The Overview Effect - Documentary

‘Overview’ is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with five astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect. The film also features insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for society, and our relationship to the environment.

TedxVienna – Ron Garan – The Orbital Perspective of Our Fragile Oasis

ISS Astronaut Ron Garan on how his experience in orbit (which he calls the Orbital Perspective) changed his World View concerning many humanitarian issues concerning life on “Spaceship Earth” and how it caused him to create Fragile Oasis, an organization with the mission of helping to unify many existing “world change” efforts around the metaphor of operating a life-sustaining spaceship.

Garan describes the moment when, during a space walk, the Effect first hit him and how this evolved over time into Fragile Oasis. The Overview Institute has connected with Ron and will be working with Fragile Oasis to extend the World View change of the Overview Effect/Orbital Perspective as a unifying vision for a more humanitarian and sustainable world.

A Beginner's Guide On How To Understand "The Overview Effect"

Living everyday on this planet, we lack the perspective of where we are in the universe. Using astronomy, interviews from astronauts, and MRI scans from Apollo crew members we examine and recreate the sense of Carl Sagan’s famed parable, “the pale blue dot”.

The Overview Effect Student Video

This brief Overview Effect-themed video clip was student produced for an aviation class in 2012. It features footage from the I.S.S. and music from Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The video contains striking night-side views of the Earth, seldom seen till recent releases of several astronaut-captured passes. These shots, unlike the more familiar day-side views show the extensive presence of human civilization.