Free Essays,College Free Essays,Free College Essays at Anti Essays

The Global Environmental Imperative
A Titanic Conclusion
By philip clarkson


In the early part of the 20th century RMS Titanic was considered a pinnacle of naval architecture and technological achievement.

On April 14, 1912, Titanic raced towards her fate, warnings of icebergs were ignored, because this was the age of the biggest and the very best that industrialisation could build; proud and defiant, we were unsinkable. But on that fateful Sunday evening at 11.40 p.m. the Titanic struck an iceberg."Mother Nature threw a snowflake in our path which should have brought us back to reality".


The ship's bell sounded three times "...Iceberg, right ahead!" first officer Murdoch ordered an abrupt turn to port (left) and full speed astern, which reversed the engines driving the outer propellers (the turbine driving the centre propeller was not reversible). This swung Titanic's stern away from the iceberg

A collision was inevitable, and the ship's starboard (right) side brushed the iceberg. The watertight doors were shut as water started filling the five compartments - one more than Titanic could stay afloat with. This tipped the balance between staying afloat and sinking.

Two hours and 40 minutes later, after breaking into two, at 2.20 a.m. on April 15, she sank..

In the early part of 21th century the analogy has not been lost on me.

Then as now, we are driven by necessity, We forge ahead at lightning pace with little or no regard for the global environmental consequences. Development for development's sake is the modern day credo.

We have become victims of our own success, whilst marvelling at our ingenuity; we’ve taken our eye off the proverbial ball

We ignored iceberg warnings, one of the first signs that all...