Astronaut sees drought spreading from Space

French astronaut Sophie Adenot spoke from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) during a video conference attended by several students, discussing humanity’s impact on the environment and saying that she can see “the drought taking hold” on Earth, AFP reported.

“From up here, we can clearly see humanity’s footprint on nature. We see forests being transformed, we see cultivated fields, and we also see drought taking hold,” the French astronaut told approximately one hundred students gathered at the headquarters of the French National Centre for Space Studies in Toulouse, southwestern France.

The 43-year-old Frenchwoman, who has been on a mission aboard the ISS since February 2026, said she was particularly struck by the use of water in agriculture, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.

“The circular irrigation systems used by farmers—it is truly impressive to see all of that from space,” she explained.

She devoted around twenty minutes to the French students, who watched her on a giant screen as she floated in microgravity inside the station during the discussion—the only one scheduled as part of her space mission.

Questions from the students, selected from primary school through high school, ranged from how communication between the ISS and Earth works to more everyday topics such as how astronauts sleep.

“When I arrived here, I had no idea how our sleep would be affected, but I can assure you that, in the end, we sleep very, very well in space,” Sophie Adenot told a middle-school student.

She explained that she sleeps in a sleeping bag attached to a wall so that she does not drift away while sleeping inside the station.

Photo: Wikipedia