Despite being one of Earth’s least known and least researched ecosystems, we do know the deep sea contains the greatest diversity of species on earth and is a vital carbon store. The oceans and the seabed are absolutely crucial for regulating the climate and important ecosystem processes.
A living sea is worth more than the minerals it contains.
Yet, despite strong criticism from a number of countries, the environmental movement and hundreds of marine scientists warning of the risks of deep sea mining, the Norwegian government proposed in June 2023 opening up a large area in the Arctic for deep sea mining between Greenland and Norway. The area they propose to open for mining is home to vulnerable whales, seabirds, fish and deep sea creatures that are still being discovered. The Norwegian government claims this can be done with an “acceptable degree of environmental impact”, but mining on the seabed cannot be done without harming the deep sea environment, according to warnings from, among others, the UN Environment Programme, the World’s Economic Forum, the International Ocean Panel that Norway leads, the Norwegian Environment Agency (Miljødirektoratet) and the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (Havforskningsinstituttet).
We are already in a climate and nature crisis: deep sea mining is totally unacceptable. Moreover, what happens in the Arctic never stays in the Arctic: this region is the air conditioner of the planet and we desperately need it.
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