8/13/2007

There but for the grace of God go I...

The Alexey Maryshev, on board which I and the Generation Earth team sailed from Ushuaia, Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula in March, has had a terrible accident, and the captain, a gangly, Ichabod Crane looking guy who chainsmoked and spoke only Russian, is in big trouble. He seemed to us a consummate professional and seasoned seaman, so the rush to judgement appears to me to be born out of a corporate desperation to assign blame first and figure out what happened later. Although there are special standards of responsibility for captains at sea, the fact that a glacier fell apart just as he was sailing underneath it seems to me to have much more to do with the grave state of the climate than it does to do with navigation. Here's hoping everyone will ultimately be okay....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

....all I can say is, goodness gracious! That thought ran through my mind at least 10 times a day while we were sailing that vessel. Makes one wonder.