Image above: On October 24, 1946, not long after the end of World War
II and years before the Sputnik satellite opened the space age, a group of
soldiers and scientists in the New Mexico desert saw something new and
wonderful—the first pictures of Earth as seen from space.
Never in all
their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a
single sphere, a globe, having the qualities of a globe, a round earth in which
all the directions eventually meet, in which there is no center because every
point, or none, is center — an equal earth which all men occupy as equals. The
airman's earth, if free men make it, will be truly round: a globe in practice,
not in theory.
Archibald MacLeish, May 1942.
The technology of the 20th Century set in
motion the age of seeing the Earth from above in all its spatial glory, an age
which has changed the population’s perception of the Earth they live on. I have frequently been fascinated by the change
in spatial literacy and perceptions created by the 20th Century
capacity to view the Earth from above. Before the age of flight and the space
age, the only way we perceived the Earth from above was through the projection
of maps, otherwise we had a ground level view of our world. If we were lucky we
could ascend to the top of a tall building but our view was limited to the
horizon (the horizontal, as opposed to the vertical view) and the true dimensions
of the Earth were not evident. Traditionally geographers created maps to provide
a birds-eye view of the Earth and increasingly in the 20th Century aerial
imagery from aircraft was used. When satellite imagery began to be available in
the 1950’s, a new world of ‘from above’ views of the Earth commenced. Even then,
it was primarily geographers, governments and industry who used these images.
With the advent of the Internet and programs such as Google Earth and Google Maps, we now have readily available a plethora
of views of our planet from above. Some call this the democratisation of geography,
the community all being geographers! It is no longer just the geographer using
remote sensed images but the community has them readily available and use them repeatedly
to find out what they require. News broadcast, documentaries, films, websites,
sporting events and many other areas of community activity use ‘from above’
images so that they now have become just part of our lifestyle. There is now an
expectation by the community that they should be able to be informed by viewing
‘from above’ images.
My question is, what has this changed view of our Earth
done to our perception of the place we live? In fact, some argue that this
change of spatial perception has been a great contributor to the concepts of
globalisation, environmentalism and the perception of a world of diminishing
size. If nothing so grand, it surely has changed our spatial perception? The
community now has the eye on the world from above and nothing cannot be seen
across space. In the past it was primarily geographers who could comprehend and
analyse remote sensed images from planes and satellites, now it seems that it
is just a life skill for all. As a geographer I see this as a great thing and
makes one consider the role geography in schools needs to play to support the communities
use of these very geographical tools.
The Blue Marble is
a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the
Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres
Counterculture activists had been among the first to
cherish these images as icons of a new global consciousness. The Apollo 17
image, however, released during a surge in environmental activism during the
1970s, was acclaimed by the wide public as a depiction of Earth's frailty,
vulnerability, and isolation amid the vast expanse of space. NASA archivist
Mike Gentry has speculated that The Blue Marble is the most widely distributed
image in human history.
The following quotes from commentators and those involved
in the space age are enlightening to see what they thought the initial images
they saw from above our earth did to their perception of life on Earth.
"Once a
photograph of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available, a new idea as
powerful as any in history will be let loose."
Sir Fred Hoyle,
1948.
"It suddenly
struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb
and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like
a giant. I felt very, very small."
Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 astronaut
"Oddly enough
the overriding sensation I got looking at the earth was, my god that little
thing is so fragile out there."
— Mike
Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut
"As I looked
down, I saw a large river meandering slowly along for miles, passing from one
country to another without stopping. I also saw huge forests, extending along
several borders. And I watched the extent of one ocean touch the shores of
separate continents. Two words leaped to mind as I looked down on all this:
commonality and interdependence. We are one world".
John-David
Bartoe Spacelab astronaut
"We came all
this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we
discovered the earth".
William Anders
Apollo 8 astronaut
For the geography classroom
One of the great boons for geography in schools is that
we have readily available a plethora of amazing images from above the earth to
use in our teaching. The following few sites are just some that help students
see the Earth from above in the most exciting way. Maps still have a critical place as the purveyors
of information but the images we can use certainly add colour, dimension and
depth to our perception of the earth and student spatial perception.
A time-lapse taken from the front of the International
Space Station as it orbits our planet at night.
Britain
from Above presents the unique Aerofilms collection of aerial photographs
from 1919-1953.
