Becoming Cousteau (2021) - full transcript

Diving is the most fabulous distraction

you can experience.

I am miserable out of the water.

It is as though

you have been introduced to heaven,

and then forced back to Earth.

It's a beautiful sight.

Okay.

- Captain, This is Jennifer.

- Jennifer.

Um, what's it like down there?

Okay.

It's fantastic.

Imagine having no weight.

Imagine that this would be underwater.

You would just inhale your lungs

and you would float around.

You would move like this swimming in space

above all your little friends.

It's beautiful.

Captain,

we have a question here.

I am fascinated by the element, water.

The world we live in on Earth,

it is a struggle against gravity.

But, by diving, when you put

an Aqualung on your back,

you suddenly are turned

into an archangel.

In harmony with the one single thread

around which all forms of life

have been created.

It's liberation.

You describe yourself

as a witness to change.

When in fact did you first

become aware of the way

that the planet we're on

was changing?

Well, when my friends and I started,

it was for us, for ourselves.

The pleasure of discovering.

Look sharp, they're diving!

Stand by with the buoy!

Falco and Piel, get ready!

I thought that my job

was to show what was in the sea,

the beauties of it...

so that people would get to know

and love the sea.

Then we began to see that the things

that we had admired

were beginning to decay.

And we said, "We have to do something."

"We have to enter the fight."

Because you will only protect

what you love.

Good evening.

I have no doubt that you'll recognize

the face on the screen behind me.

It's that

of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

For the past 25 years,

Captain Cousteau's

books and films and television series

have reached hundreds

of millions of people all over the world,

sharing with them

one of the great discoveries of our time,

the mysterious, incomparably

beautiful world under the sea.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome

Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

First, Captain Cousteau,

I'd like to ask you

how you account for this lifelong

preoccupation with the sea?

When I was a very small boy,

I was fascinated by the fluid element

that was capable of supporting

very heavy ships.

I couldn't understand

very well how it did it.

But you could have learnt

all that in museums,

and by walking about on the surface,

what extra insight did you get by diving?

Uh, you never experience a difference

between reading a book

- and doing it yourself?

- Good point.

If you read a book about love making,

it's not the same.

"Every explorer I have met

has been driven by curiosity.

"A single-minded, insatiable,

and even jubilant need to know.

"We must go and see for ourselves."

Since I was a kid,

I had a tremendous desire

to search and go further.

So, at the age of 20,

I entered the Naval Academy.

And I chose, as my specialty,

airplane pilot.

And I was at the pilot school

of the Navy,

when I was driving at night.

But then I had an accident,

a very bad accident.

I had a right arm paralyzed,

12 bones broken,

I... I was in a bad state.

"I was alone at night, bleeding,

on a country road,

"with nobody to come.

"It was 2:00 in the morning.

"I was losing blood.

"Turning to the sky, looking at the stars,

I thought I was going to die.

"But strangely enough, that became for me,

"a wonderful opportunity."

Cousteau was told

that he should go,

and see my grandfather Philippe Tailliez,

who was one of the very early free divers

in the Navy, and Frederic Dumas,

who was not in the Navy, but he was

a very famous spearfisher at the time.

And Tailliez and Dumas thought that

they could probably help Cousteau

recover, through swimming.

When my grandfather and Cousteau

started freediving,

they had the whole sea to them,

because nobody else

was doing that at the time.

All the fishermen were jealous

about these three guys

that would go straight into the water,

and come out with the biggest fishes.

They were quite famous

on the French Riviera.

The local press would call them,

"The three diving Musketeers".

Simone wanted

a life as a sailor on the sea.

Her two grandfathers were admirals

and all of her family were sailors.

She said, "I don't have blood.

I have saltwater in my veins."

When she married Cousteau,

she made a deal with him.

"I give you two children,

Jean-Michel and Philippe,

"and you give me the sea."

Simone started coming with us,

on all my expeditions.

And after two years,

we already knew how to dive very well.

But we had an inner urge

to go deeper and further.

It's always the same, necessity.

In order to go deeper,

in order to stay longer,

I became an inventor by necessity.

"I took normal breaths in a slow rhythm,

"bowed my head and swam smoothly

down to 30 feet.

"I felt no increase in water pressure"

"It was a new and promising device,

"the result of years

of struggle and dreams,

diving could be revolutionized."

"We had been years in the sea

as goggle divers.

"Our new key to the hidden world

promised wonders.

"But unfortunately,

our Utopia was doomed to disappear."

Within four short weeks,

French defenses

had been utterly shattered.

And Adolf Hitler

has claimed Paris as his own.

After France surrendered,

my wife and I didn't sleep much.

I always had a gun in my pocket,

I was looking outside before I went out.

But during all that time,

we still had the sea.

For my grandfather

and for Cousteau,

diving was an escape from the war.

Because above the sea, nothing made sense.

"I was determined to have a career.

"And it was during the war that I realized

that the autonomous diving suit

"could be a serious business.

"There were hundreds of jobs for divers

in the scuttled fleet,

"and in the ships torpedoed at sea.

"So when the war was over,

I told officials at the Navy Ministry

"about this entirely new system

we had developed."

Cousteau got a boat from the French Navy.

And the whole team

was supposed to go diving.

Cousteau was trying to finance

a new boat

and he wanted to prove that the Aqualung

could go more than 100 meters deep.

Which had never been done.

It was like electricity

in the air,

a mix of excitement and fear,

with all the journalists taking pictures.

Cousteau was going to make

the Aqualung famous.

And they were going to try

to break a record.

The first person to go down,

Maurice Fargues, died that day.

"Fargues is the first of my team

that I see disappear.

"This drama upsets me for months.

"I start to wonder if what I am

undertaking makes sense.

"If it is not asking

too much of these men

"to risk their lives

for a hypothetical conquest."

After the death of Fargues,

it was no longer the "Three Musketeers".

My grandfather just knew

it had to be different for him.

He said, "His death must not be in vain.

"It is up to us to learn from it,

and the lessons it contains".

My grandfather was also

an early ecologist.

And he was one of the first to realize

how precious the reef is...

and how quickly it can disappear.

And he told Cousteau

they have a role to play to protect it.

He said, "We are opening Pandora's Box."

But at the time,

Cousteau had another agenda.

Calypso was basically a minesweeper,

built in 1942 in America.

And I acquired her for very little money,

thanks to a grant given to me

by a British citizen.

And she has gone practically everywhere

around the world with me.

Journal number one.

We are at sea, at long last,

enjoying this first day of navigation

on the Calypso.

We have started

with a full-scale expedition

to explore the reefs of the Red Sea.

Journal number two.

Since we left,

bad weather has never stopped.

It is raining, it is cold,

and the swell is at least force six.

We are thrown from one side

to another, 24 hours a day.

And I spent a horrible night

fearing for my vessel.

So we sailed north again

and found a very good shelter.

A poetic and desolate island.

"I have that feeling

of trespassing when I submerge.

"The feeling that you're cheating.

"We're land animals

"and we're not supposed

to cross the threshold.

"Nature warns us 'Don't go.'

"But we do go,

and the sense of trespass vanishes."

The whole world was being discovered.

And we had no idea

that we were destroying it.

Setting off dynamite to count

the fish at the surface, you know,

to see how many fish lived underneath.

We just didn't know

any better at the time.

This is an underwater hunt

by Captain Cousteau's group

in the Persian Gulf.

These men are searching

not for pink pearls,

but for black gold. Oil.

"The only field in which I know

I am gifted is cinema.

"It's a built-in sickness.

"I feel miserable if I don't make a film."

When I was about 12,

I saw my first underwater films.

And I found them miraculous.

People at that time had no idea

what was going on under the surface.

So that was a revelation for me.

That's when I understood

the strength, the power of images.

I started taking movies at the age of 13.

I began to make little stories

about the marriage of my cousin.

And also, with my brother,

we imagined a gangster story.

During all those years,

everywhere I went,

my notebook was a camera.

And after I invented the Aqualung,

I wanted to show my friends

what I was seeing.

But, to photograph underwater

I had to put a camera in a housing.

So I had to invent that too.

Action!

Action!

"I become furious

"when they label my films

with the word 'documentary.'

"That means a lecture by a guy

who knows more than you."

"Our films are not documentaries.

"They are true adventure films."

Bridge, engine room! Bridge, engine room!

Something has just stalled

the port engine!

We've crashed into a whale.

The cuts are so deep, it cannot survive.

We speed up to put the whale

out of its misery.

"I dreamed of being the John Ford

or John Huston of the ocean."

Action!

"To offer beauty

to my fellow human beings."

"A moment of grace,

"I slide into the depths,

aware of living in harmony

"with an environment very different

from the world above.

"I swim almost effortlessly,

"like the fish I meet.

"I am an unexpected guest,

"spellbound by this splendor.

"This silence.

"This harmony."

In London last night,

a man gave a lecture

paving the way to a time when human beings

will live continuously under the sea.

Commander, is this development

of the ocean bed

an adventure to you,

or does it have practical applications?

I don't think we can name it

an adventure.

It is a succession of carefully planned

and prepared steps.

We are moving into the sea,

deeper and longer.

In the coming years,

we will establish settlements

where men will live completely

in the water.

So this is a bright future for diving.

Because it will eliminate

all ties to the surface.

Cousteau said to me many times

that an explorer has no right

to be a family man.

He's off following his nose,

to the future and to the universe.

And that's how it needs to be.

The children,

they were not cared for.

They went to boarding school.

And Simone, she was more interested

in a life on the sea.

She had only one passion,

Calypso.

What most people don't realize

is that my mother spent more time

on the ship than my father, my brother,

and myself together.

She doesn't like to be on film,

and that's why she has avoided it.

She stays away from the cameras.

She's the strong person behind the scenes.

Uh, people confide in her,

and she makes a lot of decisions,

which most people don't even know about.

They don't even know she exists.

Jean-Michel,

what was it like on Calypso

as a young kid?

I cannot compare with anybody else,

since this was a natural thing.

I was invited there for my vacation.

And it took many years for me to realize

that this was very unusual.

You have to be prepared

to make all kinds of sacrifices.

You have to agree to have

a very sketchy family life.

Philippe,

what's the biggest blunder

your father ever made?

That's too hard

to answer, really.

Okay.

Philippe was like his father.

Always doing dangerous things,

fearing nothing.

Cousteau was like a king with his empire.

And Philippe was the next king.

In the perpetual darkness,

Philippe Cousteau

focuses his underwater camera

on a unique experiment.

The oceanauts will try to repair

a production type oil wellhead,

370 feet deep.

The petroleum companies

had given Cousteau a contract

to do scientific research.

And he used the money to fund Calypso,

and to continue his explorations.

It may have been a wrong turn

in his path to the future.

But the world at that time

didn't understand the danger

to the environment.

So, for Cousteau,

that was a means to an end.

Once we had finished

this chapter,

we had done the work of a pioneer.

So we turned this over to the industry,

to use it.

But we wondered

if we were doing the right thing.

They put

the Jacques Cousteau footage on the air,

and it was a big success.

One day I'm sitting in the house

and I tell my wife,

"I bet you that'll be a great series.

"Jacques Cousteau going underwater,

around the world,

"The Seven Seas, was my thought."

So I flew to Monaco

and spoke with Cousteau.

He says, "I just figured the money,

you have to do 12 hours.

"I can't do it in less than 12 hours."

So I go back to New York

to sell the 12 shows.

I go to NBC, they don't even know

who Jacques Cousteau is.

Who is he? "Well, he's the undersea guy

who invented the Aqualung."

"We don't care."

I go to ABC,

who is there but Tom Moore.

He looks at this thing,

this is terrific, but I can't take 12.

But he says, "David, you know,

I'm a member of The Explorers Club

"and I have not been able to find

an explorer to speak at my goddamn thing.

"Can you get Jacques Cousteau to speak?"

I said, "Well, you know I could ask him."

He said "I tell you what.

"You get Jacques Cousteau to show up,

I'll put the 12 shows on the air."

And the rest is history.

Action!

I started on the Cousteau series in 1967.

And I was given a huge editing room

because there was so much footage.

Sharks, whales,

and things I had never seen before.

The shark is said to be

a fearsome brute.

But this is not always true.

Many harmless species exist,

sand sharks, spotted dogfish,

nurse, and leopard sharks.

But for a diver, a shark bite,

whether accidental or deliberate,

is always serious and sometimes fatal.

Hello, Raymond. Hello, Raymond.

What depth are you at?

What depth are you at?

I have abandoned

or almost abandoned feature films,

the production of feature films

for television, for only one good reason.

Though it is an aesthetic sacrifice,

it is a way to reach,

by the only real mass medium there is,

millions of people rapidly.

Well understood, Raymond,

well understood.

We are all okay.

He had that wonderful persona.

But the general audience at that time

didn't know who Jacques Cousteau was.

As our assistants logged him,

"There's an old man

in a red beanie cap on deck."

So, we had a lot of discussions about,

how are we going to present him?

Is he a scientist? Researcher?

Or is he a philosopher? Or an inventor?

But in his close-ups,

he really looked like a man

looking at the future.

So we decided, he's the explorer.

Because his motto was,

"il faut aller voir."

You know, "We go see it for ourselves."

The New York Times says

The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau

has opened the eyes of millions.

...through

his underwater films,

which are shown

on 100 other television networks

throughout the world...

...have not only popularized

underwater science and discovery...

Captain Cousteau

has been more responsible

for introducing people

to the world beneath the sea...

Captain Jacques Cousteau challenges

the most treacherous of undersea worlds.

Tomorrow, Captain Cousteau

will set out on what he's called

the greatest and most difficult

expedition of his career...

Captain Cousteau

perhaps has done more

than any other individual

to reveal the mysteries of the oceans...

The average audience

is 26 million viewers.

8-time Emmy Award winning...

Jacques Cousteau.

The most popular documentary

series in broadcasting history.

"I have produced for television

52 one-hour films.

"The start was curiosity.

"The enthusiasm about beauty.

"Then came the period of alert,

"because we were looking at things

that were actually disappearing.

"And so my past life,

as just a mere explorer, is over."

Mr. Chairman, I am greatly honored

to have been invited to come here today

to talk about the element

to which I have devoted my life.

The sea.

The sea that is today,

as everybody knows, in distress.

I spent my life sailing

and swimming through the seas.

In 30 years, I have seen coral reefs

turn into wastelands,

rich fishing grounds depleted.

And when I was diving recently,

in the Gulf of Lyon,

I was disturbed to find

that we have practically destroyed

the original fauna

of the continental shelf.

What we are facing

is the destruction of the ocean

by pollution and by other causes.

For the past two centuries,

people have been totally unaware

that there was an ecological problem.

It was understood that the sea

was a vast expanse,

a body of water so big

that you could throw anything in it

and it would not matter.

So that is what we did.

Last year, in America first,

and then in Europe, and Japan,

people began to understand

and there was an environmental

protection movement created.

People start pollution,

people can stop it.

Along with my son,

and with my friends,

we decided to create The Cousteau Society.

Together with thousands

of concerned citizens, like you,

we have begun a nonprofit organization

to save not only the sea,

but the precious living systems

of our water planet.

Join now. Call 1-800-648-5000

or write to this address.

The awareness of the people is growing.

But there is still a lot of work to do.

So I am dedicating

all the rest of my film activities

to try to convince people

that they have to do something about this.

So, films that are no more

just about beautiful little fish,

but that are dealing

with the fate of mankind.

For example, more than 600 drums

containing deadly lead tetraethyl

were onboard a Yugoslav freighter, Cavtat.

And the ship was rammed

and sank in the south of Italy,

three miles off shore

at a depth of 300 feet.

Some of the drums are already opened up,

and they are going to release

this deadly poison

into the Mediterranean Sea.

So it's a difficult problem to solve.

And all governments

are turning their back to it.

Judge Maritati orders

the Saipem Company to begin salvage,

helped by the Calypso divers,

Albert Falco and Raymond Coll.

I, of course, was involved

at various stages of the operation.

And once the ships were there,

the divers began to work.

(MUSIC CONTINUES

Ninety-seven percent of the lead

was recovered.

The rest is lost,

because some of the drums

had already been damaged.

Captain Cousteau,

I know you have thoughts

about the world's resources

being used up.

And you've seen it happening

year after year.

Apparently a lot of people

who should have didn't.

Do you have anything

you want to say about that?

Well, uh, I was already involved

in, how to say, scanning,

the possibilities of extracting energy

from the sea.

It was a choice that I made

many years ago.

But what I was shocked by,

is the speed and the shamelessness,

with which the industrial interests

have threw to the waste basket,

all of the environmental measures

that had been very laboriously taken.

I feel responsible, I feel guilty

as everybody else, as you should

that we are drawing blank checks

on future generations.

We don't pay. They are going to pay.

One of the jobs of The Cousteau Society

is that we want the truth

to come to the people.

And we are amazed to find out

that we became the fastest growing

non-profit organization

in just two years.

Now you're talking about

the Cousteau Society in the United States,

and that is, what's its membership

at the moment?

A hundred and sixty thousand.

And it's growing fast,

because we are a young society.

What are you aiming for?

What sort of membership?

Several million.

- How many?

- Several million.

In Houston, USA,

11,000 people flocked to listen to the man

who according to a recent survey

is the celebrity

that next to the president,

most Americans would like to meet.

Their hero

is Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Involvement Day

is to reawaken a sense of hope

that our actions will not further abuse

our life systems.

And in the words of Captain Cousteau,

it's going to be up to ordinary citizens.

Captain, this is Matt.

Well, I'd like to ask you

how you feel about

underwater civilizations in the future?

Ooh.

I must admit that I once proposed this,

but I don't think

that we are going to develop

an underwater civilization.

I think, uh...

we should first build

a good civilization on land.

In 1954,

I shot a feature length film

called The Silent World.

Where in which there was a sequence,

where we saw sharks feed dramatically

on a damaged baby whale.

And, uh, our men got so furious,

that they brought them on board the ship,

and they began to hit them

on the head, and to kill them.

It was a real slaughter of these sharks,

a kind of age-old revenge of seamen,

you know, that hated sharks

for generations.

All right. Now, recently,

I saw that film again

because I was asked to show it again

in Paris.

And you just... I couldn't...

I couldn't agree.

I cannot show it anymore

because we all have changed.

Mentality has changed

and we couldn't handle the shark

in the same way today.

I think that we are lucky.

We travel a lot

and we see things that the others don't.

So it is a duty for us

to share these things with them.

And to think a lot about

our responsibility.

And we often discuss this,

Philippe and I,

and Philippe shares my philosophy

on this 100 percent.

It's a great satisfaction

to find the same understanding

with your main collaborator.

You know?

- That's wonderful.

- Well, the basic philosophy I think

is that you cannot really enjoy

what you're doing if you don't share it.

That's right.

December five.

I commit Calypso

to the perilous Drake Passage

that lies between

the extreme tip of South America

and the Antarctic Peninsula.

But at the approach of these polar waters,

we feel alien.

We dive in fairly muddy water.

The red algae gives us a waving,

inviting welcome.

Along the cliff,

down to one hundred feet,

we discover an unexpected

profusion of life.

I am eager

to take down the diving saucer,

to explore the deeper polar waters.

Falco will pilot the saucer while I film.

A little lower,

an opening gapes in the wall.

Dull, cracking sounds

are warnings

that the iceberg is under

immeasurable internal stress.

It is a giant crystal,

melting under my eyes.

We are witnesses

to the vanishing of an eternity.

You know, I must tell you

that I hate danger.

I'm not one of these people

who have to have a thrill.

But you too, I think we,

we all in the family,

we are not daredevils at all.

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

Oh, but you're flying planes.

- Mm-hmm.

- You don't like him...

- I don't know.

- You don't like him to fly planes?

- Well, I'm not so sure.

- Hmm.

Philippe had this idea

to make a film in North African countries,

and I approved it.

And he started with his airplane.

And...

that was it.

Why? How?

Philippe was an excellent pilot.

A poorly latched hatch

on the nose of the plane

had just annihilated my beloved son

and a part of me with him.

Arms, present!

We are here in joy.

And I share that joy with you,

with tears in my eyes

because of the great absence tonight...

Philippe.

After Philippe died,

Jacques' entire physical appearance

was absolutely different.

He had aged ten years.

He was bent over, his skin was sallow.

And, as time went by,

he became more pessimistic

about the environment.

In 1977, Cousteau

and the Calypso divers returned to Veyron.

In only three decades,

the sea floor has become a desert.

Bleak as the surface

of some barren planet.

In this submerged desolation,

the water temperature seems to rise,

burning our hands in spite of our gloves.

Our eyes are burning.

Tears pour down our faces,

blurring our vision.

The pain is unbearable.

We have penetrated a zone of death,

a region where no living thing

can long survive.

ABC dropped him

because he was getting too dark.

They didn't want him

browbeating the audiences

with these, uh, dismal stories.

He was more strident,

trying to convince people

rather than just showing them.

And I think he became somewhat cynical

at that point in his life.

Can you tell me what you think

are your greatest accomplishments

and your greatest phase?

This is... This is impossible to answer

because I am not interested

in analyzing myself.

Why haven't you?

I am not interested in myself

once and for all.

I am interested in the world outside me.

My world inside is nothing for me.

I keep thinking of a day

that we spent together.

We were working on our book

and he had flown to Paris to meet me.

The people on the plane

had formed a line in the aisle

while they awaited his autograph.

And he said, "I spend every day,

all day long going to meetings,

"doing films, doing research,

and the only thing they want

"is a piece of paper

with the name Jacques Cousteau.

"And that's what they are

going to enshrine."

And he got more and more angry about it.

I think the two

of us were needing

to have a new life, when we met.

But in my mind and in his mind...

it was not linked

with anything romantic.

I was 31, and I was a diver.

So at that time,

it was just about diving.

We had organized,

what we called at the time,

Involvement Day in Houston.

And I went diving with a club,

and she was there.

And I thought she was an interesting girl.

At that time,

she had a brilliant career

at Air France, in charge of diplomatic

travels for the French government.

I think what Jacques

wanted the most probably at that time

was to have a place with a family.

Not that he didn't have a family before,

but because of the kind of life he had,

he was never two minutes

in the same place.

His wife was on the boat.

And the kids were in boarding school.

And him, he was traveling everywhere,

so there was no family,

what we call "foyer," in French.

It's a place where the family goes

together, regularly.

Home.

He needed to have that.

We knew a little bit

about his relationship with Francine.

And Cousteau, during that time,

he had two children with her.

But we never talked about them.

But everyone knew.

And I think Simone knew too.

"The last time

we had dinner together,

"I knew she was not well.

"But I had no idea

what was wrong with her.

"She had made the doctor promise

not to tell me,

"so as not to disturb my work".

Calypso has given me everything.

No man in the world could ever offer me

what this vessel has.

This boat is my paradise.

And it's a wonder to pass my hand

over the hull.

To breathe its paint.

To feel its vibrations.

Its soul, the only reason

for my being alive.

Jacques never explained

to anybody our private life.

But he was getting worried

that if anything happened to him,

we would not be protected.

So that was the reason

we were married so early

after his first wife died.

When Francine married Jacques,

I don't think that the French

were shocked or cared.

What mattered to them

was what is Cousteau accomplishing.

Francine started writing the narration

for his films.

And helping him to lead

The Cousteau Society.

And he said that their kids

gave him a new beginning.

And he said that even though

he knew he was at the end of his life,

he wasn't finished yet.

Antarctica, it of course

is the remote region

at the center of a fierce

international debate this morning.

Should the majestic continent

forever remain untouched

underneath the ice?

Or in a world of diminishing resources,

should Antarctica be tapped

for oil and precious minerals?

You've said the survival

of Antarctica, um,

and the survival of the human race

are linked.

Is that alarmist,

or explain how that would be?

Yes, the science today,

understands much better

the role of the Antarctic system

in the making of our own climates

all over the world.

The combination of industrialization

and deforestation

have increased the carbon dioxide

in the atmosphere,

triggering a dangerous warming up

of our planet.

The Antarctic, this mass of ice,

90% of the ice of the world,

governs the climate

even in the United States

or Europe in the northern hemisphere.

If we touch Antarctica with industry,

with explosions and et cetera,

we don't know what can happen.

And we may bring

about famines in Africa,

and even droughts in the United States.

Because we now understand

that our globe

is just one single thermodynamic machine,

that it works simply

with a heat source from the sun,

and a cold source from Antarctica.

And we must not touch it.

I decided to start a petition,

to put pressure on the industry leaders

and the politicians.

Because they will not do it

by their own incentive.

It has to be under pressure.

Now recently, I even had an opportunity

to tell our story

to the President of the United States,

and I think that he was very receptive

to what we said.

Jacques Cousteau has forced

a change of policy towards Antarctica,

against mining

or any exploitation of resources there.

Twenty-six nations agreed

to leave Antarctica untouched

for at least 50 years.

Distinguished ladies and gentleman,

it is my privilege to talk to you

in the most important conference

on the environment

that has ever been imagined.

The biggest

summit meeting ever has finally begun.

The Earth Summit as it's called.

Representatives of 170 nations

have a very tall order,

how to prevent making the Earth

an unlivable place.

Among the thousands who

are taking part in the Earth Summit,

one man can claim

to have molded public opinion

even before this conference began.

Jacques Cousteau's enthusiasm,

his scholarship,

and his reach toward ordinary people

have motivated pressure groups

and governments alike.

At the age of 80,

he can take no little credit

for bringing the Earth Summit into being.

He says he's optimistic

about the outcome of this conference,

but warned of continuing threats

to the world's environment.

Non-renewable resources are depleted.

Biodiversity shrinks to alarming levels.

Energy is in unreasonable demand.

And above all,

the melting of glaciers and of ice caps,

and catastrophic rise

of the ocean levels,

has already begun.

But listen to this,

all the people of the world,

the beginning of everything is in Rio.

For the first time,

the immense majority of the leaders,

they have promised beautiful things.

All of them.

Now we have to force them

to transform these words into acts.

Captain, are you optimistic

about the way that nations

are going to handle

this resource of ours?

I was asked this question

very often and I ask myself this question.

When I reason, I put things together,

I am optimistic because I have

a great faith in human beings

and I believe that someday

people are going to revolt

and begin to care.