Dreams of fabulous wealth in unexplored regions of the world have always kindled man’s imagination. After the excitement of the conquest of space comes that of the exploration of the deep, and our collective oceanic dream is indeed driven by the same three forces that led us to leave the Earth: the intoxicating nature of new discoveries, a thirst for ever more scientific knowledge, and the hope of economic gain.
The potential wealth of the world’s oceans can be imagined in two ways: on one hand, the sterile sea, silent and cold, of Homer’s Odyssey—‘Ulysses… gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears’ (Book V, verse 84)—and on the other, Botticelli’s delightful depiction of The Birth of Venus, in which the sea seems to offer humankind both prosperity and beauty. Our vision of the sea as a whole is therefore sometimes rather paradoxical: we rush and jostle to claim and colonize newly-emerging territories, but are the world’s oceans really tomorrow’s Promised Land?
Ajouter un commentaire