Speaking at Davos 2023, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer described seeing a planet in pain.
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00:00An astronaut who was on board SpaceX's Crew-3 mission has described seeing burning rainforests
00:09and dried up lakes from space.
00:11Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos in response to whether he could see
00:15the impact of climate change from orbit, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer admitted that while
00:19climate change occurs over a long period of time, he could see clear signs of a planet
00:23in pain.
00:24Somehow there are very, very many fires exactly on the border between the dark green and the
00:28light green.
00:29That's when you understand people are burning down the rainforests to create more room for
00:33agriculture.
00:34He explained the dark green areas are rainforests and light green are agricultural areas when
00:38viewed from space.
00:39He added,
00:40Then you fly further on and you see like desert areas and you think shouldn't there be a
00:44lake here?
00:45In my maps there's a lake.
00:46And it's gone.
00:47You don't see anything.
00:48Maurer isn't the only astronaut to speak out on the visible signs of climate change from
00:51space.
00:52NASA's Megan McArthur told Business Insider she was saddened to see fires over huge sections
00:57of the Earth, not just the United States.
00:59Maurer was one of four astronauts shuttled to the ISS by SpaceX on behalf of NASA in
01:04November of 2021.
01:05They conducted experiments aboard the space station for six months before returning to
01:09Earth in May 2022.