Mining on the sea floor could destroy undiscovered species

Ocean Panel says mining on the sea floor is dangerous

Ocean Panel says mining on the sea floor is dangerous.

Mining on the sea floor should not begin before a full assessment of likely environmental impacts can be made, a report commissioned by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) said on Wednesday.

Environmentalists including Britain’s David Attenborough have called for a ban on deep-seabed mining that would extract resources including copper, cobalt, nickel, zinc, lithium, and rare earth elements from nodules on the ocean floor.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN body headquartered in Jamaica, has drawn up regulations on exploration, but has yet to establish the rules for exploitation needed for mining to go ahead.

The report authored by six academics said deep seabed mining was a “sustainability conundrum”.

Sea floor nodules contain battery metals needed to fuel the world’s transition to clean energy, but trawling the sea floor for them is likely to disrupt ecosystems about which there has been scant research, as they are very difficult to reach.

“If mining was to go ahead with the current state of knowledge, species and functions could be lost before they are known and understood,” the authors wrote.

The ISA is set to discuss regulation that could allow deep seabed mining in its annual assembly, delayed from July to October this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report said international research should be conducted to fill gaps in knowledge before any seabed mining is allowed, and protected zones should be established across all ocean regions under the ISA’s jurisdiction.

The authors also recommended countries should encourage the recycling of battery metals to reduce the need to find new supplies.

The Ocean Panel brings together heads of state from 14 countries, including Australia, Canada, Chile, Kenya, Japan and Norway.

Recently, The Guardian newspaper published a reflection on this subject in which, with the help of Mark Miodownik, materials scientist Read more

Graphene is a substance composed of pure carbon, with atoms organized in a regular hexagonal pattern, similar to graphite. It Read more

SoftBank agreed on Tuesday to pay more than 10,000 million dollars to acquire WeWork, doubling its investment and paying close Read more

Microsoft has struck the table when it won the JEDI contract (acronym for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) tendered by the Read more

Siemens Gamesa has received a conditional order to supply 140 wind turbines of its most powerful model (11 MW) to Read more

A few years ago Boeing was the most important aeronautical company on the planet. being the most important civil constructor Read more

Tesla will begin delivering the first orders of the Model Y, its new SUV compact SUV, in the first quarter Read more

General Motors has announced that it will invest 1,500 million dollars (1,350 million euros) in the new generation of ‘pick-ups’ Read more

Netflix already has 158.3 million subscribers worldwide, demonstrating its strength in the face of increasing competition. However, its biggest advantage Read more

The aircraft manufacturer Boeing (NYSE: BA) suspends the production of its 737 MAX aircraft, after not obtaining this year, as Read more

Leave a Reply