单选题
For thousands of years man has exploited and often destroyed the riches of land. Now man covets(觊觎) the wealth of the oceans. Even the most conservative estimates of resources in the seabed stagger the imagination. In the millions of miles of ocean that touch a hundred nations live four of five of living things on earth. In the seabed, minerals and oil existed in lavish supply. Man may yet learn to use a tiny fraction of this wealth. However, this fraction alone could set off a new age of colonial war unless international law soon determines how it shall be shared. What is to be done to regulate and control exploitation of the oceans is a problem of international concern. In crowded England, serious plans have been developed to build entire cities just off the coast. Offshore airport may solve the demand for large tracts near such large coastal cities as New York and Los Angeles. Some people, quick to take advantage of the legal confusion that reigns beyond coastal waters, have planned to build independent islands at the top of reefs outside the county's territorial limit—that is indeed, a romantic notion, but one with, it is suspected, the more prosaic aim of avoiding the constrictions of domestic law concerning gambling and taxes. In another case, the United Nations were presented with an application for permission to extract minerals from the bed of Red Sea in an area 50 miles from the coastal states. The secretariat dodged this thorny question, citing lack of authority to act. Such claims are no longer isolated or meaningless. The great wealth from the oceans must be divided equitable among nations. But wealth is not the only thing at debate. 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. 'That 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 lure of gold as the mother of invention. Yet the pessimists may be proved right. In these pioneer years of the Ocean Age, the damage done sometimes seems to exceed the benefit gained. Beaches from England to Puerto Rico to California have been soaked in oily mud. Insecticides, seeping into the rivers and then oceans, have killed fish and birds and revived fears that some chemicals may contaminate our waters when they are used as garbage dumps. Largely in ignorance, we are tinkering with our greatest source of life.