Voices
bar for the rest of the world. During
my visit with Jim he said something
to me about the sea that stopped
me in my tracks. We were discussing the inability to effectively convey the importance of the ocean to
humanity and vice versa. Jim said,
“The oceans are changing faster
than we can understand them.”
Think about that.
To understand the ocean we
need to first explore it. The issue with the oceans is that they’re
vast (they cover more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface), they’re
deep (average depth is about 2½
miles), they’re dark (sunlight and
its warmth only reach skin deep),
the pressure is intense (1,500 atmospheres at greatest ocean depth),
and for good measure they are incredibly dynamic (waves, swell,
currents, etc). Indeed each of these
things represents a challenge to
exploration, but they are not insurmountable problems. We have used
everything from snorkels and scuba
to submarines and sophisticated
robots to slowly but steadily reveal
the deepest darkest secrets of Neptune’s realm. New imaging systems,
sensors and powerful data processing and display techniques promise
to deliver a view of the world beneath the sea with unprecedented
DAVID
GALLO
accuracy and clarity. In my opinion, Jim’s solo dive to the bottom
of the Mariana Trench in Deep Sea
Challenger wasn’t a success just
because of that one triumphant
instance in time. It continues to
be a success because it proves that
no part of the global ocean is beyond our reach. We are truly at the
threshold of an entirely new era of
ocean exploration.
To date, we’ve explored less than
5 percent of the world beneath
the waves. There are precious few
research vessels and funding for
ocean exploration and science is
becoming increasingly difficult to
procure. It’s unfortunate because in
that 5 percent of the ocean we have
explored we find the world’s greatest mountain range (the 50,000
mile long Mid-Ocean Ridge), thousands of mountain peaks higher
than those of the Alps, thousands
of valleys many times deeper,
TED and The Huffington Post are
excited to bring you TEDWeekends,
a curated weekend program that
introduces a powerful “idea worth
spreading” every Friday, anchored in
an exceptional TEDTalk. This week’s
TEDTalk is accompanied by an original
blog post from the featured speaker,
along with new op-eds, thoughts
and responses from the HuffPost
community. Watch the talk above, read
the blog post and tell us your thoughts
below. Become part of the conversation!
HUFFINGTON
06.09.13