nPostednon June 11, 2014
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n Oncenin a while, someone comes along who manages to get people to carenabout something that they had been taking for granted.
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nJacquesnCousteau was one of those people. He talked about, wrote about, madenmovies and TV shows about the ocean.
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nThe ocean – huge basins ofnsloshing, undrinkable water, which totally dominate the Earth – isnway too large to be affected by us puny humans, right?
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nWe don’t havento worry about polluting it, because it’s way too big to be botherednby anything we could do, right?
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nAnd the creatures in thenocean—they’re just a bunch of fish, right?
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nCousteaunmade people care about how trash and other pollution affect thenocean, and how important those effects are. He made us realize howndependent we really are on the ocean, and how magnificent andnbeautiful the sea and its creatures are. n
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nHendid this partly by making the sciences of the ocean—oceanographynand marine biology—simple enough for those of us without advancedndegrees in science to understand. The simplification andnpopularization of science—sometimes called “divulgationism”—wasncriticized by some scientists, back then. But it caught on, and othernscientists went on to do the same thing on behalf of their favoritenfields of science as well…Carl Sagan and David Attenborough, NeilndeGrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku, Bill Nye and Isaac Asimov and StephennHawking and many, many more scientists have spread the word aboutntheir passion for the incredible universe we share.
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nHerenis a list of the “occupations” of Jacques Cousteau, who was bornnon this date in 1910 in France:
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nFrenchn naval officer
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nexplorer
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nconservationistn and founder of an environmental protection foundation
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naward-winningn filmmaker (more than 120 TV documentaries)
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ninnovatorn and co-developer of the Aqua-Lung (the first scuba, orn Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus)
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nscientistn n
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nphotographer
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nauthorn (more than 50 books)
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nresearcher
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nmembern of the French Academy
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nAlsonon this date:
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nAnniversary of the death of philosopher / teacher / writer Roger Bacon
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nCornnon the Cob Day
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nKamehamehanDay in Hawaii
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nAnniversarynof the premiere of the movie E.T.
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nJunen holidays
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nJunen birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in June
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJulyn holidays
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nJulyn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in July
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