From 250 miles up, astronauts have an unparalleled view of Earth. They can also easily see the devastating effects of climate change and pollution as they ravage the planet.
That's why past and present astronauts from around the world have contributed to a new video, called "Call to Earth," that urges world leaders to take action.
It's an inspiring collection of pleas, but also a sobering and gut-wrenching one: If we don't clean up our act as a species, and fast, we could irreversibly mar the only home that we've got in the solar system.
Here are the some of the most salient quotes from the video.
Astronauts have a bird's eye view of Earth from the International Space Station.
And the effects of human activity are quickly catching up with us, say a group of astronauts in a video directed at politicians.
Source: YouTube
It's amazing just how fragile the atmosphere looks from space, said one astronaut. All we have is a thin film of air to protect us.
"When you look at your planet from space, it's beautiful, fragile, and there's this little thin layer all the way around: our atmosphere. And that's the only thing that protects us from the really bad vacuum in outer space. This little fragile layer, the atmosphere, is part of our life support system. We need to be really careful with it."—Mary Cleave, American astronaut
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