The Global Perspective of Space and Deep-sea Explorer Kathryn Sullivan

10-16-2014 | Hannah Waters, SA Contributor

There is currently a person on this planet who has traveled to outer space and to the deep sea. Many of us dream of one or the other; to dream of both at once seems overly ambitious or even greedy. But Kathryn Sullivan has done it. Kathryn was the first American woman to walk in space, and was on the mission to deploy the Hubble space telescope. Primarily an oceanographer, she’s explored the hydrothermal vents of the East Pacific Rise in the submersible Alvin. Fittingly, she has been the head of NOAA since August 2013, leading the U.S. effort to study the ocean and atmosphere.

But perhaps more important than those enviable accomplishments is the perspective they’ve given her. Last week, I listened to a live interview with Kathryn (organized by Pew) that I honestly had put on as background noise. Yet I found myself entranced by her eloquence in describing her vision of and for our planet and our species and how it’s been influenced by her exploration. Below are two excerpts that I found particularly meaningful. (Here’s a link to the full video.)

Here, she describes how pictures of Earth from space (a favorite topic of mine) have changed people, something I certainly take for granted:

More.