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S2E8: Trashed or treasure? Will deep sea mining ruin oceans?

17 Dec 2024

Rich lodes of valuable metals lie on the seafloor. Will a global rush to mine them be allowed – and will doing so damage the world’s oceans?

Synopsis: Every first and third Tuesday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.

Scattered across the sea bed are trillions of potato-sized lumps brimming with lucrative metals vital to making electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, smartphones and much more. This is sparking a “blue rush”, as some countries and companies are eager to cash-in on them.

Yet the mining of polymetallic nodules remains banned and there are growing concerns that scooping them off the sea floor risks disrupting one of the most important, but still poorly understood, parts of the planet. In this episode, hosts Audrey Tan and David Fogarty speak with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ project director of ocean governance Julian Jackson on the risks.

Highlights of conversation (click/tap above):

2:12 Three different types of deep sea mining

6:42 Environmental impacts of deep sea mining

12:21 Why countries are pushing for deep sea mining

14:58 Implication of Micronesian country Nauru announcing intention to start sea bed mining.

17:02 Is deep sea mining necessary?

Follow Audrey Tan on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/848W

Read her articles: https://str.sg/JLM2

Follow David Fogarty on X: https://str.sg/JLM6

Read his articles: https://str.sg/JLMu

Hosts: Audrey Tan (audreyt@sph.com.sg) & David Fogarty (dfogarty@sph.com.sg)

Produced and edited by: Hadyu Rahim