April 22 is Earth Day, and in celebration, Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder teamed up with NASA to interview the crew aboard the International Space Station.
In the nearly three-minute clip uploaded on Friday (April 22), the rocker asks the astronauts what lessons they recommend to us on Earth. “One of the lessons learned is that there’s no borders up here,” astronaut Raja Chari replied. “It’s actually surprisingly hard to figure out where you’re at over the Earth because it’s all land and water. There’s no recognizable lines. For us, it’s a great reminder that we’re all on one Earth, working together.”
Fellow astronaut Thomas Marshburn added, “Living with so many nationalities up here, we discover that we’re so much more alike than we are different. During holidays, we talk about our families and traditions, and we get together with food and with music, literature. We’re definitely all family.”
The crew went on to discuss how they perceive environmental damage on Earth from space. “The rainforest in Brazil, for example, is getting smaller and smaller. The area where people live that you can see up here, it’s getting bigger and bigger,” ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer shared. “You see flames, and you know people are burning down the rainforest. On the other side of the country, you see rivers being completely flooded and probably lots of villages are taken down, so people suffer. That is also consequence of climate change. All of this is very visible from up here in space.”
To wrap up the conversation, Vedder tells the astronauts, “I didn’t realize how emotional this was going to be. I think it’s because I wanted to be an astronaut ever since I was a kid, too.”
The interview is Vedder’s second collaboration with NASA, after he previously worked with them on his “Invincible” music video, which was inspired by the Artemis I Moon mission, in support of his recent chart topping album Earthling.
Watch the full discussion below.