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I can't decide if this makes me sad, or furious, or sick to my stomach. Most likely all three.

HEADLINE: "Deep-Sea Mining Could Begin Soon, Regulated or Not"

Mining the seafloor could boost global production of clean energy technology — and destroy the ocean in the process.
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Bizarre creatures from the black ocean abyss, preserved in glass jars, line stacks of shelves in deep-sea biologist Adrian Glover's laboratory at London's Natural History Museum. Ninety percent of the species Glover has assembled had never before been seen by humans.

Glover is part of an international effort to discover what lives on a remote part of the Pacific Ocean seafloor called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. The CCZ is a vast abyssal plain slightly larger than the European Union, situated between Mexico and Hawaii, dotted with rocky outcrops and seamounts. It is one of the most pristine and least explored parts of our planet — and it may soon endure the world's first deep-sea mining operation.

Trillions of black, potato-size rocks known as polymetallic nodules are strewn across the CCZ seafloor. The nodules contain valuable metals, including cobalt, copper, and nickel needed for electric vehicles; rare earth elements crucial for clean energy technologies; and smaller amounts of lithium, in high demand for batteries.

Big machines would scrape the seafloor, scooping up nodules while kicking up clouds of sediment, potentially damaging the deep sea on a vast scale by removing habitat and species and altering ecosystems.

Life in the CCZ doesn't exist in great abundance, but it does exist in great diversity. The nodules “are home to hundreds, maybe thousands, of species that we know little about,” Glover says. “Whether they would provide food on a plate or stop climate change or become the next cure for cancer, we can't say yet. Though we could do the research to find out.”
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So much down there that we could discover and learn about. Think of all the science we could do and the possible benefits it might bring!

But the capitalists have a *better* idea. Instead of studying and learning, let's tear the seafloor apart in order to make money, lots and lots of money. 💵 💵 💵

FULL STORY -- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deep-sea-mining-could-begin-soon-regulated-or-not/

#Science #Ocean #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism

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