Astronaut: Earth showing signs of human destruction

Bob Thirsk, a Canadian astronaut on board the international space station, observed that Earth’s ice caps seem to have melted since he last saw it 12 years ago.

Melting ice caps
He said that, "It's a very thin veil of atmosphere around the Earth that keeps us alive. Most of the time when I look out the window I'm in awe. But there are some effects of the human destruction of the Earth as well."

Thirsk acknowledged that he has no concrete evidence of Earth’s destruction and that his report is based only on his personal observations, saying, "This is probably just a perception, but I just have the feeling that the glaciers are melting, the snow capping the mountains is less than it was 12 years ago when I saw it last time.”

He also added, "That saddens me a little bit."

The melting of Earth’s ice caps is believed to be brought about by climate change, which is in part caused by man’s abuse of the environment.

Together with Endeavour crew
Thirsk has been staying aboard the International Space Station for two months and is scheduled to stay there for four months more. He is joined by astronauts from the shuttle Endeavour, who will be staying until Tuesday.

The Endeavour astronauts went to space to set up new batteries for the space station and to store spare parts for the station’s future use. Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Mashburn are also set to make their fifth spacewalk on Monday.

Cassidy and Mashburn will be fixing power cables and installing cameras on the docking port of a space station for a Japanese cargo vessel which is scheduled for its first flight on September.

Mark Polansky, Endeavour’s commander stated, "All in all I think it's an extremely successful mission in spite of a lot of really interesting curveballs that have been thrown our way."

The space shuttle Endeavour is set to return to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday.