“Planet, Society, Economy” — In That Order, Please.

Here at ModTech, we’re not orbiting the Earth in a tin can like astronaut Ron Garan does, but we do share his cosmic sense of urgency. Garan spent 178 days in space, circled the planet 2,842 times, and somewhere in that dizzying loop, had what you might call a galactic epiphany - we share Ron Garan’s sense of planetary urgency — just with less zero gravity and more dust.

From the International Space Station, he saw lightning storms like paparazzi flashes and auroras shimmying across the sky like glowing curtains.  But what really got him was how fragile Earth’s atmosphere looked — “paper-thin,” he said. And that’s when it hit him: everything that keeps us alive is protected by what amounts to cosmic cling wrap.

Garan had a sudden, sobering realisation that Earth is both breathtaking and breakable. And that we, clever little humans, are treating it like a bottomless ATM for the global economy. “We’re living a lie,” he said. We’ve got things backwards. We've been putting the economy first, then society, and only occasionally remembering the planet when it coughs smoke or floods a city.

His prescription? Flip the script: Planet, society, economy. In that order. Because without a healthy planet, the rest is just Monopoly money and wishful thinking.

You can’t have the other two without the first one still functioning.

He called this shift in perspective the “Overview Effect.” We call it common sense, but somehow it’s easier to grasp when you’re staring at Earth from 400km up. Down here, it just feels like load shedding.

Garan’s made it his mission to reconnect people with the planet. We’re with him. No space suit required — just the willingness to flip the script and act like Earth matters.

Because honestly, it’s the only one with decent coffee.

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Image by Pixabay.