![]() ![]() It starts with research, from basic science to understanding the full scale of potential mining impacts. There has to be a better way – for the safety of our ocean, our planet and ourselves. This is the equivalent of vacuuming your rug, rescuing a lost earring from the canister, and then dumping all the collected debris back on to the rug and into the air in the room – except, in this case, you can only guess at how badly the debris will damage your rug, your home or your family. From seafloor and ship-based discharges, plumes spread and pollute the water column even further afield, suffocating and imperiling ocean life. ![]() Once minerals are extracted, the machinery dumps wastewater, sediment and all the other disruptive outputs of the mining process back into the water, damaging seafloor habitats and the life within them. But consider the process: mining companies send mammoth robotic vehicles, outfitted with spiked wheels and powerful suction tubes, thousands of meters underwater. Rather than learning the gravest impacts of resource extraction years or decades into the process, we now have the opportunity to look before we leap.ĭuring this pause we need to pursue three goals for human and planetary health: scientific exploration and research continued pressure on land-based mining companies to clean up their act and innovation to answer our connectivity, mobility and energy needs in more sustainable ways.ĭeep-sea mining might seem, initially, like a distant concern. This moment marks a profound and rare opportunity when it comes to environmental protection. Last week, a little-known autonomous global body, the International Seabed Authority council, opted to delay the start of large-scale commercial ocean mining likely until 2025 amid growing opposition from world leaders, ocean advocates and marine scientists worldwide. But we can’t protect our planet by destroying it, nor can we mine our way out of the climate crisis. It’s a cruel irony that renewable energy, at least at this point of technological development, is thought to require nonrenewable deep-sea minerals, pulled from ecosystems we know so little about.
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