The Overview Effect: How Astronauts' Perspective Can Transform Our Economy
I recently learned about something called “the overview effect.” This term describes what astronauts experience when they look back at Earth from space: that moment of admiration when they see our planet as a tiny, fragile blue marble floating alone in the vast darkness. For the roughly 500 people who have had this view, it’s life-changing. They return with a deep sense of how interconnected and finite everything on Earth is—our families, our pets, every resource we rely on, even the smallest pleasures like our favorite meals. All of it exists within this one self-contained, closed system.
This perspective caught me. It wouldn’t be amazing as we go daily, trying to see our world through these astronauts’ eyes. What would they think of how we’re treating this blue marble? Well… The numbers tell a worrying story: humans have built more things on Earth than the total biomass of all living things. Think about that for a moment. Our constructed world—our buildings, roads, products, and infrastructure—now outweighs nature. We extract an almost incomprehensible 100 billion tons of raw materials each year from our finite planet.
And the point is, it’s not just about what we see. Even our seemingly weightless digital world has a physical presence that would be visible from space. Those server farms powering our morning emails and social media scrolls create so much heat that in Sweden, they’re using it to warm public swimming pools. From space, you’d see these facilities as points of light in our global network, each one drawing energy and resources from our planet’s finite supply.
This constant extraction and consumption has led to what I’ve come to think of as our greatest addiction: disposability. We’ve created a world where it’s “normal” to use something once and throw it away. But where is “away”? Astronauts can see our planet’s boundaries clearly—there is no “away.” Of all the plastics ever produced in human history, only 9% have been recycled. The rest still exists somewhere on our finite planet.
Take your smartphone, for instance. When it reaches the end of its life, it’s usually crushed just to extract its gold—the most valuable component. All the other precious materials, all the intricate engineering, is lost. Now multiply this waste by billions of devices. From space, you might see the sprawling electronic waste dumps in places like Agbogbloshie, Ghana, where our discarded devices pile up in toxic mountains.
But here’s where the story takes an ironic twist. In our rush to solve these problems—to “go green” and save our planet—we’re sometimes causing new forms of damage. It’s called “green colonization,” and it’s a perfect example of what happens when we fail to see the whole picture. While we race to mine materials for electric vehicle batteries and solar panels, we’re often devastating some of Earth’s last pristine places. These areas, which make up 80% of our remaining natural spaces, are protected by just 5% of the population, mainly indigenous communities who understand something we’re only beginning to grasp: everything is connected.
The good news is that the skills needed to create a sustainable future—understanding environmental impacts, thinking in systems, solving complex problems—are in huge demand. LinkedIn reports a massive gap between sustainability job postings and qualified candidates. It turns out that seeing the big picture, understanding interconnections, and designing solutions that work within our planet’s boundaries are exactly what we need right now.
As I write this, I keep coming back to those astronauts’ first glimpse of Earth from space. They left as pilots and engineers but returned as philosophers and environmentalists. We don’t need to float 250 miles above our planet to understand its fragility and interconnectedness. We just need to start thinking like those who have.
The next time you make a decision—whether you’re designing a product, making a purchase, or building a business—try to see it through the astronaut’s lens. Remember that everything we love, everything we need, everything we hope for exists on this one precious blue marble. The overview effect shows us that Earth is a perfectly designed circular system. Now it’s our turn to design our economy to match the elegance and efficiency of our home planet.
Larissa Scherrer
Marketing Strategy
Brand Positioning
Social Media Strategy
