The Uncomfortable Truth About Deep Sea Mining

To meet the world's growing demand for batteries, private companies have turned their attention to mining the ocean floor. But could this practice come at a greater cost to the planet than it's worth?
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Terrestrial mining doesn’t have a perfect record, it comes with a long list of environmental and human rights abuses, including pollution and child labor. All this to dig up raw materials like nickel, manganese, and cobalt that are necessary for our lithium-ion batteries.
Some strategies for a carbon-free future depend on making these batteries in much larger numbers and using them as a power source for electric cars or a storage method for electricity generated by renewables.
But another source of these materials could lie at the bottom of the ocean. Potato-sized lumps called polymetallic nodules are rich in manganese, copper, cobalt, nickel, and other precious metals; and they are found in abundance in some areas like the Clarion-Clipperton Zone that stretches from Hawaii to Mexico.
#deepseamining #environment #science #seeker #elements
Read More:
History’s Largest Mining Operation Is About to Begin
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...
"Regulations for ocean mining have never been formally established. The United Nations has given that task to an obscure organization known as the International Seabed Authority, which is housed in a pair of drab gray office buildings at the edge of Kingston Harbour, in Jamaica. Unlike most UN bodies, the ISA receives little oversight."
Treasure and Turmoil in the Deep Sea
www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/op...
"As a result of the mining, animals already living near their physiological limits would be eating mouthfuls of poisonous dirt for breakfast, respiring through clogged gills and squinting through a muddy haze to communicate."
Seabed mining is coming - bringing mineral riches and fears of epic extinctions
www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
"The sea floor there boasts one of the world’s largest untapped collections of rare-earth elements. Some 4,000 metres below the ocean surface, the abyssal ooze of the CCZ holds trillions of polymetallic nodules - potato-sized deposits loaded with copper, nickel, manganese and other precious ores."
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[@fernandor3854]

hopefully we are able to mine in space before we start mining our oceans

[@Purberus96]

We are inching closer for sure

[@Speedy_stage902]

Mmm chesburgr

[@PandaOnSkis]

What ever is cheaper is going to happen first

[@kaps99]

Probably not as there is no way to make profit out of it. Price of the resource drops exponentially, due to the huge influx from space (increase in supply)

[@AJ213Probably]

@@kaps99 I mean, diamonds are in a huge supply and are still expensive. You don't need to sell stuff just because you have the supply.

[@owenliquidnitrogen]

Space mining is probably the best way forward to protect earth. Hope I'm alive to see it happen

[@oreorebus]

Same 😢

[@victornjoku8250]

Currently it's too expensive.

[@victornjoku8250]

But yeah. I wish it would happen in my life time.

[@hymenoptera_2692]

@@victornjoku8250 true but lately through the highly competitive business of space launching rockets that are reusable the price of launching stuff into Space has dropped significantly over the years. And just think how much of an impact the SpaceX BFR would have on making Space more accessible since they are aiming at having the launch price be only $2 million because all you would have to do is pay for fuel since it is reusable.

[@Entropy825]

Agreed.

[@GuiiBrazil]

In short words: The search for resources will never EVER end. In the future, might be the ONLY reason for interplanetary travel.

[@DunnickFayuro]

Large scale transmutation might be around the corner. Keep an eye on Gerard Mourou's work with lasers.

[@drumkommandr9779]

Also: IS PRESENTLY the only reason for interplanetary travel. Only when we advance additive manufacturing to replicator levels will that need cease. Looking at one last millennium of real conflict before war just dies out altogether in humans.

[@radiantsquare007jrdeluxe9]

until science finds a way to make energy from nothing. Humans will need to mine and destroy previously unmined environments.

[@paulmarie1498]

We need recourses and energy to build a dyson sphere once that happens we have Infinite energy

[@brumhelldah917]

@@radiantsquare007jrdeluxe9 need to?

[@jamesbentonticer4706]

We should be trying to mine asteroids. Come on we've done enough to the poor ocean and it's lifeforms.

[@ImieNazwiskoOK]

First we need to maje cheep transport

[@outandabout259]

@@ImieNazwiskoOK wait a decade or two and spaceX probably has that part covered.

[@drumkommandr9779]

LOUDER FOR THE CAPITALISTS IN THE BACK

[@philipp.-]

exactly

[@technoch1ef]

actually asteroid mining can crush earth economy, just because there is so much gold out there

[@hpdpco6634]

"Polymetallic nodules form when dissolved metals build up around organic materials like ancient shark teeth" There is something new you can learn everyday. I am a student for life.

[@bthemedia]

You think that’s cool? 😉 Wait to you learn about this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_Explorer en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian

[@wjbt3]

Everybody gangsta until we wake up Cthulu 🐙

[@megamanx466]

@TheExplorer No... they really aren't. 🙃

[@paulmarie1498]

Do u even know wat ur saying he is not real

[@megamanx466]

@@paulmarie1498 That's what Cthulu wants you to think! lol 😆

[@Loren1389]

I can only say: Watch Underwater 2020 :D

[@picklejarb0b50]

Come on guys..we gotta stop mining oceans before it has even started.

[@deepstariaenigmatica2601]

It's talkin about the potential impacts....

[@picklejarb0b50]

@@deepstariaenigmatica2601 ok

[@kvoices3234]

Can we please, just once, NOT start doing something that sounds like a bad idea? The earth is a closed system. When it’s effed, so are we all.

[@prerunnerwannabe]

Everyone is whining about this, but does anyone have better solutions? Space mining is currently science fiction, and doing nothing will mean that we just keep digging, extracting, and burning fossil fuels. There's no perfect solution, and waiting for one will just mean that the earth will heat up too much for most of humanity get the food and water that they need.

[@maartenschut702]

@@prerunnerwannabe Totally agree if decent regulation is put in place, this could be a great outcome. And the deep sea is probably one of the largest system, which we come in contact with relatively little. So it is unlikely that harm done to a few locations does too much to the earth as a whole. It's a lot better than land based mining

[@timetodestination9538]

Ah. Human is getting closer to self-annihilations again.

[@drumkommandr9779]

Still. Not again. Still.

[@Purberus96]

@@drumkommandr9779 Well it honestly could be again. There’s nothing to prove otherwise.

[@fundemort]

When did we ever self annihilate?

[@cinho8250]

We have to fight back against nature

[@lucid_sound_design]

@@cinho8250 Ah yes... the exact reason why we're even in such a position... I really hope this comment was satire.

[@drumkommandr9779]

Listen very carefully *LOOK UP* *GO GET IT FROM THERE INSTEAD*

[@drumkommandr9779]

We're headed that direction anyway. Leave the largest reason we arent already dead from inhaling carbon, well enough alone. We do enough already.

[@hansjmo]

It's very expensive though, so is it really viable until we get fusion? Dont think so

[@ImieNazwiskoOK]

@Hans Jakob Mollatt If we would have fussion we would still need batteries, and materials go other things

[@drumkommandr9779]

@@hansjmo which costs more- getting our offworld colonies up and running twenty years ahead of schedule, or a dead homeworld with a broken, dysfunctional carbon cycle? Exactly. See you at Artemis Base.

[@drumkommandr9779]

@@ImieNazwiskoOK we're only around ten years off from commonplace graphene batteries. That particular cost will plummet pretty soon, as will the amount of materials currently a shitstorm to get, inside the device.

[@hackneo64]

Have children mine the ocean floor.

[@Purberus96]

Just genetically modify them to be able to breath underwater and handle deep ocean pressures and we have a cheap workforce!

[@juzzybro2671]

not a bad idea really...

[@megamanx466]

Sure... they always seem to have too much energy anyways. 😅

[@PandaOnSkis]

Nahh think about the environment. Send them to space to mine asteroids. Kids love space

[@Vulcano7965]

genius!

[@HeyHax]

This gives me Bioshock vibes...

[@hithereyou9991]

You give me stinky vibes

[@TheJaiotoole]

Dude this give me Seaquest vibes more then anything haha

[@Sw33tG4mer]

We should get metals from asteroids

[@paulmarie1498]

U need a lot of energy and money soo ur basically wasting more money then ur earning it

[@therword6104]

@KingOfTheFoamPit maybe you should go with him, cause you don't seem so bright yourself

[@therword6104]

You go do that then if it's so easy

[@prerunnerwannabe]

And just keep mining, extracting, and burning fossil fuels for the next 30 years until *maybe* astorid mining becomes a viable solution?

[@carsonrush3352]

@@prerunnerwannabe, I wonder if mining asteroids will add too much mass to the Earth, causing it to fall out of the Habitable Zone around the Sun.

[@Cherb123456]

Thank you, after this video I have decided to stop all of my Deep Sea Mining operations!

[@lexdumas8486]

Leave the ocean alone. There much more up there.

[@paulmarie1498]

Do u want to be a type 1 civilization bc u need to have power over ur whole planet

[@jonahjerryson4913]

Mining asteroids is much simpler

[@prerunnerwannabe]

@@jonahjerryson4913 Are you serious? In what world is mining asteroids easier?

[@jonahjerryson4913]

@@prerunnerwannabe mining of asteroids is so simple all you have to do is make a base of operation in earth's orbit and send robots to the asteroids and get the minerals and return to the station and throw it in the ocean

[@prerunnerwannabe]

@@jonahjerryson4913 And throwing asteroids into the ocean is better than this, how?

[@moon-cyclist4565]

Ah yes, let's mine somewhere we hardly know anything about and where we could destroy countless undiscovered lifeforms

[@goonercestlavie]

Yeah. Let's destroy the oceans for Electric power

[@altrag]

Don't worry, carbon-based power is destroying the oceans as well. Lookup ocean acidification.

[@champanzee6486]

For us to be “carbon-neutral” by 2050 is a joke. Mining and manufacturing those metals and make tons of pollution.

[@GEEZUZ22]

lets continue getting that oil and making more oil spills

[@sanicanadkarni918]

We humans have already changed how the earth looks on the exterior,we still are not satisfied.

[@3dcrazy332]

So did plants.

[@jch8175]

@@3dcrazy332 BuT PlAnTS dOnt CoUNt1!111!1!!!

[@bhargavdesai7984]

@@3dcrazy332 they did for betterment of planet unlike us!!

[@mastaw]

@@bhargavdesai7984 Actually the ancestors of plants, the first organisms to do photosynthesis, caused one of the largest mass extinctions ever. So that's debatable

[@drumkommandr9779]

A sad truth that comes from there being more than a dozen TIMES the natural carrying capacity for our species.

[@T3KKI1X_5.56]

Pollution and child labor.. but underwater, sounds like a BIOSHOCK storyline.

[@evannibbe9375]

The thing is that the “ecological devastation” you are talking about will affect humans to orders of magnitude less than the damage caused by mines on the continents, and its similarly far less damaging to humans than the artificial scarcity in rare earth materials and other metals that would be induced by not mining the ocean floor. The CO2 that is absorbed by creatures on the ocean floor is CO2 that was never going to be in the atmosphere anyways.

[@kirstinstrand6292]

Look into WET BULB TEMPERATURES and organ failure before dreaming big stuff.

[@trent5098]

Many of the comments are missing the fact that this is a necessary step toward ensuring a sustainable energy future. Figuring out what the risks are and how we can mitigate them is what needs to happen.

[@trent5098]

Also lots of comments about space mining but that's not a well thought out solution. The amount of materials needed & the resources it would take to acquire them is outside the realm of feasibility. You can't just launch asteroids back in to the atmosphere. Space mining, for the most part, is to have resources in space.

[@RahulSharma-gp2pd]

Very true. We need to decide whether we need to replenish our requirement of metals for sustaining our future or stop using all the gadgets in daily life.

[@joelwinchester3377]

If something takes Million of Years Or Even 1000 Years to Replenish It is Not worth Extracting In My Opinion 🤔

[@therword6104]

Well then put down your phone and start living in the wilderness, then you can get exactly what you want

[@retmotiv]

That's most minerals and metals. It's not an option not to extract them. We should be thinking about the best way to get them.

[@Hollowfires]

Corporations: Greater cost to the planet? That must mean it's highly profitable!

[@trevort3205]

Has no one seen Leviathan? Because this is how you get leviathan.....

[@maggyfrog]

clean energy companies : "stop carbon emissions" also clean energy companies : "LeT's DiG tHe OcEaN FlOoR"

[@bad71hd]

There's no way we should let them mine the ocean at all

[@An_Ian]

Much like fracking public opinion dosn't matter the money to be made it to great

[@danil874]

Everything is consequences-benefits optimization. If careful mining of the sea floor could allow huge boost in energy storage and has minimal consequences - we should do it. Otherwise - not so much

[@jemmaflores9220]

The ISA is working on regulating and making sure there wont be any hardcore consequences. there will be some but comparing collecting polymetallic nodules to land mining the choice is easy, polymetallic nodules are the future.

[@skelitalmisfit12]

Welp, time to start seriously investing in asteroid mining. Seems to be the only victimless/ less harmful option at this point.

[@alterego3734]

What about space slugs?

[@paulmarie1498]

Its actually the most dangerous thing u can do

[@szymon5438]

Don't worry. You can always accidently throw gian rock at an big city.

[@TedToal_TedToal]

Thanks, that’s a great video! I often feel that our focus when we consider our damaging activities is too much on ourselves and not enough on what’s really important. For example, the effects of mining. Sure, there is pollution and exploitation of children. But the big thing is the destruction of habitat, habitat used by millions of other critters. And we don’t seem to talk about that. Another example is that when we talk about a creature being driven extinct, even something tiny like a bacteria or virus, it always seems to come back to, well it might be useful to us, to make new drugs or something. To me that totally misses the point. Each species on this planet is an incredible treasure, a unique invaluable gift from billions of years of evolution. How could we possibly think it would be OK to destroy that?

[@joshuasuansing4707]

A seeker is always early

[@idzkk]

Now you seeker pro Max

[@candhgtlight854]

Say no for minning... , But i still using and commenting with a phone. Whitch was onced minned🤔🤣🤭

[@filonin2]

Every single object around you that isn't wood or natural fabric was mined. If you say no to mining you say no to your life.

[@megamanx466]

@@filonin2 Or possibly farmed. Mining is the origin for modern life though. 😅

[@yurusei-eth]

The sea also holds other threats. Stormy weather: never underestimate the power of an angry, open ocean. And then there's marauders, pirates.

[@carnosinehobs7759]

Asteroid mining would likely be a much more safe and viable option in the long run.

[@vejymonsta3006]

That would be incredibly inefficient.

[@baconofburger8784]

@@vejymonsta3006 Yeah I'm pretty sure he's not talking about launching rockets to mine 1kg per asteroids, more like few tonnes of precious materials. I don't see how that's inefficient

[@baconofburger8784]

@@vejymonsta3006 btw about reducing launch costs have you heard of sky hooks. They would in theory allow saving off a lot of fuel

[@GarlicBread1210]

@@baconofburger8784 and you know why they're still in theory

[@altrag]

Safer, yes. Viable.. much less so. We can only transport a few tons at a time into space and back down to Earth. We might be able to do better on the "coming down" side by sending up a descent vehicle in pieces and assembling it in orbit - kind of like taking the box off a box truck and storing it as a handful of flat walls rather than a single large but mostly empty box. Unfortunately even with that plan, there are some limitations. The biggest one being the engineering involved in figuring out how to bring something large and (once loaded) heavy back down to Earth without turning it into a manmade meteor and having it burn up or explode in the atmosphere. And all those considerations are before we bother figuring out how to get mining equipment to an actual asteroid. The probes we've sent so far aren't collecting matter on the scale of tons - they're collecting it on the scale of kilograms. So that's a whole pile more rockets we need to send up in order to send out the mining rig (which probably would also need to be assembled in space due to the sheer size we'd require to obtain any useful amount of material). Oh, and all of that needs to be fully automated. We can send a signal from the surface of the ocean to the floor in a few seconds using underwater broadcasting, and near-instantaneous if we leave our deep sea rigs cable-connected. It takes many minutes if not hours to send signals to even the closest mineable asteroids. There is no real-time driving going to happen there. The mining rig and its transport system would need to be smart enough to account for basically every possibility that it might run into while trying to land (as opposed to just touch, as our probes have done so far) and start operations on a small rock moving at high velocity (oh, and rotating to boot) somewhere in the vastness of space. Asteroid mining may well be a significant source of materials once we're in space - especially if we eventually get the tech and will to do things like building space colonies, but even potentially useful for things like moon bases where there isn't so much interference from gravity or atmosphere. But with respect to Earth usage.. I'm not going to say its _impossible_ but with current and near-term-foreseeable technology, it certainly wouldn't be worthwhile. We could only bring back (relatively) small amounts of material at great expense.

[@JohnJohansen2]

3:38 Exactly what we already are doing to the rainforests. 😔

[@pyronac1]

i kind of want to learn more about these poly metallic modules and how they form naturally

[@TheaDragonSpirit]

Look up flow batteries for large scale storage, or look up hydraulic storage. There is lots of ways to store energy without using lithium batteries.

[@thebigpicture2032]

Oh look! Undisturbed habit to exploit.

[@Purberus96]

It will always be more responsible of us to look up for these materials rather than looking down for them.

[@RahulSharma-gp2pd]

Just a few points of correction 1. Machines made by Nsutilus Mineral are not for nodules but another Mineral called hydrothermal sulfides. 2. Nodules nor only form around shark teeth but several nuclei such rock peices, sediment particles.

[@yourpaldeebs261]

"Informed people making descisions and caring about what happens to a part of a planet that most of us never see" Oof. Wrong decade for that!

[@DrJackJeckyl]

Hold my beer...

[@axion986]

Makes me think of the film Underwater. Here's to hoping those events unfold.

[@allistancooper1502]

What event the monster attacking the crue if so then you are a Disturbed person if not then you should be more clearer.

[@philippmayenburg7282]

what happened to asteroid mining? sounded much much better

[@Someone-cd7yi]

Economics, the selling price of the stuff you mine has to be higher than the costs of mining. The Japanese space agency send a mission to a nearby asteroid to get 5.4 grams of material, that had a pricetag of more than 150 million dollars. That's in no way economically viable. Sure, costs can start to come down when better techniques are discovered and economies of scale starts to come in but whether that will be enough... I doubt it, at least in the coming decades.

[@mrslinkydragon9910]

Rather than churning up the sea bed, couldnt a robot fleet come along and pick the nodules? It would be more selective and less polluting

[@Purberus96]

I bet the ISA will never think of that

[@Lasso2003]

That’s one of the problems with switching to all 100% renewables, for the world to do so it needs batteries, but our current resources aren’t enough forcing companies to find new deposits in more remote areas leading to deforestation or pollution in originally untouched areas. That’s why fission power in my opinion is the way to go for large scale power.

[@mrkokolore6187]

The most important thing to do would be to achieve a near or actual 100% recycling rate for these materials.

[@JohnJohansen2]

I've mentioned it before: We should really accelerate our research and technology to be mining asteroids.

[@confuciuslola]

Happy you are discussing this, we shouldn't disturb the only lifeforms that we haven't threatened with extinction.

[@tman5926]

Please let's prevent this from destroying our ocean even more!

[@Bogie3855]

A rake slowly dragged would harvest the nodules. If they were then taken to the surface to be processed onland the damage would likely but quite minimal if at all.

[@particles343]

They're going to deep sea mine and drill anyway. Might as well try to plug in a habitat fund if possible.

[@luissegura7089]

No to deep Sea mining. For what I just listened to, it would be wise to leave the ocean floor as it is.

[@dschledermann]

There is already battery chemistries without cobalt and nickel. Lithium iron phosphate is essentially without any scarce minerals. Granted they don't have the energy density that batteries with cobalt and nickel has, yet they are sufficient for cars.

[@cuddlemuffin.9545]

We could in theory suck up magma from the mantle (which is very close to the sea floor) and refine it and make artificial islands of the waste

[@id104335409]

Mining companies: Blah blah blah blah! We didn't hear anything after you said "money"! Seeker: I didn't even said anything about money!

[@sleepydog9968]

*sweats in subnautica*

[@willofone2120]

So long as industrialization does not exceed the rate of research and Tech development, we stand to gain many resources while protecting standing biomes.

[@sproutingresilience4787]

If a lot of these nodules are on the surface of the sea floor and very high in metals idk why they wouldn’t use a less impactful electromagnet to collect the material to reduce disturbance and waste material pickup. Also cleaning the nodules with a water blaster may be able to wash of the bacteria and microbes allowing them to since back to the sea floor and recolonize

[@cageybee7221]

invest in sodium ion batteries, they are comparable lithium ion batteries in testing but sodium is one of the most plentiful and easy to aquire elements on earth, hydrogen fuel cells are also a great option for similar reasons. LFTR reactors could provide the power, and we could extract the sodium from desalination waste as a byproduct of reverse osmosis, which is used to get drinking water from the ocean.

[@vespers119]

"Could be environmentally devastating"... When has mining ever NOT been devastating?

[@alparslankorkmaz2964]

Nice video.

[@I3lex]

I think that a "healthy sustainable energy future" is for sure within our reach, but we need informed peaople making decisions that benefit the planet rather than their wallet!

[@nhkvarma]

The more I learn on DSM the more worried I am getting. This is very sad.

[@carsonrush3352]

So how are those Thorium reactors coming along? Or maybe those Uranium Breeder reactors? Cause they're still looking like the best thing available.

[@vague5606]

Humanity is doomed. We are digging our own graves now. : )

[@rajendrakhanvilkar9362]

Great video

[@deisisase]

Take this to space; where life is not, and pollution can be ignored.

[@charlespk2008]

have to say. the ocean beds shown were not teeming with life really. the real risk is if the released wast includes any toxic materials...not likely,. just dump near where you got them (depth wise too).

[@0163844098]

I think, since we're mining underwater there is not a whole lot of carbon emissions since everything is underwater. It definitely is a greener alternative. One thing to note, there is a huge ocean surface compared to land. If we can mine far away from civilization then that would be preferable.

[@joannaatkins822]

Seeker should talk to Robert Murray Smith about his supercapacitor technology. He has patents, intellectual property, accreditation etc. for his carbon based energy storage. Check out his youtube, he's the real deal.

[@aramwis]

So, they're taking something that has tons of negatives on land and taking it to the ocean! How does that make sense!?

[@FowlorTheRooster1990]

lithium can be used for more useful purposes like enriching uranium since uranium and plutonium if used correctly can last a long time in a reactor like 5 to 8 maybe even 10 years

[@rolandanderson1577]

Asteroid Mining! Everything can be processed in outerspace. Huge processing plants can be built in outerspace. Weight and size would not be an issue. Mobility is almost effortless, no matter how big the plant is.

[@lazarusblackwell6988]

We can all live like Kings if only we wanted to RECYCLE ALL THE GARBAGE WE THROW AWAY EVERY DAY How difficult can it be to recycle waste instead of drilling endless holes in the Earth?

[@ryansmithza]

And as usual zero F's will be given by the mining companies as they pay their way to higher profits.

[@jemmaflores9220]

This is not 100% true. check out this company deep.green metals

[@Aragorn7884]

Graphene and Dyson Spheres/Swarms. _Problem Solved._

[@Aragorn7884]

@Marc Jackson chillax, it's a joke bruh.

[@Johnlanzer]

Say No to Mining while also using the electronic devices and living with appliances made from materials that made from mining. Hmmmm... 🤔🤔

[@Phoenix-ik7bm]

A lot of people are saying asteroid mining, but I don't think many of them realize how far away we are from being able to do that, personally I'm really hoping for solid state glass batteries in the near future, they would be made mostly of silicon and oxygen, things that we have in abundance her on earth.

[@___X___]

Human rights being violented is not inherent in mining, just with greed. Greed is really what you fighting against. I bet a clergy has a better shot at convincing people otherwise.

[@MrOhitsujiza]

Another thing corporations and countries won't listen to scientists and just wreck everything....

[@truthboom]

inb4 somebody train a whale to destroy those deep mining machine

[@drumkommandr9779]

We tried that with smarter animals. Turns out the intelligence required to undertake such a task is higher than what's required to know what death is, and how to fear it. Dolphins refused to do it, whales aren't smart enough. Orcas, maybe, but they also don't like dying.

[@phonn6935]

@@drumkommandr9779 i dont think deep sea mining machines are that dangerous, they're slow and clunky. also, you cant keep throwing out BS because the deep sea is deeper than dolphins could ever go, orcas too. if you listed a trustable source then id be willing to talk

[@yurirodrigues2216]

The most ethical is mining on space. But the market will be flooded and some economies may oscillate heavily.

[@Darkmattermonkey77]

Humanity is full of uncomfortable truths. Think it isn’t? -uncomfortable truths about reproduction. -uncomfortable truths about fast food. -uncomfortable truths about advertising. -uncomfortable truths about gmo’s. ... I could keep going on but you get the picture. Think of any topic that humanity is involved in and there are SURE to be uncomfortable truths about it.

[@whoami1449]

I wonder if one day we humanity can invent reliable powerful organic battery

[@joerobertson7047]

Where are you going to get the thousands of everyday products from if oil goes away? Solar panels, lip stick, anesthetics, bug spray, Kevlar, velcro, contact lenses just to name a few.

[@JR41174]

This is where we all know its a bad idea but do it anyway cuz $$

[@luchesi6875]

i hate how obvious it is that you're reading off a prompter

[@llantup]

I keep hearing people say that we shouldn't mine the sea floor or cut down the rain forests because there might be organisms in there that could provide a medical breakthrough of some sort. This is, IMNSHO, a bad argument. Those environments should be saved and protected because they harbor Life, not to mention they may actually be needed for Life to thrive here.

[@warrengeorgeanthonychen9481]

Mining and research facilities working side by side underwater

[@giancarlo_rc]

Because having screwed up 30% of our planet's surface already ain't enough.

[@samiulislamshovon8584]

Love this BGM👌❤

[@acmulhern]

I feel like some people are actively trying to make things worse...

[@nicholaspitti8171]

2:22 They are 3 mechs from Into The Breach

[@zoobieloobie3646]

I like your ISS.

[@DeathValleyDazed]

Some really smart people will invent solutions that benefit us and our planet.🤞

[@bluedaylight1243]

Anyone so bored that they click everything that pops?

[@drumkommandr9779]

We all needed that joke

[@thorium222]

Mining on land is enough. Don't let corporations convince you otherwise.

[@espartano171]

What if the amount of minerals down there is the solution for us to build machines at a cheaper cost because we increase supply of certain metals/minerals drastically? Are we not supposed to touch those fields because 1 of those millions of different microbes MIGHT have the cure for X? Or are we supposed to wait until somebody invents a perfect method of extraction without any type of pollution? How many years away is that solution from being presented? I believe (and I may be wrong) that deep sea mining is closer than space mining and more practical and safer than land mining because it will depend on more from machines than from human capital. A very interesting topic, this one is.

[@RoanCritter]

Asteroid mining is the cooler and more sustainable alternative anyway.

[@bayraktarx1386]

Sustainable? Real life is not a game. Spend 5 billions to harvest 2kg asteroid that is worth like 20 cents... Gl!

[@bayraktarx1386]

@TheExplorer that's called Sci-fi..

[@Oscar4u69]

sea mining should be TOTALLY ILLEGAL I hated this, this looks worse that fracking

[@JohnJohansen2]

Shouldn't it, at our present technological development stage, be possible to carefully pick up individual nodules by robotic hands, without damaging the entire ecosystem?

[@mahfoozmiah2008]

Mining sand is soo bad for the environment... mining more materials from the sea will be chaotic... some people believe mining the sea is one cause of high sea levels and temperature increase