Seeing the Oceans According to Our Values

Jacob Darwin Hamblin’s essay on how “seeing the oceans” has changed over time was published in the June 2014 issue of Isis.  The title is “Seeing the Oceans in the Shadow of Bergen Values.”  It begins with a discussion of how the oceanographer Roger Revelle is lionized today because of his role collecting data on the carbon cycle, and for having inspired many people (including Al Gore).    As he says in the essay, “historians examining documents from 1950s oceanography will look in vain for this hero of the environmental movement. Oceanographers of that era were more likely to be found helping to blow up atolls in the Pacific than trying to save the earth.”

Read more including a link to the full essay on Prof. Hamblin’s blog.