Astronaut Scott Kelly: 'What Are We Doing to This Planet?'

Astronaut Scott Kelly: ‘What Are We Doing to This Planet?’

Political Climate sits down with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly to discuss technology, politics and the unique perspective that traveling to space offers on the climate crisis.

Julia Pyper August 16, 2019

Julia Pyper

Senior Editor
Greentech Media

Julia Pyper is a Senior Editor at Greentech Media covering the energy transition. She is also the host and producer of the Political Climate podcast. She previously reported for E&E Publishing, and has covered clean energy and climate change issues across the U.S. and abroad, including in India, Haiti, Israel and the Maldives. She holds degrees from McGill and Columbia Universities. Find her on Twitter @JMPyper.

This summer, the United States celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing. Fifty years later, many people wonder: If we can get to the moon, surely we can fix the environmental issues here on Earth?

In this episode of Political Climate, we get NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s perspective on fighting climate change, which is informed by the fact that he's seen the challenge we’re up against from the unique vantage point of space.

Kelly has spent a whole lot of time in space — 520 days, to be exact. Upon his return from a continuous one-year mission, scientists were keen to study the impacts of spaceflight on his body, and to compare the results to his identical twin, astronaut and politician Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth. Scott, meanwhile, used his time in orbit to study the impacts of humanity on the planet.

The Political Climate team sat down with Scott Kelly to discuss technology, politics and the unique perspective that traveling to space offers on the climate crisis. We also ask if he would ever run for office like his twin brother Mark, husband to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is currently campaigning for U.S. Senate in Arizona as a Democrat.