It is either a climate crisis or it isn't. If it is, there are going to have to be tradeoffs between different environmental considerations. If it's not a climate crisis, cool.
Some of the headlines from the last few days:
Politico, March 9: "The uncharted waters of deep-sea mining"
BBC, March 14: "The looming threat of deep-sea mining"
New York Times, March 15: "A Rush to Mine the Deep Sea Is Underway. It Must Be Stopped."
Of course these and many others are not intended as news but rather are an influence operation.
And the influencee? the ISA: "Jamaica hosts critical talks on seabed mining regulations"
Of course there is one group that doesn't care what the op/eds or the International Seabed Authority or anyone else thinks. From Mining.com, March 14:
China to step up deep sea mining efforts
China Daily reports that the country will make renewed efforts to join the race to mine the deep sea for critical minerals.
The English language government-run paper says China lags behind the West in terms of research, technology and hardware for seabed mining which it calls “a new frontier for international competition.”
Ye Cong of Wuxi-based China Ship Scientific Research Center, a subsidiary of the China State Shipbuilding Corp, said mining the metals found in nodules on the seafloor – mainly nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese – will “help us reduce the heavy reliance on foreign suppliers”.....
....MUCH MORE
Related, NPR, March 2: "China is building six times more new coal plants than other countries, report finds":
China permitted more coal power plants last year than any time in the last seven years, according to a new report released this week. It's the equivalent of about two new coal power plants per week. The report by energy data organizations Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air finds the country quadrupled the amount of new coal power approvals in 2022 compared to 2021....
....MUCH MORE
Very probably related:
Flashback November 2021—"COP26: U.N. Secretary-General Calls For An End To Mining—“we face a stark choice – either we stop it or it stops us”"
That's land-based mining he's talking about. At the climate conference. The one in Glasgow.
Not the 2022 confab just held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt or the 2023 one in Dubai.
They sure do fly around a lot.
