China Plans To Mine the Yellow Sea Floor

eldavojohn writes "Details are limited but state media is reporting on $75 million being put into a new research facility in Qingdao, Shandong Province that will conduct research into mining the sea floor. From the article: 'Scientists believe sea beds at a depth of 4,000 to 6,000 meters hold abundant deposits of rare metals and methane hydrate, a solidified form of natural gas bound into ice that can serve as a new energy source.' The research center's first goal is to do surveying and exploration with a new submersible named 'Jiaolong' (a mythical aquatic Chinese dragon). Hopefully these quests yield energy resources to meet growing demand for resources like liquefied coal in China."

Comments

Paying the Cost to Be the Boss

[Doc Ruby]

If only the true costs of carbon pollution were built into the price of causing it, China's repressedly low labor costs couldn't govern the vast amount of pollution it generates.

The Tragedy of the Commons can be protected against by only government, not market, action.

Re:Paying the Cost to Be the Boss

[interkin3tic]

China is putting in more work to reduce pollution than anywhere else and luckily they didn't stop after the Olympics.

I thought they stopped most sources of smog only temporarily before resuming them after the games. And did they clean up their act anywhere besides Beijing? Because it's fine if they're trying to lower pollution in Beijing, but it's a big country. For those of us who don't live there, a coal plant 100 miles from Beijing isn't that much different than one in the very center.

Re:Paying the Cost to Be the Boss

[Anonymous Coward]

China is putting in more work to reduce pollution than anywhere else

I hope this is a fucking sarcastic joke?? China doesn't give a shit about pollution.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_water_crisis

"China is facing a water crisis that includes water shortages, water pollution and a deterioration in water quality. 400 out of 600 cities in China are facing water shortages to varying degrees, including 30 out of the 32 largest cities.... the south has abundant water, there is a lack of clean water due to serious water pollution. Even water-abundant deltas like the Yangtze and the Pearl River suffer from water shortages."

http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=391&catid=10&subcatid=66

"About one third of the industrial waste water and more than 90 percent of household sewage in China is released into rivers and lakes without being treated. Nearly 80 percent of China's cities (278 of them) have no sewage treatment facilities and few have plans to build any and underground water supplies in 90 percent of the cites are contaminated.

Water consumed by people in China contains dangerous levels of arsenic, fluorine and sulfates. An estimated 980 million of China’s 1.3 billion people drink water every day that is partly polluted. More than 600 million Chinese drink water contaminated with human or animal wastes and 20 million people drink well water contaminated with high levels of radiation. A large number of arsenic-tainted water have been discovered. China’s high rates of liver, stomach and esophageal cancer have been linked to water pollution.
"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_of_China

But careful, chineese official censors are right there!! "This article may be inaccurate in or unbalanced towards certain viewpoints"

Air quality in China is shit. Chinese tourist come over to places like Toronto, itself smoggy during summer, and wander how it is possible for the sky to be this blue!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/04/china.environment/

But then CNN or BBC is only Capitalist Propaganda eh??? I guess you never heard of Fox News :P

Methyl hydrate apocalypse averted?

[Omnifarious]

Some people are worried that global warming will trigger a methyl hydrate apocalypse in which the vast stores of methyl hydrate locked into ice at the bottom of many bodies of water begins to boil and release all the methane into the atmosphere causing a greenhouse effect that's much, much worse than the CO2 one we're causing for ourselves now.

I suppose that having the methyl hydrate mined and turned into CO2 is better than having it released as methane. But that is somehow little comfort.

Re:Religious Propaganda

[turgid]

The Jehovahs once brought round a leaflet containing exciting news of this new stuff that "scientists" had discovered on the ocean floor. The same "scientists" who all believe that god is a fact and believe in biblical creation.

This new fuel source was going to provide all our energy needs without mention of any damage to the environment and cost of extraction.

Mind you, when the earth is only a few thousand years old and the end of it is nigh anyway, why does it matter if you ruin the environment?

I believe China is getting a bit god-botherery these days.

Methylhydrate Geyser

[SgtChaireBourne]

The pressure is keeping it from changing to gas. If you lift it, the pressure drops and it goes to gaseous state. If enough water above it is displaced by anything including bubbles, then the pressure drops and it goes to gas.

There is also the matter of the amount of sediment that the mining, if done on the surface of the ocean floor will stir up and how many years it will take to settle. Fish and other sea life do it in minutes. Sea life does not like changes in turbidity and there is the potential for very far reaching problems lasting a very long time. Water takes about 400 years to go full cycle from surface to bottom to surface again.

Re:Unfortunately, this is what we do

[Bayoudegradeable]

You, too, are capable of some thought... Try this on for size... Population in the "not developed world" - How many iPods are those kids getting at Christmas? Elmo dolls? How many toys? What about XBox, PSP, Nintendo? Are they eating tons of beef and drinking gallons of milk produced in the "developed world"? What about the average caloric intake in the "not developed world"? Does it approach what fat American/European and developed Asian kids and grownups eat? How much energy goes into the production of their food compared to modern food? I would love to know exactly the ratios of child:resources in the developed and non-developed world. I think it's a fair guess (yup, that's all this is) that developed lifestyles over the span of a lifetime so far over-consume resources compared to those in the non developed world as to be scary. If I am wrong I would love to hear about it. (I didn't even get to construction, transportation, medicine, space exploration and defense spending) The non-developed world will not lead the way in consumption of resources until they become... the developed world. And then they join the all-you-can eat buffet. Calvin be damned (which he may be), it is going to be far beyond "interesting" in the next 50 years.

Inaccurate title

[drmofe]

Should read: "China plans to tap fibre-optic cables on the sea floor".

Remember the "manganese nodules" cover story for Glomar Challenger from the 1970s?