Two years ago, Benjamin Grant typed “earth” into the search bar of Apple Maps, expecting a view of our planet from space. Instead, the program zoomed in on the town of Earth, Texas, and from above, he saw huge perfect circles filling the landscape (he soon learned they were the products of a certain type of irrigation). “I had no idea what I was seeing at the time, but I was awestruck,” Grant says of the fortuitous mistake. “I became completely obsessed with finding new perspectives.” He soon launched a website (and an Instagram) called The Daily Overview, where he posts one hauntingly beautiful satellite images of human impacts on the planet every day. Grant’s project is named for the Overview Effect, which describes the psychological shift that occurs when the planet is viewed from outer space (it was documented by astronauts in the recent film Overview). From above, the Earth looks small and frail, those who have seen it this way say, inspiring a sense of...