Deep Sea Mining

As if we need something else to stir-up the ire of environmentalists.......

As if we need something else to potentially wreck a diverse & fragile ecosystem.......

There's this:

A Vancouver-based start-up called The Metals Company (TMC) is pushing to start mining the CCZ* in 2024, in partnership with the Pacific Island nation Nauru. Big machines would scrape the seafloor, scooping up nodules while kicking up clouds of sediment, potentially damaging the deep sea on a vast scale by removing habitat and species and altering ecosystems.

*CCZ: Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a region spanning 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) across the central Pacific Ocean, at depths of ~4,000 - 5,500 meters (12,000 - 18,000 feet)

That paragraph above references "nodules".  What? Why?

Polymetallic nodules are a potential mineral resource for copper, nickel, cobalt, iron, manganese, and rare earth elements—metals that are becoming important for modern life, since they are used in making electronics like rechargeable batteries and touch screens, among other things.

(https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/18ccz/background/mining/mining.html)

Ahhhhhh...... humanity's insatiable hunger for batteries & touch screens.

Gonna stir-up the sea and damage/kill/destroy who knows what.  Makes perfect sense.  <<snark>>

Read all about the process & the concerns:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deep-sea-mining-could-begin-soon-regulated-or-not/

We gotta regulate this, folks.

If not, what a crazy, awful mess!

Grace & Peace & Love to you all -

Matt