90 MARINE SCIENCE 
For example, one of the things which greatly limits where people 
live and how they live is the climate on the land surfaces. In order 
to use the earth more effectively we have got to be able to do something 
about climate; we have got to be able to make the deserts habitable; 
we have to be able to make the tropics more habitable; and the regions 
at high latitudes more habitable. 
I myself am convinced that we will be able, eventually, to be able 
to do something about our climate. But in order to do it we are 
going to have to know a whole lot more than we know now, and part 
of the knowledge that we have to have is the knowledge of how the 
oceans and the atmosphere work together as a complicated steam 
engine. 
it is quite impressive to think about the history of our human 
species. We have lived on the earth for about 500,000 years. People 
lived on the earth a hundred thousand years ago; many of them 
were just as smart as anybody in this room. But it is only within the 
last 2,000 years or 2,500 years that anybody has thought of the earth 
as a whole. 
There was an interesting story in Time this week about the country 
of Laos, in which it said that everybody in Laos still thinks that the 
earth is flat and most of them think that it is inhabited entirely by 
Lao. They have the vision and point of view which every human 
being had only a few short generations ago. 
Senator Scorr. It was the sort of prewar attitude in a large part of 
the United States. 
Dr. Revertz. Yes, sir. All of a sudden this has changed. We now 
think of the earth as a whole. Men everywhere are thinking of the 
earth, civilized men everywhere are thinking of the earth as a whole, 
realizing that it has to be treated asa unit. It is this emphasis on the 
environment in which we live, on our relationship to our modern earth 
in which the ocean is the placenta fluid of life that really is the basic 
drive which is impelling us all to obtain a greater understanding and 
a greater knowledge of the oceans. 
Thank you very much. 
(The biographical sketch of Dr. Roger Revelle follows :) 
RoceR RANDALL DouUGAN REVELLE 
Address: Seripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, Calif. 
Major field of interest: Oceanography. 
Born: Seattle, Wash., March 7, 1909. 
Degrees: A.B., Pomona College, 1929; Ph. D., University of California, 1936. 
Professional career: Research assistant oceanography, Scripps Institution of 
Oceanography, California, 1931-36; instructor, 1936-48; professor, 1948; asso- 
ciate director, 1948-50; acting director, 1950-51; director, 1951-. ; 
Committee membership: Special Committee on Oceanic Research of the Inter- 
national Council of Scientific Unions; National Academy of Sciences Committees 
on Oceanography, Amphibious Operations, UNESCO, and Marine Ecology, and 
Navy Research Advisory Committee. 
Society membership: American Geological Society, Association of Petroleum 
Geologists; American Society of Limnology and Oceanography; American Geo- 
physical Union; America Meteorological Society ; and Oceanographic Society of 
the Pacific. 
Scientific contributions in physical oceanography and geology of the sea floor. 
The Cuarrman. Are there any questions? 
The Senator from California ? 
