How This Photo Changed the World

The first time humans saw the whole earth from space was thanks to a photograph taken by astronaut Bill Anders on the 24th December 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. The photo, known as 'Earthrise' for the first time showed us what our planet looks like from space. Its vulnerability and beauty gave rise to a new global consciousness. We should take care to pin it to the fridge and apply its lessons to our lives.

FURTHER READING

“It is perhaps the most famous photograph ever taken. It came into being almost by accident, when on the morning of Christmas Eve 1968 one of the astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 spacecraft, Bill Anders, turned the camera from the supposed object of their mission – the moon – towards a spherical, brightly glowing, blue object rising above the lunar horizon. This was Earth, our irreplaceable planetary home. Suddenly humankind was able to view its habitat with a gaze hitherto reserved for the entity we have termed God…”

MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE

Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist:

SOCIAL MEDIA

Feel free to follow us at the links below:

CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Mad Adam Films

[alanroberts]

Our Earth is paradoxically huge and tiny at the same time.

[gaurav.raj.mishra]

"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar, " every "supreme leader, " every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."~Carl Sagan

[Hyperions]

Always enjoy your content School of Life. Never stop making videos!

[carbonovideos]

One of the best songs by Caetano Veloso is about this photograph! It´s called "Terra".

[rea]

It is amazing to see our planet from far and think kindly about people and their lives. The more distance and objectivity we put between ourselves, the easier it is. But it gets hard when we get more personal. When we see nuclear bombs, dictators, workers' or nations' exploration, starvation, suffering, children dying or animals being tortured.
But maybe what we can all do right now is to stop feeling bad for those people and start doing something good for ourselves and people around us. Change our perspective, our habits and our reactions. Even if it seems like nothing, it will mean a lot in a year or thirty if we just change the way we speak to others or how long is our shower.
The world might not seem as magical as on the picture when we look around in our daily life, but it will definitely start looking better if we start doing something about our own reality.

[Mazidox]

It's incredible to see Earth so small. It really makes you feel truly connected to those we share this planet with. Whether that be animals, plants, or our fellow humans. All of us. Every single person who has ever existed in history. Has lived and died on that beautiful blue marble.

[felistigris]

Dear School of Life, could you do a video about organize/neat freaks. I think I am one and I'm interested in understanding the psychology behind it.

[ruiconti]

I kind of have the feeling that some of School of Life's videos carry so much hope wrapped by sound, clear and —very often— obvious arguments. That's why I think it is refreshing and feels good to watch: they do remind us of things we might otherwise not frequently remember or stop to think about; about amazing things that we are able to think, understand and reason about nowadays that lies inside shelves and in the great minds of humans that once (and still) live(d).

[leol]

The School of Life is like therapy for the soul. Keep it up!

[murrayaronson]

When I first saw the Earthwise photo on Christmas Eve 1968, I was in New York and I was listening to Perry Como singing "Home for the Holidays" on the radio. I felt humbled, nostalgic, and in love with our Spaceship Earth with all her troublesome and fragile creatures great and small. Why can't we all get along?

[Grg]

Awesome video! Thanks as always School of Life

[Soytu]

The photograph really reminds us how little the cosmos and the world are under our control. How little our sense of self and identity is, if there is any. This is really an exercise of humbleness.

[MarinusMakesStuff]

Wow, one of the best ones I've seen so far. Thanks!

[zyxwut]

A necessary message at a necessary time.

[SirMikeys]

I had a dream a few years back. That I was on a moon colony. The dream felt all too real. I remember looking up to gaze at Earth, and staring at it for several minutes until I woke.. When the dream ended, I don't believe I was the same person. I can't describe what it was like to truly believe I was looking back at Earth. Life.. feels different now. It's feels so insignificant, so brief, yet so fucking spectacular. That dream seems to have triggered some kind of beautiful existential crisis that will likely never go away. My actions, my attitude, my interest, my love for life and the people of world have all shifted. All this, by simply looking back at Earth. And to think it wasn't even the real deal..

[kevinreedmusic]

Thank you for including Holst in this! Such gorgeous music.

[m.entera]

I was born after WWII, and during my youth America was the new Ruler of the Free World and technology was booming. Prosperity was mushrooming and it seemed there was no end to the future expansion possible for everyone to have more of the goodies humans were inventing. Then we saw that photograph and it was like a ton bricks hitting lots of our minds. We suddenly saw the size of the continents on that ball in the middle of endless nothingness, and had a realization about our planet/home. "This thing's not that big". For those who noticed, the future of continued consumption was no longer limitless.

[missdeep]

“There is probably no devine being to look for us and help us” not all of us would agree to this but i’m sure we all agree that your content is the best

[JustAChannel_]

I think this may be one of your best videos yet

[xzonia]

The Earth is beautiful from a distance. Up close, though, I imagine God must think "Go clean your room!" But being the wayward teenager that humanity is, he lets us alone to sort things out for ourselves. Eventually we'll get tired of our own mess and clean it up without having to be told. That will be a small sign we're growing up. Thanks for the video! <3