideas for a Waste-less Tomorrow
- We Get to Carry Each Other
Sept. 7, 2011
Peter C.
Borders are kind of "natural" since each state has them. They are lines drawn on maps and marked by signs on the ground. That is the "peaceful" version of country borders. Illuminating them at night is already a "reinforced" variant since this means there actually is an intention to prevent people from passing it. This particular border does not follow a river, it is man-made, consists of a wire mesh fence covered by thick elephant grass (to hinder visibility). The vision really should be not to have "such" borders.
Dec. 22, 2011
Neil M.
Borders are as natural as states. It is not natural at all but for civilisation to exist they are a necessary evil.
Sept. 7, 2011
Maria E.
I'm astonishment...can´t understand why it happens again, another wall, another border...they splurge in a fence and have people in extremly poberty and hunger!!!It´s a deep wound that must be heal,don´t know how yet but think together we can make a difference, right? well, let´s figure it out!
Sept. 7, 2011
Donfrom t.
I saw an article posted on Univrse Today about this Blog and the borders photo -- that photo over their on that site is awesome -- shows lots of Stars in the space background. Would like to see more photos and streaming video from the ISS - thank you for your efforts and take good care - your doing some amazing work
Sept. 8, 2011
beth b.
Ron, I hope you run for public office...in your spare time when you're not flying in space and founding humanitarian enterprises. Your comment: " The point is that we can look down at that same area and feel empathy for the struggles that all people face" is what we need more of from our political leadership. I'm really serious about you running for office. Really. :)
Sept. 17, 2011
Marco P.
I agree!
Sept. 18, 2011
Marco P.
Beth I actually hope that Ron will write a book with his fellow, why not, crew members and make this book an inspirational Constitution for every citizen of our human society. It must be a "visionary" book.
Ciao
m.
Sept. 8, 2011
AmyBeth I.
What a beautiful photo, even though some of the implications are very sad.
There's a saying that "Good fences make good neighbors." When people agree where one citizen's property ends and another's begins, they can coexist peacefully and happily.
But not all fences represent good neighbors. Instead of simply a symbolic demarcation of a border, sometimes fences are erected as a barrier. This does not mean the fence itself is evil and should be torn down; instead it is a sign of a greater social and political issue. It is a sign that one side or both feel threatened, unsafe.
I don't want to get rid of borders and fences. I simply want to see an Earth where fences are no more than a decorative method of showing people where a border exitsts.
And that can not happen till everyone feels safe.
Sept. 9, 2011
Kris A.
What an amazing picture, and an eye opener for sure.
Sadly beautiful...
Sept. 17, 2011
Marco P.
I challenge anyone to avoid eating anything for hours and then go sleep hungry. You will feel what in a passage of the post Ron is talking about and I think we would have much more comprehension of what means suffering.
It's full of walls. There are also some just built by Israel. It's all illegal. It's not right. People have acted a nasty role. In the case of Israel and India \ Afghanistan it has been United Kingdom that playied a bad part and provoked the actual situation. We should now work hard to heal all the deep wounds that have been made over Earth.
Not everybody knows the story between Pakistan and India and the hate there is.
We should all give example. The example missed by Earth and new developing countries in the past years. The example was not given by the developed countries people and governments. Now we are paying the results.
Dec. 22, 2011
Neil M.
You single out the UK for criticism there. What about other empires? German, Spanish, French, Roman? It's not only Europeans that interfere with other countries through history either, Japan, USA, Persia.
As for not eating until bedtime? The suffering in the world is on a far grander scale than that, children snatched from their families and sold into slavery, civil wars, etc.. It puts the financial meltdown into perspective when you look at the bigger picture. Looking at the bigger picture it can be seen from space that we do have another threat to world peace emerging between two nuclear powers. That is a very sobering thought.