We don’t disagree for a moment the world is entering a phase of climate and political turmoil. This means we have to be nimble, fleet of foot, and innovative. But we can’t keep following the old ways and ravaging the environment either. We learned this morning big money is investigating vacuuming battery minerals from the sea bed. The news broke when the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)director general called for strict regulation.
Vacuuming The Sea Bed for Battery Minerals
Deep-sea mining involves using heavy machinery to suck potato-sized rocks or nodules off the ocean floor. Targets include those containing “cobalt, manganese, and other rare metals mostly used in batteries” according to Daily Maverick.
“Have we nor learned our lesson,” WWF’s Marco Lambertini asked assembled media representatives. “We simply don’t know what we will unleash by going down hundreds, thousands of meters to the bottom of oceans.” He described to Reuters later how this could potentially generate damaging sediment plumes and affect fish migration.
We agree with Lambertini’s measured approach of rather recycling vast piles of e-waste heading for landfill in many countries. However, those returns are unfortunately lower than tapping into virgin resources, and so there will be deep sea mining takers.
How Do We Control This Situation Worsening?
World Wildlife Fund is calling for a global moratorium on all deep-sea mining activities. Endangered nations including Palau and Fiji are supporting this. However, Daily Maverick says UN International Seabed Authority (ISA) is drawing up regulations governing mining in the high seas.
This step would bring an end to the global ban on deep-sea mining. However, we do know many nations will support this idea, for they are keen to exploit the undeniable richness. We need to shift to alternative energy storage instead, using less-expensive more abundant materials.
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