tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691745257761485017.post1848369918055167017..comments2024-03-27T22:46:04.804-07:00Comments on The Regency Looking Glass: Captain Cook and three fateful JanuarysMaureen Mackeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08103252687271508523noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691745257761485017.post-65711252318960189072022-01-11T13:41:45.194-08:002022-01-11T13:41:45.194-08:00When I was a boy, the exploits of the great explor...When I was a boy, the exploits of the great explorers really captured my imagination. From Vasco de Gama who sailed into the foreboding Atlantic around the southern cape of Africa, to Shackleton whose stranded expedition survived the extreme winter of Antarctica, to Neal Armstrong and the first US and Soviet astronautics who ventured beyond Earth into outer space and the moon I longed to be part of their experience. Back then, I did not think about the privations and the emotional and physical hardships of these explorers' must have endured, I only imagined the exhilaration of their discoveries and insights that their adventures revealed. <br /><br />James Cook was on the top of my list of those hero explorers that I most admired for venturing out unto the unknown. Of course, we can trace the story of Hawaii becoming part of the U.S. back to Cook. Also, he was not the first to probe the West Coast looking for a Northwest Passage, which must have been frustrating for him to not find one (because one doesn't really exist). <br /><br />Today with our satellite mapping and GPS navigation, a lot of Cook's efforts might appear naive and rather moot. Who knows how we, in our time, might be perceived by future generations who are left to tackle the world-wide challenge of climate change?<br /><br />For us today, mitigating climate change might be the greatest undertaking of our time, just as the lure of spices and trade with exotic India and China and parts of Asia and Oceania motivated the explorers of the 1600 and 1700s.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450910817740052807noreply@blogger.com