Resources for Teachers and Students

Prepare: Jean-Michel Cousteau runs an educational foundation called the Ocean Futures Society (OFS) whose mission is to educate people worldwide on the need to protect the oceans. His biography can be found on the OFS website.

Read: Jean-Michel Cousteau wrote an original essay for the Architects of Peace project. In it, he explored how warfare, increasingly, results from conflicts over natural resources.

Explore: The United Nations maintains an extensive listing of ocean-related links that deal with the oceans as an international environment; these links include listings of libraries and resources covering everything from research on global warming to databases dealing with maritime law. The UN site can be accessed at.

Write: In his Architects of Peace essay, Cousteau predicts that in the future "we will not fight over oil or gold or land, but over water." He points out that one-third of the human family is without access to clean drinking water. Even if this is true, however, many readers might find Cousteau's prediction to be a statement of hyperbole. Is it possible that future wars will be fought over water? How much, if at all, would the human population of this planet have to grow before such concerns would be realistic? Use internet and library resources to research these questions, and then publish your findings in a three-to-five page paper.

Extend: The Ocean Futures Society mails out a monthly electronic newsletter called the "Jean-Michel Cousteau Dispatch." It covers conservation news and research relevant to the OFS mission. Those interested can sign up for the newsletter online, free of charge.

Additional Resource: In 1989, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation presented its Distinguished Peace Leadership Award to Jacques Cousteau, the father of Jean-Michel Cousteau and a world-famous undersea explorer in his own right. An article on the Cousteau legacy in relationship to world peace can be viewed online.

Biography of Jean-Michel Cousteau