One of the astronauts on the shuttle Discovery has commented that the environmental damage humans have left in their wake is visible from orbit. This isn’t breaking research or a peer-reviewed journal article; it’s just one woman’s observations, albeit from a perspective that none of us is likely to ever have first hand. But it’s very upsetting.

"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," [Commander] Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

[...]

"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."