“What should we do to eliminate suffering and disease?” he asked. “It’s a wonderful idea but perhaps not altogether a beneficial one in the long run. If we try to implement it we may jeopardize the future of our species. It’s terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn't even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable.”
Additional Interview With Jacques Cousteau
Cousteau spoke to Time for a March 1960 cover story. “I used to dream of flying—the classic attempt to get away from the reality of earth,” he said. “But since I have been diving, I have not had the dream,” he said. “Diving is the most fabulous satisfaction you can experience. I am miserable out of water. It is as though you had been introduced to heaven, and then found yourself back on earth. The spirituality of a man cannot be completely separated from the physical. But you have made a big step toward escape simply by lowering yourself under water.”
To learn more about Jacques Cousteau, read his profile on findingDulcinea.
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