Don’t get me wrong — I like Marketplace—– I listen every day during the morning commute. But today I took I took note of this exchange between Jeremy Hobson and University of Rhode Island oceanographer Robert Ballard regarding director James Cameron’s recent voyage to the bottom of the sea:
Hobson: But what do you think it says that it was a private citizen and not a government or a research institution that made it down to the farthest reaches of the ocean, James Cameron?
Ballard: Well you know, the government did go down there in 1960 to the very spot. Cameron’s dive was the first solo dive, but humans had been there before.
Hobson: Yes, they went back down there in the 1960s, but this is 2012 and the person who did it is not somebody from the navy, it’s James Cameron.
Ballard: A lot of firsts are done by adventurous individuals who scale a mountain and show that it can be done, and then things follow after that. It’s great that all of these people are getting involved; it’s drawing a lot of attention. And I think it just bodes well for the future of the oceans.
That Hobson repeated the question shows that he’s somewhat perplexed that a private citizen —albeit a very wealthy private citizen —- accomplished a feat without the aid of the government. And as Robert Ballard points out, it happens all the time. Unfortunately that’s not mentality of the Obama administration, and we see where that’s getting us.
