FAMOUS ENVIRONMENTALISTS

JACQUES YVES COUSTEAU

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

CAMBRIDGE IGCSE P7

"The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat."

Jacques Cousteau

JACQUES YVES COUSTEAU- Jacques-Yves Cousteau

was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water.

- He co-developed the Aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the French Academy.

HIS WORKCousteau described his underwater world research in a series of books, perhaps the most successful being his first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure, published in 1953.

Cousteau also directed films, most notably the documentary adaptation of the book, The Silent World, which won a Palme d'or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. He remained the only person to win a Palme d'Or for a documentary film, until Michael Moore won the award in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.

EARLY LIFE

Cousteau was born on 11 June 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, France to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau.

He had one brother, Pierre-Antoine. Cousteau completed his preparatory studies at the Collège Stanislas in Paris.

In 1930, he entered the École Navale and graduated as a gunnery officer.

After an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau indulged his interest in the sea.

The accident caused him to break both his arms and could have even killed him.

CALYPSOIn 1949, Cousteau left the French Navy.

In 1950, he founded the French Oceanographic Campaigns (FOC), and leased a ship called Calypso from Thomas Guinness for a symbolic one franc a year.

Cousteau refitted the Calypso as a mobile laboratory for field research and as his vessel for diving and filming.

He also carried out underwater archaeological excavations in the Mediterranean, in particular at Grand-Congloué (1952).

DEATHJacques-Yves Cousteau died of a heart attack on 25 June 1997 in Paris, 2 weeks after his 87th birthday.

An homage was paid to him by the city by the naming of a "rue du Commandant Cousteau", a street which runs out to the house of his birth, where a commemorative plaque was placed.

HONOURS• During his lifetime, Jacques-Yves Cousteau received these distinctions:

• Cross of War 1939–1945 (1945)

• National Geographic Society's Special Gold Medal in 1961

• Commander of the Legion of Honour (1972)

• Officer of the Order of Maritime Merit (1980)

• Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit (1985)

• U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985)

• Induction into the Television Hall of Fame (1987)

• Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters

• Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (26 January 1990)

LEGACY• Cousteau's legacy includes more than 120 television documentaries,

more than 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members.

RELIGIOUS VIEWSThough he was not particularly a religious man, Cousteau believed that the teachings of the different major religions provide valuable ideals and thoughts to protect the environment.

In a Chapter entitled "The Holy Scriptures and The Environment" in the posthumous work The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus, he is quoted as stating that "The glory of nature provides evidence that God exists".