At the beginning of the 20th century, the term “oceanography” was merely a few decades old, and few investigations of the oceans, which cover nearly three-fourths of the planet’s surface, had taken place. This is the story of an institution that catapulted the field into the forefront of science—first as a pioneer of marine biology, then as a source of wartime environmental intelligence, and most recently as a messenger warning of humanity’s effect on nature and a source of solutions to the problem.
Robert Monroe, a writer and editor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego for more than 20 years, is among several authors from Scripps Oceanography and beyond who have been fascinated by how the institution’s development has guided the history of its home city of San Diego. Scripps has graduated from rented space in a boathouse to being the oldest oceanographic institution in the United States and a global leader in ocean and earth science at a time of great upheaval in the natural world.