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Deepsea Mining
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This chapter examines the push to mine minerals from the deep ocean floor and the legal battles surrounding it, arguing this would open a new frontier of environmental damage on top of existing threats like plastic pollution and ocean acidification. Since deep sea ecosystems help regulate ocean health, disrupting them could have ripple effects on marine life, food chains, and ultimately the food humans eat from the sea.
Abstract Opening up the deep ocean to industrial scale mineral extraction would constitute one of the defining moments of the Anthropocene as a whole new set of ecosystems, beyond continental shelves, would come under a direct form of extractivism, adding to the pressures of bottom trawling, plastic pollution, ocean acidification and the many other consequences of ‘human activities’ on Earth. This chapter explores the history of deepsea mining and corporate efforts to make it both possible and legitimate or least ‘legal’ under either the rules of the International Seabed Authority and UNCLOS, or unilateral U.S. legislation, as seen in the case of TMC. Drawing from numerous efforts to slow down or altogether ban deepsea mining, the chapter suggests that deep sea mining would not only selfishly open up one more frontier of climate extractivism but also re-affirm the anthropocentric rationale of ‘everywhere’ domination and destruction of lives and places.
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This chapter outlines three major challenges facing the ocean: overfishing, deep-sea mineral extraction, and climate change, with emphasis on the ocean's central role in regulating global climate and sustaining biological resources. It is an overview chapter rather than a primary research article.
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This editorial summarizes current challenges in marine environmental protection, including plastic pollution, climate change, and emerging threats like deep-sea mining. Ocean health is directly linked to human well-being, especially for coastal communities that depend on marine resources. The piece calls for stronger international cooperation to address pollution that crosses national boundaries.
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Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.