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Cautious Steps Toward Seabed Mining (maritime-executive.com)
mdsolar writes: The deep ocean was once assumed to be lifeless and barren. Today we know that even the deepest waters teem with living creatures, some of them thought to be little changed from when life itself first appeared on the planet. The deep ocean is also essential to the earth's biosphere. It regulates global temperatures, stores carbon, provides habitat for countless species and cycles nutrients for marine food webs. Currently stressed by pollution, industrial fishing, and oil and gas development, these cold, dark waters now face another challenge: mining. With land-based mineral sources in decline, seabeds offer a new and largely untapped frontier for mineral extraction, and companies are gearing up to mine a treasure trove of copper, zinc, gold, manganese, and other minerals from the ocean floor. Scientists, regulators, and mining companies are now collaborating on frameworks and strategies for mining the seabed responsibly. Cindy Van Dover, director of the Duke University Marine Laboratory and chair of the school's Division of Marine Science and Conservation, says that's encouraging, given that seabed mining appears to be inevitable.
Human greed will destroy us all. Sooner of later, these mega-corporations are going to discover that you can't eat money -- but of course by then it'll be too late. Even now, we deny what's happening globally.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Just dig a giant frickin' pit mine at the bottom of the ocean. You're welcome.
I have my doubts that asteroid mining will ever be economical for filling the need for raw materials on Earth. What I think is that asteroid mining will end the need to have to launch anything other than human beings from the surface of the planet. The biggest cost of getting into orbit and beyond is the cost of accelerating large amounts of matter to or beyond 11.2km/s. If you could get all the raw material for your satellites, space stations and space craft from asteroids, process it, refine it and manufacture all of it in space, then you would have a space-based economy that wasn't reliant on Earth for most of its raw materials; including volatiles.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Centralia wasn't so much a product of the mine, but the fact that some genius decided to use ground immediately above an exposed coal vein (in an old strip mine pit, no less) as a landfill and BURN PIT, even after they were aware of the danger. This is a case of stupid people doing stupid things, not an actual mining disaster.
Well, if you're going to mine raw materials in space and ship them to Earth, they would need to be high value items rather than bulk commodities. Things like Platinum, Osmium, etc. Iron would likely never make sense.
Love Canal wasn't a mining site.
Thank you, Captain Obvious. However I think the poster's point may have been that it's been historically difficult to hold corporations responsible for the messes they leave behind, and when you can't do that it means the public has to pay to clean them up.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.