The poet who became an astronaut

During the previous Covid pandemic, sheltered at home was Dr. Sian Proctor, a geology professor and science interviewer. In confinement, she began to compose poems and paintings, never imagining that this newfound talent in the pandemic would lead her to be the first African-American woman to pilot a spacecraft and be in space for three days to win a contest.

Planet Sustainability, his passion

He submitted his poems and paintings to a competition run by Twitter and won a prize for space travel. Sian was a speaker at the Earth X conference held this past weekend in celebration of World Earth Day 2023, in Dallas, Texas.

The geologist, communicator, poet, and astronaut was one of the speakers at the Earth X conference and told us about the importance of being able to be self-sufficient on Earth, as do those who go into space.

“The importance of space exploration, especially human space exploration, in fact, what it does is help us solve problems here on Earth, because space exploration is about efficiency in food, water, energy, housing, and waste management.

“If you think about the five major problems that we have here on Earth, food, water, energy…, all of these problems, all of these shortcomings, are what we have to put up with as we go to the Moon and Mars, and we can come back much more efficient in how we build those systems in those The extremes of outer space, all of this technology and all of this innovation is done here on Earth and we get it as a result of that.”

Sian Proctor told us how she won this award: “During Covid in 2020 I unleashed my creativity as an artist and poet, although my training has been as a geologist my entire career, it was art and poetry that allowed me to find a voice and I used it to win a competition to go into space.” I used inspiration. I was able to go to training at SpaceX and I went into space for three days, orbited our planet and that was amazing.”

Proctor had already held her pilot’s license for years: “Since I was young I wanted to fly, but I had glasses, but in my thirties I got my pilot’s license, not knowing that I would eventually become a starship pilot, but I did.”

For years, the now astronaut has been interested in science and the sustainability of the planet.

“I was a geologist and I know that sustainability and preserving our planet is what I’m most passionate about, so with my newfound love for art and poetry I’m trying to express that, what I feel about ways we can inspire people and share the message of why we need to be more sustainable.” And it was my good friend Marcella who said to me, ‘You have to work with EarthX’ and I said, ‘Yeah, right away.’ It was she who gave me an EarthX marble, made it float in space, and brought the marble back to Earth.”

Sian Proctor asserts that the most important thing is to pursue dreams and take care of our planet: “Think about your beautiful and unique space, this space you live in, this is your space that inspires you and you can use this space to inspire you. Not only for yourselves, but for those around and beyond, and it comes true.” By unleashing their creativity, no matter what they are passionate about or what they want to be, they have to think about how they can be creative in this space, how they can contribute to this space, for me, I can contribute art and poetry, and inspire people.So use your space to inspire those in your fingertips and beyond.”

The United Nations (UN) has launched a call for everyone, from businesses to governments and citizens, to work together in implementing measures to protect the environment. And that’s what Earth X, its founder, ecologist Tramell Crowe, does.

Earth X is an international non-profit environmental organization dedicated to educating and inspiring people and organizations to take action toward a more sustainable future around the world.

Marcela Ronquillo, Director of Earth X Latin America, told us: “This organization has a mission to connect leaders, NGOs and governments and thus the ability to work together in preserving our planet. Important actions are being taken to truly make a planetary impact. Capital is being invested in education and care for the environment, And within that is Earth X TV programming. This TV channel is already being watched by 15 million people.”

The conference was also attended by Marcelo Ebrard, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico. Patricia Fuller, former Canadian Environment Minister; and Rick Perry, former governor of Texas and former Secretary of Energy, in a debate on environmental sustainability that I moderated.

In this dialogue, the representatives of Mexico, the United States and Canada spoke about clean energy, electric cars and the great challenges that each of our countries faces in order to reduce environmental damage to the region.

Marcelo Ebrard has accompanied dozens of Mexican mayors seeking support and promotion for their municipalities. At the Earth X Forum, Mexican mayors have established relationships with professionals to try and implement technologies to make their municipalities more sustainable.

We still have a long way to go in concrete goals to have a sustainable region and to be able to control climate change that has caused so much damage to our countries.

Without caring for the environment, we will not have growth and prosperity, and the only way to achieve this is to achieve common goals among the countries of the region. And that’s exactly what the Earth X Forum is all about, making agreements and breakthroughs in order to have a better world to live in.

We only have one chance not to end the environment, which is why it is imperative to work for the good of the planet.