Save the oceans | The echoes
The argument: this little book of a hundred pages, the copyright of which is reversed at the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco, opens with the evocation of two Before-After photos, an exercise that is always edifying when it comes to environment. On the first, taken a century ago by Albert 1uh from Monaco, we see a mountain of ice off Spitsbergen, the main island of the Svalbard archipelago. On the second, taken in the same place by his great-great-grandson a few years ago, the glacier has disappeared. It gave way to a lake bordered by austere black rocks. These two pictures tell the tragedy of our generation.
The author: Albert II of Monaco developed a passion for the oceans at a very young age, inspired by the image of his great-grandfather, the “Savant Prince” or “Prince Navigator” who was one of the fathers of modern oceanography. It is his personal fight that he tells, his cry of alarm but also the search for solutions which is his daily life. He explains that he was very angry with Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, because “with their unconsciousness, calculated or not, they made us waste precious time when we have so little to act”.
The extract: “As we passed, we witnessed the movement of the ice sheets. They sink under our feet, give way and disintegrate before our eyes. They no longer have the same thickness as ten years ago. One night, the piece of ice floe on which we had established our temporary camp fell off and we drifted five kilometres. The bank is suffering. Its inhabitants too. »
Man and the Ocean, Preserve the oceans to protect humanity, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, Flammarion Versilio, 135 pages, 10 euros.
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