| For millennia man has exploited and
often destroyed the riches of the land. Now man {{U}}covets{{/U}} the wealth of the
oceans, which cover nearly three-quarters of the earth. But the scramble for
minerals and oil, for new underwater empires, could heighten international
tensions and set a new and wider stage for world conflict. Even the most conservative estimates of sources in the seabed stagger the imagination. In the millions of miles of ocean that touch a hundred nations live four out of five living things on earth. In the seabed, minerals and oil have been proved to exist in great supply. The oceans are a source of pure water and food protein, of drugs and building materials; they are even possibly a living place for man himself and a key to survival for doubling population on the land. Man may yet learn to use a tiny fraction of this wealth. Unless international law soon determines how it shall be shared, that fraction alone could set off a new age of colonial war. Is the deep seabed, like the high seas, common to all? Or, like the wilderness areas of land, is it open to national claim by the use and occupation of the first or the strongest pioneer? The question of what is to be done to regulate and control exploitation of the seabeds is no longer a theoretical matter. It is a problem of international concern. We must decide how to divide this great wealth equitably among nations. But wealth is not the only thing at stake. We must also learn how to protect the oceans from the threat of pollution. A few years ago, "practical" men dismissed speculations about wealth in the sea. "{{U}}That{{/U}} is economic foolishness," they said. It will never be economically profitable to exploit the seabeds, no matter how great the riches to be found there. Unfortunately, they underestimated the temptation of gold as the mother of invention. |