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The author looks at the economic and scientific prospects of mining the ocean's vast genetic resources, but cautions that the U.S. is ill-prepared to take part in either of them as a non-signatory to both UNCLOS and the Convention to Protect Biological Diversity.
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Recently China has been under withering political and legal attack for allegedly violating the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. What are the consequences if China simply gets “fed up” with the criticism and withdraws from the treaty?
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Eight nations—the United States included—have a geographically direct stake in the opening of the resource-rich Arctic. Increased international cooperation is a must.
[ More ]China is rejecting the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to settle disputes in the West Philippine Sea because Beijing knows its claim is not supported by the international law, a US naval expert said Thursday.
[ More ]Senior Colonel Zhou Bo set China-watchers atwitter last week when he informed a group including Admiral Samuel Locklear, big kahuna of the U.S. Pacific Command, that the PLA Navy has "sort of reciprocated America’s reconnaissance in our EEZ by sending our ships to America’s EEZ for reconnaissance." One meme making the rounds among the punditry holds that Beijing has now conceded the U.S. interpretation of what sorts of activities are permitted in a coastal state's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
[ More ]For years, China has criticized the surveillance activities of U.S. naval vessels in its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. Now China has begun, in however small a way, to do the same thing off Guam and Hawaii. And, somewhat counter-intuitively, this may prove to be in the interests of peace, stability and security right across Indo-Pacific Asia.
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It may be understandable that a terrestrial primate such as ourselves would pay little attention to a world so foreign, inaccessible, and inhospitable as the deep sea, but with growing threats to the region, it's time we do so.
[ More ]The increasing price of precious metals has prompted mineral prospectors to consider unusual places, including a renewed interest in deep seabed mining and the emergence of an asteroid mining industry.
[ More ]The author looks with alarm at trends for Arctic warming, seeing the ice getting thinner and thinner every year and contributing to the rise in sea levels.
[ More ]After decades of dreaming and scheming, companies say they’re finally ready to start mining the bottom of the world’s oceans for valuable minerals. Christopher Werth reports from London on one company’s plans, how environmental scientists view the prospect of digging up the sea floor, and how Howard Hughes and the CIA helped pave the way.
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