GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE CAMBRIDGE IGCSE: FAMOUS ENVIRONMENTALISTS - JACQUES YVES COUSTEAU. It contains: Cousteau, Calypso, medals and honours, protecting the oceans.

1. FAMOUS ENVIRONMENTALISTS
JACQUES YVES COUSTEAU
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
CAMBRIDGE IGCSE P7

2. "The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before,
the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat."
Jacques Cousteau

4. JACQUES YVES COUSTEAU
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau
was a French naval
officer, explorer,
conservationist,
filmmaker, innovator,
scientist, photographer,
author and researcher
who studied the sea and
all forms of life in water.
- He co-developed the
Aqua-lung, pioneered
marine conservation and
was a member of the
French Academy.

5. HIS WORK
Cousteau described his underwater world
research in a series of books, perhaps the most
successful being his first book, The Silent
World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and
Adventure, published in 1953.
Cousteau also directed films, most notably the
documentary adaptation of the book, The
Silent World, which won a Palme d'or at
the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. He remained
the only person to win a Palme d'Or for a
documentary film, until Michael Moore won
the award in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.

6. EARLY LIFE
Cousteau was born on 11 June 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde,
France to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau.
He had one brother, Pierre-Antoine. Cousteau completed his preparatory
studies at the Collège Stanislas in Paris.
In 1930, he entered the École Navale and graduated as a gunnery officer.
After an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau
indulged his interest in the sea.
The accident caused him to break both his arms and could have even killed him.

7. CALYPSO
In 1949, Cousteau left the French Navy.
In 1950, he founded the French
Oceanographic Campaigns (FOC), and
leased a ship called Calypso from
Thomas Guinness for a symbolic one
franc a year.
Cousteau refitted the Calypso as a
mobile laboratory for field research
and as his vessel for diving and filming.
He also carried out underwater
archaeological excavations in the
Mediterranean, in particular at Grand-
Congloué (1952).

8. DEATH
Jacques-Yves Cousteau died of a heart attack on 25 June 1997 in Paris, 2
weeks after his 87th birthday.
An homage was paid to him by the city by the naming of a "rue du
Commandant Cousteau", a street which runs out to the house of his birth,
where a commemorative plaque was placed.

9. HONOURS
• During his lifetime, Jacques-Yves Cousteau received these distinctions:
• Cross of War 1939–1945 (1945)
• National Geographic Society's Special Gold Medal in 1961
• Commander of the Legion of Honour (1972)
• Officer of the Order of Maritime Merit (1980)
• Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit (1985)
• U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985)
• Induction into the Television Hall of Fame (1987)
• Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters
• Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (26 January 1990)

10. LEGACY
• Cousteau's legacy includes more than 120 television documentaries,
more than 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with
300,000 members.

11. RELIGIOUS VIEWS
Though he was not particularly a religious man, Cousteau believed that the
teachings of the different major religions provide valuable ideals and
thoughts to protect the environment.
In a Chapter entitled "The Holy Scriptures and The Environment" in the
posthumous work The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus, he is quoted
as stating that "The glory of nature provides evidence that God exists".