Deep seabed mining may be critical to meet demand for green technology
Quicktabs: Arguments
The solutions to climate change—solar panels, windmills, electric cars—seem so blissfully clean and also within reach. Yet they also require vast amounts of minerals: cobalt, manganese, copper, nickel, and rare earths and meeting that demand will likely require reliance on deep seabed mining which has its own environmental risks and tradeoffs.
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The Metals Company, a mining interest based in Vancouver, is attempting to address the looming resource shortage for the key metals needed for electric cars by mining the deep seabed but environmentalists warn that there are still too many unknowns about the effects of these operations on the fragile seabed ecosystems.
[ More ]Polymetallic nodules coat fields of the ocean floor and are rich in critical minerals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles but marine and climate scientists warn that there is not enough data yet to determine if this would be the greener option.
[ More ]Polymetallic nodules coat fields of the ocean floor and are rich in critical minerals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles but marine and climate scientists warn that there is not enough data yet to determine if this would be the greener option.
[ More ]In its initial 'National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries', the U.S. Department of Energy has outlined plans to try and move lithium battery production away from reliance on problematic source of nickel and cobalt, a move that would impact the market for deep seabed mining.
[ More ]Deep seabed mining interests like DeepGreen have often argued for the environmental and social benefits of mining maganese nodules over land-based methods, especially for the valuable cobalt minerals that will be necessary for any push to build more electric vehicles. To help assess and mitigate the environmental impact of any potential deep seabed mining, two expeditions will be traversing the CCZ to test undersea mining technologies and how much damage they cause to the deep seabed.
[ More ]Government pledges to reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by the middle of this century will demand huge quantities of battery metals, some of which will be coming from polymetallic nodules on the deep seabed.
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