Trump dives in

Commercial mining on the ocean floor? Terrible idea

Washington’s nod to commercial deep-sea mining, the boat pushed out Friday, has prospectors diving in, to loot the ocean floor. UN-backed International Seabed Authority has called Trump’s move “unlawful”. Commercial seabed mining in international waters is off-limits. For anyone. That’s why there aren’t even regulations in place for such mining. Rules exist for exploitation in exclusive ecozones in waters under national jurisdictions. But when have such considerations impeded US presidents? When has the word consequences, or costs of such industry, held meaning for those eager to plunder?

Oceans are uncharted territory – barely 25% of deep seabed is mapped. Of millions of species, barely 5,000 have been discovered, in areas mining companies are eyeing. These tracts – 13k feet under sea – are dense with special seabed rocks, which together, contain trillions of dollars’ worth of minerals. Called polymetallic nodules, prospectors see rare earths and copper, manganese, nickel in these, but are blind to the sea sponges, nematodes, brittle stars and other life forms that live in them. There’s no measure for the extent of damage from 1) mining ships, 2) ‘collector robots’, 3) pipelines that’ll extract, 4) lifts to ferry material to the surface, 5) drilling noise or 6) heat produced. All that is sure is that marine ecosystems, oceans temperatures, and migrations will be overwhelmed. Yet, American companies spot an El Dorado on the ocean floor, putting humanity in peril, regardless of the justifications.

One justification is the ‘demand’ for critical minerals. Yet, experts say those ‘estimates’ don’t account for tech advances of battery recycling, or emerging techs that don’t use cobalt or nickel. Another preposterous argument is that ocean floor mining doesn’t displace human settlements. Pah! Jeopardise ocean ecology – unique, fragile, diverse – and you jeopardise all of Earth.