The Environment

Today we may take for granted that we have a planetary consciousness and an awareness of Earth as the only life-filled planet amid the vast darkness of space. But it is only recently, within the past 50 years, that this perspective emerged. Environmental consciousness, which had been growing for decades, gained firm footing in the 1960s as reformers chronicled industrialization's hazardous effects on air, water, and the climate. At the same time, the Space Age increasingly documented the character of the cosmos beyond Earth. In 1968, for the very first time, three astronauts left Earth orbit; the photograph they sent back changed how we think about the planet.