Nearly 50% of all people living in areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina developed depression or PTSD. A meta-analysis combining 36 studies looking at the relationship between natural disasters and mental health impacts showed that between 7–40% of all subjects exhibited some form of psychopathology (that was not present prior to the disaster), with anxiety having the highest prevalence. Whatever you call it, such feelings have increased dramatically, especially in younger generations, over the last decade according to a 2017 report by the American Psychological Association on the impact of climate change on mental health. “ What am I doing? Why does any of this matter?”Įco-anxiety. This last year when, after beginning graduate school remotely, I woke up to an orange-tinted sky of an alien planet, my home aflame in the middle of a health crisis, I felt so far detached from astronomy and my research. It was only the fall of my senior year that I ended up doubling in astrophysics and decided to pursue my PhD in astronomy. After studying chemical and biomolecular engineering, I envisioned a career in renewable energy or environmental science. I, personally, have felt this to my very core I constantly grapple with a feeling that my expertise could be bettering society in a more direct way. We can inform ourselves and act on the issues, understand the statistics, and conduct groundbreaking research, but how do we begin to deal with the resulting emotions of anxiety, grief, or depression? Motivation for an article like this comes after speaking with several of my fellow peers, mentors, and faculty who have felt similar tensions-it is important to share that we are not alone. Sometimes, the above answers do not even satisfy me as I see the impact of COVID-19 and climate change on the many who have lost their homes and lives it makes it difficult for me to justify remaining in this field. And I can even emphasize that Earth is the most well-studied planet by NASA.īut in a world that favors instant gratification and results now, the lack of immediate, tangible impact of current astrophysical research in the context of global crises can render space-related endeavors futile. I can explain how space exploration is why we now have the GPS navigation system we all rely on. Stuhlinger, I can point to all the space technologies that made their way to the ground (i.e. Ernst Stuhlinger, a former associate director of science at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center who in 1970 wrote this letter in response to a very similar question, “Why spend billions studying Mars when there are children starving?” Quite frankly, I struggle in crafting a well-thought-out response, for I am far less eloquent than Dr. Source: NASA for both imagesĪstronomers face versions of this question frequently, particularly when major space exploration missions get funded, or robots land on another world. Right: The cleaned version of Voyager 1’s image released on its 30th anniversary, February 12, 2020, by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Earth, the tiny pale dot, “ suspended in a sunbeam,” was one of the last things the probe saw. Carl Sagan‘s awe-inspiring speech, taken from a distance of about 6 billion km on Februby Voyager 1, only 34 minutes before the cameras were forever shut down. Left: The famous “Pale Blue Dot” image, referenced in Dr. As wondrous as the cosmos can be, as exciting as learning about the origin and the ultimate fate of our Universe is, and as humbling as it feels knowing that the very elements we are made of were once formed in the centers of stars, we cannot deny that we only have this Pale Blue Dot. We have been asked some variation of this at some point in our astrophysics careers, especially so in the past year where our lives have been completely upended by a global pandemic. “Why study the Universe when we have so many problems on Earth?”

As we study and characterize atmospheres of planets parsecs away from us, Earth’s own is changing in front of our eyes. Extreme weather patterns, with California wildfires becoming a way of life and Texas freezing over, rising sea levels threatening island nations all around the globe, and declining biodiversity leading to loss of essential life are all being exacerbated on a daily basis. Source: The New York TimesĬlimate change is, and will continue to be, the defining crisis of this century, and its effects will be felt by every single human. An eerie scene of the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, CA, USA), with an orange sky backdrop, as a result of the smoke and ash from the August Complex fires.

Pale moon crisis h scenes