Hi folks. Some of you eagle eyed viewers have informed me that the footage at around 9:00 is NOT the Cook Islands, but is actually Cape Town! This was a genuine error on my part. My apologies.

We can't stop the destruction to the environment from industries on land where the people can see the damage they are doing, how are we suppose to know what damage these companies are doing to the ocean environment when we can't see what they are actually doing !!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the information. Always so informative !!!

If we chose to save the oceans we might just inadvertently save ourselves in the process. Thanks Dave.

The mining company owner: "Society needs deep sea mining so that my wallet can get fatter."

Sometimes I'm certain we are determined to destroy everything. We are, indeed, an apex parasite. I recently viewed a short video featuring an ROV filming the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and unsurprisingly came across a single use plastic bag and an empty steel tin can. Determined, we are.

In light of your last week's video, I sincerely hope we will not go forward with ruining another ecosystem just for easy profit. But considering the history of mankind, I have some doubts...

Dave, one more thing please: there's an absolutely brilliant book titled 'A Blue New Deal - why we need a new politics for the ocean', and its author is Chris Armstrong. It covers the world's EEZ's, Manganese nodules at 5+KM depth, Freedom of the Sea, The ISA and much more. It is comprehensive and the go to for current information from a legal and scientific perspective. Thanks for this great video, it's worthy of wide viewing at schools and publicly with state broadcasters

Look at what the oil company's have done to the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico and you start to get an idea of how bad it can be.

"we wont harm a thing" every corporation that harms things.

What a brilliant idea! Find the absolute bottom of all food chains and destroy it completely! What could possibly go wrong!

1:41 polymetallic nodules on sea bed... 7:21 opaque International Seabed Authority based in Kingston Jamaica 8:08 Environmental Justice Foundation 9:50 765 scientists, policy experts signed petition for 10-year moratorium 10:07 automotive, tech companies oppose dsm 12:21 DFE design for the environment, right to repair, circular economy 👍

Thank you. You can count on me (as long as I am alive) for joining any fight against extractive industries proposing or implementing policies that cannot comply with precautionary principles. That said, I hope it is clear to some people that the majority of humankind appears (for the time being) to be either supportive of expansionism of this kind, or to be generally indifferent to it. If we continue to condone human population growth (which goes hand in hand with deforestation, pollution, erosion, desertification, extinction of _other_ species, etc.) and senseless urbanization, can we realistically hope to prevent such adventurism? I urge us to consider global, SUPRANATIONAL efforts to aim at REDUCING OUR POPULATION, INCLUDING THROUGH COERCIVE MEASURES. Of course, such efforts can and should be combined with efforts at the cessation of armed conflicts; disarmament; de-escalation in many forms of human conflict; de-growth in many industries and economic activities, including monoculture; and reduction of overall human consumption and human-caused pollution. Far too many self-described 'progressives' appear to be determined to treat human procreation as a matter that should be left to private 'decisions' (and accidents). I submit to you that we are destined to fight pointless and costly battles (even if we win a few) as long as many states incentivize human procreation, and COERCE nonprocreators to pay extra taxes, work harder, etc., to subsidize the adventurism of procreators, and as long as many other states remain passive in the face of social and ecological problems caused or exacerbated by human procreation, urbanization, etc. Rightly or wrongly, states in general regard human population growth (or 'stability') to be in keeping with 'national interests' --especially if the population of their perceived enemies are increasing. For this and many other reasons, I believe that we should form SUPRANATIONAL organizations that can supersede national policies. (I wrote tens of thousands of words in relation to global issues. I am prepared to expand...)

Just the Prospect turns my stomach. A friend of mine's father that used to take advantage of people financially said to his son there's no Morality In Business. I think it's translated: you can't get ahead in business unless you check your morality at the door.

Their damage to our precious environment will not cease once this begins.

As a longtime watcher now, I hope I'm not the only one to take notice of the (still thoroughly professional, yet) stark difference in tone between this and numerous other of your videos. Your conviction absolutely comes through. Less charitably or politely perhaps, your anger comes through, and in my opinion rightfully so. I'm with you on deep sea mining (and many other topics besides).

I don't think there's much harm in picking up 'rocks' sitting loose on the ocean floor. The real problems start, when deep seabed mining operations, similar to what you see on land become wide spread. it's deep digging, into the ocean floor that has me concerned.

Ahh Dave, your sarcasm is right on point! Corporations of proven time and time again, they put profits ahead of human health, ecology and common sense.

Always one step forward, and 2 steps back. I think these big businesses and license distributors know it's now too late, because there would have been a lot more international outcry from concerned governments over something like this. But now governments are allowing so much large scale plundering to go right ahead tells me that they know we have crossed a line and are after making as much money as they can, to line their nests as quickly and generously as possible. I'm only glad I managed to live 57 years and saw the best of times. Just wish I hadn't been around to see the worst of them too. It must really hurt people like Sir David Attenborough who has seen the natural world that he loved so much go into such desperate decline, and all seemingly with the blessing of so many governments and businesses.

Humans truely are ruled by ego and greed.

Sadly it is likely to be ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and the new uncontrolled gold rush

Thanks for bringing this topics out in front. I heard about it few weeks ago and I was really angry at this company. They just dont care about sea life. All they care is profit.

Yes, let's take the blokes that will make billions at their word. I mean, why would they lie?

Yeah you don't want to mess with scavengers/decomposers, they kinda keep ecosystems running by letting nutrients be available again. Without them...just imagine if spent money was erased and money couldn't be created

We really need to start thinking about sobriety and changing our behaviours instead of screwing another ecosystem for the good of "Humanity"!

I think the earth has suffered enough of our “little bit of collateral damage” at this point. I am sure we will figure out another way to get or substitute these type of minerals.

Nice video Dave. I've looked at this myself recently since Tesla did their recent shareholder presentation on long term future sustainability [available on YT], where they suggested that the quicker the world transitions to clean energy the greater the savings in human terms and for the planet. In particular it would require LESS mining of new minerals. Drastically so after the recycling industry becomes huge in scale. Pretty much everything I have read subsequently supports this outlook. So, nobody has to invent a new technology, although improvements are always welcome. We already have the means and capability. We just have to have an attitude to sustainability if we want to save ourselves and the ecosystems across the globe. NO to deep sea mining..!

I'd rather they focus on terrestrial mining until we can do asteroid mining.

Thanks for informing me of another bad idea that I can do absolutely nothing about!

We really are plumbing the depths with this one.

I am really starting to think we are DOOMED AS A SPECIES.

Good for you. Excellent reporting. I first heard of this 'resource' back in the late sixties or early seventies in either Popular Science or Scientific American (magazines I read in high school). I thought it was a great idea back then but as I matured, I became philosophically against attempting to mine nodules for all the biological reasons you mentioned. I will be sharing this. Please keep ringing that warning bell.

This was a the plot of a Clive Cussler novel, evil billionaire mining the seabed for cobalt doing huge amounts of environmental damage.

Life always finds a Way. The question is what if life decides to erase Humanity ??

I'd call this FUD vs FOMO. A ten year moratorium sounds like a good start.

I remember learning about how the working class and poor used to unalive rich people for being greedy and harming the lives of everyone in a community. Huh.

Thanks for yet another interesting THINK video. This sounds as though it will be as disruptive as fracking! I well remember a full page concept drawing of deep sea mining of nodules on the ocean floor in my childrens encyclopedia back in the mid 50's. (Amusing to me now because they showed video cameras the size of suitcases - like early studio cameras!)

I find the existence of the ISA upsetting. Who/whom has the ability to override such an organisation? It's just crims all the way up.

Reality is truly a dystopian hellscape

Thanks for an excellent video, as usual. It's like humanity simply won't recognize that this planet is not made for us alone. Sooner or later we will find out, what the impact of deep sea mining will have on the ocean. The sad part of this experiment is, that when we do find out, what important functions these polymetallic nodules actually had for the global environment - well, then it's too late

I think deep sea mining is a great idea because I can't see the damage on the bottom of the ocean from up here. The same logic factory between my ears indicates that smoking isn't harmful to me because I can't see my lungs. Y'know, I think my intelligence increased by orders of magnitude after I paid Mensa a lot of money to officially verify that I'm a genius.

I only learnt about them after a recent 60 mins interview. As you said, they of course painted themselves as an ally to green energy. The 60 Mins reporter did question the environmental impact but they seem to be hiding behind this idea that the impact will be minimal because it's near impossible to quantify...basically ignorance is bliss.

Great video, Dave! So, we shouldn't trust a bunch of amoral money grubbers?

The image used at exactly 9:00 is not the Cook Islands, it's Cape Town in South Africa. I know, because I live here.

Another brilliant take on our conundrums Dave! Always await, in anticipation, your excellent weekly contributions to the knowledge of our future. 🙏

Well said Dave. I highly recommend the book 'The Brilliant Abyss' by Helen Scales. She goes into fabulous details on the deep environment, including the planet's reliance upon it, and dedicates a chapter to the cataclysmic outcomes from deep sea mining. Sadly, all of our outrage is unlikely to stop this short sighted profit-driven calamity. This video is the closest thing I've seen to hope.

Hello Dave. I just finished reading the Sept. 13th 2022 book 'Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green" by Henry Sanderson It touches on many of the past, present and potentially future discussions about our requirements about mineral needs. It dramatically documents the various dubious discussions and decisions made to get us to where we are today. A very sobering read indeed. It might be interesting to have a chat with Mr. Sanderson and get him to also give us more info to be able to Just Have a Think!! Keep up the good work. I appreciate it.

This is very worrying indeed Dave. Instead of inflicting more untold damage to a poorly understood ecology we should be mining landfills such as Fishkill NY, for useful elements and minerals such as copper and cobalt from electronic waste?

As a layman, it's hard for me to believe that the many challenges in mining fractions upon fractions of useful resources out of rock should be easier then to extract them from our waste.

"If we find we're doing harm, we'll think of a better option." If there's a better option, why not just think of that?

I've been trying to bring attention to what a horrible toxic idea this is for awhile now, and it's been crickets or hand waves from nearly everyone in social media land. Some even delusionally extol what a wonderful - "environmental" -idea it is.... To say the least, it's amongst one of many things that's made me absolutely cynical about the Popular Environmental movement (aka: all about the merch). It's right up there with Microsoft heating the ocean to cool their servers for free - while claiming "Environmentalism" and silly people claiming the Ocean has unlimited lithium for us humans to use without worry, so we should plow through by putting another billions EV cars on the road and call it "environmental progress".

Thanks, good show - particularly interesting that these minerals are actually critical to fuel production, I had no idea of the extent of that.

I would suggest everyone here to compare mining polymetalic nodules to clearcutting and pit mining a rainforest. The choice is very clear.

I really enjoyed this vid because I don't believe that we need to be tearing up the ocean before we have figured out what we have down there and this vid proves the point. Keep them coming and Thanks again!

Good gravy!… no shame in that mate!…you are one of the most informed people I know!… I enjoy your hard work and so do thousands of people across the globe!

One thing that may also be a problem with mining them large scale may be they act as a seed to pull those minerals from the water and removing to many could slow down this natural process. When growing crystals, a seed is often used to get it to start and grow.

Thank you for warning against Vultures of our Planet. How low can they go?

Wow, so interesting to watch this video! A week ago I read an article about this topic in the economist, where they concluded that deep see mining is necessary for a green transition. And I thought, yes makes sense.. But now this video gave me a lot more information👍🏼

Have seen this on one of my investment news letters. My son also knows one studying these things at University! One thing to keep in mind is how capitalistic companies need to compete usually leading to the cheapest harvesting methods which we know how their efforts will go! Considering how little we know of the oceans … on the other hand cobalt mining mostly starts with clear cutting forests in the (I believe) Congo, child labor, environmental mess with a lack of regulations! Now with new batteries maybe we should leave the last places in the world untouched by man since we do know the man never just touches anything!

Thanks for a balanced, informative look into an important subject... it's just too distressing to think that we might be about to destroy an ecosystem that we haven't even begun to properly explore.

GJ Dave for shining a light on this important topic, keep up the good work. 👍

scarcity is one of the main drivers of innovation. if rare elements were made more abundant with this techniques maybe it'll slow down the transition instead of accelerating it

I remember studying this in school about 40 years ago now. It was obviously a bad idea back then, and with our better understanding of these benthic eco-systems in the passing years, it's even a worse idea today.

I’d love to see videos on e-waste processing and recycling, asteroid mining, and especially the overall circular economy to complement and continue this one

Dave, thank you again for your hard work and informative videos. Like me, you must at times be frustrated at lack of green progress and greed and obstruction by big business but keep going. You're doing a great job.

Nightmare

I have always thought that this is a very bad idea! Ever since the nodules were discovered I have feared this.

Thank you for alerting us to this threat and for all the deep research into the alternatives. I've long known that many of the problems that we are dealing with today originated from people and institutions that were absolutely convinced that they were creating a better world for future generations.

That was very informative. As they say follow the money.

This is an actual area of industry where we need a moratorium to research and put in guardrails and regulation (probably will need to ban it all together), not the fear of AI m*rderbots 😅

For a long time I was a recreational diver, if you've ever seen the damage done by scallop dredging versus diver hand collected you'd be shaking your head it is like a bomb has gone off.

All 3 of those metals are magnetic/para-magnetic. Would using a magnetic collector avoid a lot of the disruption? Then funnel them to the vacuum. Buoyancy can also be played with so the machine itself barely pressures the seabed.

I believe that this latest Titanic disaster has made people painfully aware of the problems that diving so deep into the ocean cause. It takes a lot of energy to lift a ton of weight fifteen thousand feet up from the ocean floor. The costs could add up to where deep sea nodules may not be cost competitive with land minerals. I wonder what kind of transport system will be able to bring up nodules in an efficient manner.

Great video, as always!

Thanks for the reminder there is hope and many countries recognize we need a sustainable economy.

We have to stop this before it gets out of hand!

I was going to mention that 30 year death, but you beat me to it. I was under, I guess at this point, they had resolved the sand storm associated with the earlier example. Now, I guess not and thus it doesn't get my vote. This approach by this consortium is aboutcan easy cash grab thus based in your previous report obviously unnecessary.

Its so easy to "cover up" the problems you're creating when under so much water. In the exact same way you keep it from the general population, You could just turn off your camera feed and hide it from yourself.

As you say Dave, this subject definitely requires a deep dive...

All companies and countries deserve an applause for opposing the sucking and scrubbing ocean and sea floors for minerals !!!

Why not just go to Planet Hoxxes

One possible benefit of sea bed mining is bringing up nutrients to the surface creating huge algae blooms removing CO2 and feeding higher trophic levels

I was hoping they wouldn’t allow this. “Yeah we’re just gonna scrape and dig the bottom of the sea. How could that possible hurt the ecosystem?” Imagine going to a forest and literally scrapping up everything in your path. The hubris of man never ceases to amaze.

Mining companies might be right that this might actually be necessary, but the institution responsible for doing this feels totally inadequate and unfit for purpose.

I'd rather see responseble deep sea mining then the catastrophic scenario playing out in Kongo.

I guess what's most troubling is the clunky, crude methods employed by the mining industry in general. Demand side shifts towards common elements is excellent, lessened demand by shifting towards renewables, as is more efficient use of those elements including recycling but in the end there is still some demand and need for mining. So either they come from hard rock mining on land or undersea mining or nodule retrieval. In getting at those metallic minerals, better ways of extraction or gathering should be developed that minimizes the environmental impact. Earlier in your video Dave you showed a robotic explorer picking up nodules rather gently from the ocean floor, which seems like a much more benign way of retrieving these objects, and after careful study, might be the best way to proceed. Or else we'll have to make use of land deposits like the ones up in Sudbury Canada, and do a better job of getting out the nickel with minimal disruption, possibly by directional boring and backfilling with CO2 capturing mafic gabbro and binder. Less is best, but some demand will still exist for new metallic minerals, so we do need to find a way forward. 🌄

Your nuance and skepticism are greatly appreciated....our desire to push for objective "Progress" quite often has so many unforeseen consequences exacerbated by our commitment to money before actual research and understanding of the ecosystems and their importance to the greater planetary health is recognized...

‘Unacceptable levels of damage.’ We’ve blown way past those.

vacuuming the sea floor and claiming it won’t affect the life is like vacuuming my carpet while claiming only the dirt gets sucked up leaving all the dust mites behind.

I am so glad that you have taken the initiative as this I personally believe is on the same par as "Deforestation" with the exception that no member of the public will be able to witness, nor will we be able to know the true level of destruction to not just the ecosystems but also bear in mind those who have died over the centuries as the seas have taken them. I have no time or respect for the I.S.A. who feel that while they maybe given the power to authorize these licenses to these companies, there clearly has been no public consideration to see how the rest of us feel about this move. The damage that will be done to the "Seabed" is going to be made good how exactly from these profiteering companies. Are they going to clean up their mess, how will that work in harmony with nature in protecting the other eco systems down there that are outside of the boundary they will be work in? The other factor is the impact to the given area could trigger off events that no one could have possibly imagined and who is going to be the voice for those "Eco Systems" who haven't got lawyers or deep pockets to fight their battles. There is only one winner here and we know who. The "Seabed" will be raped and pillaged of all its treasures and anyone who cannot see that is blind. The same that happened to the Amazon Rainforest will be taking place on a major level. The vote should be given to all of us who live on this planet, before they just bulldoze their way into putting this in place.

Thanks for bringing awareness to this obscure problem.

Perhaps there is a compromise here. Machines are already being developed to pick various crops on land. This could be applied to the polymetallic nodules on the sea floor. Perhaps a robotic picker could put nodules into a basket which could then be lifted to the surface. No messy separation of nodules from sea sediment. This would be a good job for non-sentient AI.

What strange times we live in. It hit me the other day as I was riding my electric bike listening to my wireless headphones when I came upon a large flying drone the size of a twin bed for spraying the cornfield, I feel like it's a future sci-fi movie I'm living in. This kinda video reenforces my opinion.

The ocean is literally where life started and corporations are now finding new ways to destroy that too smh

I've located a huge underwater mining operation in the middle of the Atlantic. A huge machine is seen scraping the ocean floor having a tall debris cloud along with a long scraped trail. 2 metallic objects are seen behind it on the same path.

So, Perry the Platypus... (Bites off a hot wing) I bet you're wondering why I'm sitting down here at the bottom of a lake. Well, the answer is simple. Mmm-mmm! This is really good, man. You want some? (Takes a box with the red wings) Here, here. (Perry takes a hot wing) Take the blue cheese. (Perry takes the blue cheese and pours it on the red wing) Do you know, I-- I prefer the ranch. Take the blue cheese. (Perry bite the red wing, and Doof holds up a napkin) Here's a napkin. (Perry takes the napkin) Anyway, the answer why I'm here is simple. Zinc. Lake Nose has a ton of zinc, and this machine goes around and filters all the zinc from the water.

I automatically distrust any company that says "Our actions that change the environment of a place humans have never been to will not cause harm to anything"

Another thought provoking video. However, it left me a bit undecided on the topic after recently reading an Economist article entitled "The world needs more battery metals. Time to mine the seabed" which concluded that "Getting nickel from the deep causes much less damage than getting it on land". It would seem that wherever we mine materials we do harm. On land we currently do a lot of harm despite knowing about it, and it being really visible. I think we can easily conclude what will happen with underwater mining where the damage is hidden. This still leaves the problem of where best to get essential minerals for electrification...

As for the commitment of companies to "not purchase", I think that won't last long. When the price is right, they'll cave.

Doesn't matter what incentives we have to recycle if companies continue to make products that can't be recycled.

I'm noticing a correlation between submarine sinkings and an interest in mining the ocean floor...