There are current plans to mine the seafloor for natural resources that we use in the tech of our everyday lives, from the phones in our pocket to the batteries in electric cars. The mining involves raking the sediment to bring minerals such as; copper, nickel and manganese to the surface which will bring inevitable problems. This is obviously a huge concern to governments, environmental groups and local communities that worry about the potentially huge damage to the environment that is, unfortunately, out of sight and out of mind to most.
Opposition to this type of mining seems obvious. But cool your jets and think about this. Where are we currently getting materials from and what damage are we doing to rainforest and other habitats, as well as people across the planet in order to fulfil our increasing reliance on battery and computer tech? Not to mention our increasing need to move away from fossil fuels and transition to a greener economy.
Here's a musician thinking about something.
Whilst the oceans may be unimaginably vast, and the impact of this mining and the sediment it releases will be comparatively local. It raises difficult questions on the morality of these new frontiers of meeting our needs. Is this a case of the better the devil you know than the devil you don't?
In an encouraging move, a number of multinationals including; BMW, Samgsung, Volvo and Google have called for pausing of all such activities before detailed scientific research is carried out on the possible impact of seabed mining.
Learn more about seabed mining here.
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