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FAO nominates European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet as Goodwill Ambassador

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has nominated European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet as Goodwill Ambassador on the International Day of Human Space Flight (12 April),

The French astronaut has been working together with FAO since 2018 to raise global awareness on food security and climate change. The nomination will reinforce and support the FAO’s advocacy to end hunger and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Duration 8m15s

Edit Version Clean

Video Type Event Video

Date 04/09/2021

File size 906.64 MB

Unique ID UF2T80

Production details and shotlist

UNFAO Source FAO Video

Shotlist LOCATIONS: Various, please check shotlist

DATE: Various, please check shotlist

SOUND: Natural / English / French

LENGHT: 08’16’’

SOURCE: FAO

RESTRICTION: Please give on-screen credit to FAO

SHOTLIST

1 April 2021

1. Screen showing participants at the virtual ceremony of the FAO Goodwill Ambassador designation

2. Screen showing participants at the virtual ceremony: FAO Director-General QU Dongyu (top left), European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet (top right), moderator Yasmina Bouziane, FAO Deputy Director Office of Communications (bottom left), and ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher (bottom right).

3. SOUNDBITE (English) QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General: “Over the years, Thomas has worked in support of the FAO to help raise awareness of the impact of climate change on agriculture, of the importance of access to nutritious foods, and of how critical it is for us to manage our natural resources wisely, reducing food loss and waste. I am delighted that today you are committing to working even more closely with us, in your new capacity as an FAO Goodwill Ambassador.”

4. Screen showing FAO Director-General QU Dongyu (right) presenting the scroll of the FAO Goodwill Ambassador nomination to European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet (left)

5. Screen showing FAO Director-General QU Dongyu (top left), European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet (top right), and moderator Yasmina Bouziane, FAO Deputy Director Office of Communications (bottom)

6. SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “When you have this in front of your eyes, when you understand all this, then you try to find a way to take action, to make things better and to help that spaceship Earth. You’ll fly for as long as possible, in the best shape as possible for all the crew. So that was the next logical step for me. I wanted to take action, I wanted to be closer to some international cause and I think it all starts with food and food security, so I got closer to FAO. We started working together and today we are ready to take it to the next level.”

7. Screen showing participants at the virtual ceremony of the FAO Goodwill Ambassador designation

8. SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “It makes you think quite a bit about just the impact of our activities on the planet. So one element of it is you adapt your own behavior, you try to be more conscious of the environment and the consequences of your actions at your level. But I think it’s also hugely important that, at the political level, that good decisions are being made because there is only so much you can do at a personal level. You need also to action the levers at a higher level so that’s why I’m trying to advocate for the planet in general, for the environment in general. I’m talking to the people, but I’m also talking to leaders I hope, and we see things changing slowly, we hope in the future they gonna change even faster.”

9. Screen showing participants at the virtual ceremony of the FAO Goodwill Ambassador designation

10. SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet, “The goals of those six months onboard the space station are two things; it’s research. We are doing science experiments up there that you couldn’t be doing on Earth because of the conditions of microgravity and the space environment up there. And so, we are sending the results back to all the laboratories on the Earth to make things better, to find new discoveries and to make progress just generally speaking. The other thing that we are doing is also preparing the next step of space exploration because we have big questions to answer; where did life come from on the Earth? Could life disappear today? Could we lose our atmosphere, lose our water like it happened on Mars for example and that’s why we wanna go because we want to answer those questions to know where we come from”.

11. Screen showing participants at the virtual ceremony of the FAO Goodwill Ambassador designation

12. SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “It wasn't easy, I mean, it's certainly been harder for a lot of other people, so I can't complain. But we had to adapt, we had to change the way we're doing things, just like everyone everywhere on the planet. We had to reduce or human interactions. We did everything remotely, we tried to reduce attendance to minimum to all our training activities. We put measures into place obviously mask, social distancing. Everything was being taken very seriously. In spite of all this, we managed to be ready on time, which is quite amazing, but I think it just it just speaks volumes about just the resilience that people have in this space business, but really everywhere on the planet.”

13. Screen showing participants at the virtual ceremony of the FAO Goodwill Ambassador designation

14. SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “There is even some technical innovations that I have specifically asked for my next mission. We are trying to have edible packaging so not only to use the food but also the packaging that you need to bring the food to space so those techniques, those technologies, we hope, are gonna have some very practical applications on Earth and those are writing the bulk part of FAO.”

File – Rome, Italy

15. Pan right of FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy

16. Close up of a United Nations flag

Rome, Italy, 16 October 2019

17. A screen showing Thomas Pesquet speaking in a video being screened during the FAO World Food Day exhibit, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu (camera right) standing in front of the screen watching

18. FAO Director-General QU Dongyu (camera left) clapping his hands at the end of the video

Rome, Italy, 21 February 2020

19. Various stills of FAO Director-General QU Dongyu (left) meeting European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet (right)

20. Still of European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet (left) shaking hands with FAO Director-General QU Dongyu (right)

1 April 2021

21. SOUNDBITE (French) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “Je pense que tous les astronautes qui passent un peu de temps dans l’espace, alors il faut passer quand même un petit peu de temps, alors si c’est juste deux jours ou une orbite, je suis pas sûr que l’on ait vraiment cet effet là mais après quelques jours, après quelques semaines, après quelques mois, on change de perspective et vraiment ce qui se passe, c’est qu’on met la planète à l’échelle de nos sens en fait. On est des animaux, au final, assez basiques. On s’est donné les moyens intellectuels de comprendre le monde, de raisonner avec des grands chiffres, etc... Mais au final, ce qui nous touche, c’est vraiment ce qu’on peut ressentir, c’est ce qu’on peut voir, c’est ce qu’on peut toucher, c’est ce qu’on peut connaître. Et malheureusement, tous les phénomènes qui affectent la planète se passent à une échelle globale, donc qui dépassent un petit peu ces échelles de temps que l’on a du mal à comprendre, ces échelles de grandeur que l’on a du mal à se représenter. De mettre tout ça, de prendre ce recul à 400 km, de mettre tout ça à portée des sens, ça change tout en fait, ça change vraiment le fait de non seulement comprendre qu’on est tous embarqués sur le même bateau, qu’on a pas tellement le choix mais ça permet de le comprendre mais aussi de le ressentir. Le comprendre, on peut le faire sur Terre, le ressentir c’est plus difficile et on le fait dans l’espace. Donc je pense que tous les astronautes en revenant ont vraiment conscience de la fragilité de cette planète. C’est une petite bulle de savon, l’atmosphère, une petite oasis au milieu d’un grand désert, c’est vraiment comme ça qu’on le voit quand on rentre dans l’espace, ce côté fragile, ce côté très limité, très fini dont on a pas conscience sur Terre et ça, ça pousse à changer un peu la manière dont on fait les choses.”

22. Screen showing participants at the virtual ceremony of the FAO Goodwill Ambassador designation

23. SOUNDBITE (French) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “On va faire pousser de la salade, de la laitue, et puis du chou chinois, c’est un peu similaire donc des légumes assez simples. Ce qu’on essaie surtout de préparer, c’est que quand on va se lancer dans des missions interplanétaires, si on va sur Mars un jour, on pourra pas emmener toute la nourriture avec nous puisque c’est trop compliqué, c’est trop lourd. Il faudra produire de la nourriture pendant nos missions donc ça, ça a l’air simple sur Terre même si ça l’est pas toujours. Pour nous c’est très compliqué puisque vous imaginez comment on arrose une plante en apesanteur, comment on arrive à maintenir la terre donc il faut étudier un petit peu ça, il faut regarder comment ça se passe et c’est ce qu’on essaie de faire. Ce qu’on prépare, ce qu’on fait à une échelle un peu miniature à bord de la station spatiale qui est à proximité de la Terre, qu’on peut encore ravitailler assez facilement, c’est vraiment préparer cette étape future de l’exploration où il faudra nourrir les équipages qui vont aller chercher des réponses un peu plus fondamentales aux grandes questions scientifique sur Mars sans doute, peut-être encore plus loin.”

File – Rome, Italy, SOURCE: FAO

24. Close up of a sign reading “Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations”

25. Wide shot of FAO building

ENDS

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Script The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has nominated European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet as Goodwill Ambassador on the International Day of Human Space Flight (12 April),

The French astronaut has been working together with FAO since 2018 to raise global awareness on food security and climate change. The nomination will reinforce and support the FAO’s advocacy to end hunger and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Thomas Pesquet joined the virtual designation ceremony as he prepares for his second space mission to the International Space Station later this month.

At the ceremony, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu applauded Thomas Pesquet’s commitment and support to FAO’s mission.

SOUNDBITE (English) QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General: “Over the years, Thomas has worked in support of the FAO to help raise awareness of the impact of climate change on agriculture, of the importance of access to nutritious foods, and of how critical it is for us to manage our natural resources wisely, reducing food loss and waste. I am delighted that today you are committing to working even more closely with us, in your new capacity as an FAO Goodwill Ambassador.”

The newly appointed Goodwill Ambassador said he was honored by the nomination. He explained that the experience gained from his first space mission in 2017 made him become more aware of the impact of climate change and extreme weather on planet earth motivating him to partner with FAO for common good cause.

SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “When you have this in front of your eyes, when you understand all this, then you try to find a way to take action, to make things better and to help that spaceship Earth. You’ll fly for as long as possible, in the best shape as possible for all the crew. So that was the next logical step for me. I wanted to take action, I wanted to be closer to some international cause and I think it all starts with food and food security, so I got closer to FAO. We started working together and today we are ready to take it to the next level.”

Having witnessed some of the damages that deforestation and climate change have had on planet Earth from space, Thomas Pesquet called for a joint effort to protect and save the home to 7.8 billion people.

SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “It makes you think quite a bit about just the impact of our activities on the planet. So, you adapt your own behavior, you try to be more conscious of the environment and the consequences of your actions at your level. But I think it’s also hugely important that, at the political level, that good decisions are being made because there is only so much you can do at a personal level. You need also to action the levers at a higher level so that’s why I’m trying to advocate for the planet in general, for the environment in general. I’m talking to the people, but I’m also talking to leaders I hope, and we see things changing slowly, we hope in the future they gonna change even faster.”

Pesquet will bring the flag of FAO and that of the United Nations with him in his next mission. He will be travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) with the SpaceX Crew Dragon, and will spend six months in space with JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and pilot Megan McArthur.

The goals of the Alpha mission, named after Alpha Centauri, the closest stellar system to Earth, are to make scientific experiments and preparing the next steps for space exploration. For this reason, the astronauts will try to cultivate vegetables on the ISS to understand if in the future it will be possible to bring less food from Earth, and to produce it locally on spaceships during the exploration missions

SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet, “The goals of those six months onboard the space station are two things; it’s research. We are doing science experiments up there that you couldn’t be doing on Earth because of the conditions of microgravity and the space environment up there. And so, we are sending the results back to all the laboratories on the Earth to make things better, to find new discoveries and to make progress just generally speaking. The other thing that we are doing is also preparing the next step of space exploration because we have big questions to answer; where did life come from on the Earth? Could life disappear today? Could we lose our atmosphere, our water like it happened on Mars for example and that’s why we wanna go because we want to answer those questions to know where we come from.”

He said COVID-19 pandemic has affected their preparation work.

SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “It wasn't easy, I mean, it's certainly been harder for a lot of other people, so I can't complain. But we had to adapt, we had to change the way we're doing things, just like everyone everywhere on the planet. We had to reduce or human interactions. We did everything remotely, we tried to reduce attendance to minimum to all our training activities. We put measures into place obviously mask, social distancing. Everything was taken very seriously. In spite of all this, we managed to be ready on time, which is quite amazing, but I think it just speaks volumes about just the resilience that people have in this space business, but really everywhere on the planet.”

In order to reduce waste, Pesquet has asked to also work on innovative edible packages to bring food to space with the purpose to use these technologies on Earth.

SOUNDBITE (English) European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet: “There is even some technical innovations that I have specifically asked for my next mission. We are trying to have edible packaging so not only to use the food but also the packaging that you need to bring the food to space so those techniques, those technologies, we hope, are gonna have some practical applications on Earth and those are writing the bulk part of FAO.”

Thomas Pesquet was born in Rouen, France, on 27 February 1978. He was launched to the International Space Station for his first six-month mission, Proxima, in November 2016. Pesquet’s second spaceflight was announced on 28 July 2020.

12th April 2021 marks 60 years since Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed one full orbit of the Earth, becoming the first human to travel to space. To celebrate the beginning of the space era for mankind, the United Nations General Assembly declared in 2011, 12th April as the International Day of Human Space Flight.

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