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Bui ] am noi here toda\ to tell nou how to control the world's population. Even 

 repressive measures in some countries have failed to accomplish that. 1 am 

 simp!) an undersea explorer who has spent the last 30 years beneath the sea 

 exploring its many wonders. 



And i would like to take the next few minutes to tell you about what i ha\e seen 

 and tr\ to guess what I think the future might hold for us given our continued 

 growih and need for more space and resources. 



Despite our globe trotting abilities, our species has not colonized an\ nev. land 

 masses on the planet since the colonization of the new world which began in the 

 15lh centur>. And let us not forget that the new world was alread> inhabited b> 

 our species long before Columbus first arrived in the Bahamas in 1492. 



Toda\ , the primar\ activities of our species is still confined to less than 20% of the 

 planet, historicall) held at ba\ b\ an aquatic world that has resisted our 

 colonizing wa\s. 



Jroni< all\ , instead of turning to the sea for our future, we turned our eyes and our 

 hearis to the hea\ens, convinced our future lay in space. Perhaps that da> will 

 ( ome. Hut I am convinced not in time to save us given the path on which we now 

 find ourselves. 



I find it ironic that humans have lived in space for much longer periods of time 

 than ihev have ever lived underwater. In fact, recent Congressional action is 

 |()r(ing our nation to abandon its onlv underv\ater research facilitv where 

 s( ientists are able to live beneath the sea. 



Isn't it interesting that Congress will fund studies aimed at living in space or on 

 the surlaces of the moon and Mars but does not fund studies to see what 

 technologies will be needed for us to live on the surface of the sea which 

 surrounds us? 



Id me, the most important image to come out of the space program was when a 

 astronaut on his wa> to the moon trained his cameras back on earth and captured 

 an image of a verv small greenish blue planet imbedded in a black velvet void of 

 nothingness. 



Ironiiallv. we novN have better topographic maps of Venus than Earth, we know 

 more about the phvsiographv of small volcanic cones on the far side of the moon 

 than ot similar features in our own exclusive economic zone off our shores. When 

 President Reagan signed the bill creating the FEZ, the size of America doubled, yet 

 most of this modem da\ Louisiana Purchase remains unexplored. And vast 

 expanses of ocean floor in the southern hemisphere have never had an 

 oceanographic research ship ever pass over them. 



The largest single feature on the surface of the planet is the Mid-Ocean Ridge 

 whi( h runs around Earth like the seam of a baseball, covering almost one quarter 

 of the planet's total surface area. Yet despite its tremendous size and the critical 

 role ii plavs in the origin of Earth's outer skin, Neil Armstrong walked on the 

 moon before the first human entered the largest feature on Earth when they dove 

 to the Mid-Ocean Ridge's great rift valle> in 1973. 



