<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/27/race-to-the-bottom-the-disastrous-blindfolded-rush-to-mine-the-deep-sea>
"A short bureaucratic note from a brutally degraded microstate in the South
Pacific to a little-known institution in the Caribbean is about to change the
world. Few people are aware of its potential consequences, but the impacts are
certain to be far-reaching. The only question is whether that change will be to
the detriment of the global environment or the benefit of international
governance.
In late June, the island republic of Nauru informed the International Seabed
Authority (ISA) based in Kingston, Jamaica of its intention to start mining the
seabed in two years’ time via a subsidiary of a Canadian firm, The Metals
Company (TMC, until recently known as DeepGreen). Innocuous as it sounds, this
note was a starting gun for a resource race on the planet’s last vast frontier:
the abyssal plains that stretch between continental shelves deep below the
oceans.
In the three months since it was fired, the sound of that shot has reverberated
through government offices, conservation movements and scientific academies,
and is now starting to reach a wider public, who are asking how the fate of the
greatest of global commons can be decided by a sponsorship deal between a tiny
island and a multinational mining corporation.
The risks are enormous. Oversight is almost impossible. Regulators admit
humanity knows more about deep space than the deep ocean. The technology is
unproven. Scientists are not even sure what lives in those profound ecosystems.
State governments have yet to agree on a rulebook on how deep oceans can be
exploited. No national ballot has ever included a vote on excavating the
seabed. Conservationists, including David Attenborough and Chris Packham, argue
it is reckless to go ahead with so much uncertainty and such potential
devastation ahead."
Via Glyn Moody, who wrote "ruining the dry land is not enough: we have to
destroy the seabed now through corporate greed"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
