Yesterday was Earth Day and many celebrated and honored it by activities out of doors. And for many of us it was a beautiful day to do so. One of the items that I read yesterday struck home. The Boston Globe featured an AP article which had quotes from astronauts about the view of Earth from space.

Here are a few of my favorites:

“The sheer beauty of it just brought tears to my eyes.

“If people can see Earth from up here, see it without those borders, see it without any differences in race or religion, they would have a completely different perspective. Because when you see it from that angle, you cannot think of your home or your country. All you can see is one Earth….”

—Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-American space tourist who flew last year to the international space station.

“Up in space when you see a sunset or sunrise, the light is coming to you from the sun through that little shell of the Earth’s atmosphere and back out to the spacecraft you’re in. The atmosphere acts like a prism. So for a short period of time you see not only the reds, oranges and yellows, the luminous quality like you see on Earth, but you see the whole spectrum red-orange-yellow-blue-green-indigo-violet.

“You come back impressed, once you’ve been up there, with how thin our little atmosphere is that supports all life here on Earth. So if we foul it up, there’s no coming back from something like that.”

—John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth (1962) and former U.S. senator.

For Earth Day this year - at a time when perhaps some perspective is needed - The Associated Press asked space travelers to recall what it’s like to see Earth from above:

“It was the only color we could see in the universe. ... “We’re living on a tiny little dust mote in left field on a rather insignificant galaxy. And basically this is it for humans. It strikes me that it’s a shame that we’re squabbling over oil and borders.”

—Bill Anders, Apollo 8, whose photos of Earth became famous.

“You change because you see your life differently than when you live on the surface everyday. ... We are so involved in our own little lives and our own little concerns and problems. I don’t think the average person realizes the global environment that we really live in. I certainly am more aware of how fragile our Earth is, and, frankly, I think that I care more about our Earth because of the experiences I’ve had traveling in space.”

—Eileen Collins, first female space shuttle commander.

“You can see what a small little atmosphere is protecting us.

“You realize there’s not much protecting this planet particularly when you see the view from the side. That’s something I’d like to share with everybody so people would realize we need to protect it.”

—Sunita Williams, who has been living on the international space station since Dec. 11, 2006.

Their comments and the pictures bring home the fragility of our planet and our environment JK and THK present ways for us to take care of our planet by sharing the stories of those who have stepped forward and done so in their communities in many different ways. A healthy planet is indeed vital to our well-being and as they explain in the introduction to This Moment on Earth, their “purpose is to inform, warn, and inspire. We do so with the conviction that once we are put to the task, there is nothing that American ingenuity cannot accomplish… We are convinced that in these challenges there are great opportunities, despite the severity of the crisis. Knowledge is power. Armed with the facts, Americans have all the opportunity in the world to act.”

It is time to act. Let me close with a quote from Wally Schirra…

“I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth.”

—Wally Schirra, who flew around Earth on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions in the 1960s.

Pictures of earth from space courtesy of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. “The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.”