For Sylvia Earle, a love of ocean came naturally at a young age, but she says it was life in the ocean has held her interest ever since.
Earle will speak on Thursday October 6 at Chenery Auditorium. The oceanographer's address called Exploring the Deep Frontier is part of the Science and the Human Endeavor Speaker series sponsored by Western Michigan University’s Center for the Humanities and Lee Honors College. Earle spoke with WMUK’s Gordon Evans.
Earle says improved technology is the key to exploring the ocean and seeing the blue part of the planet from “the inside out.” But Earle says there is much more to learn. She says only three people, including film maker James Cameron, have been down seven miles into the ocean even though people fly seven miles above the earth routinely on airplanes. Earle says we’ve been slow to apply technologies that would allow greater exploration of the ocean.
While she says it’s an exaggeration to say the oceans are dying, Earle says they are in trouble. She says the chemistry of the ocean is changing in ways not favorable to the world as humans need it. But Earle says there has been an increase in awareness about the ocean, even though the surface probably looks the same as it did 10,000 years ago. But she says more divers and explorers are finding things below the surface of the ocean. She says that’s important because the ocean makes our life possible.
Asked what’s needed to stop and reverse the decline of the oceans, Earle says people have to make choices about the fish and other wildlife taken out of ocean. And she says laws are needed to protect, water, air and wildlife. Earle asks If not now “when will people be motivated to make those decisions and make the world a better place?”
