#Kerala fishermen up in arms against #DeepSeaMining proposal off #Kollam coast

March 22, 2025

"The fishermen in Kerala have already launched several protests against the proposed plan to open up the sea to private mining companies as part of the Union Government’s ‘Blue Economy’ initiative.

"All the fishermen’s associations stand united in their protests against this proposal, alleging that it would bring an end to the fisheries sector in the country, not only in the #ArabianSea but also in the #BayOfBengal.

“ 'The mining, according to the scientific report we have, can disturb the seabed and completely destroy fish spawning habitats. It can also release poisonous gases trapped on the #DeepSeaFloor, causing severe #environmental issues,' Kerala Minister for Fisheries, Saji Cherian, told PTI.

"He said that deep-sea mining requires huge investments and heavy machinery, meaning only #multinational #corporations will be involved, making these areas completely inaccessible to poor fishermen.

"The Kerala government, which is strongly opposing this project, passed a resolution in the Assembly urging the Centre to withdraw it.

"The Minister said the proposed site, off the Kollam shore in Kerala in the Arabian Sea, is very rich in marine resources and serves as a lifeline for fishermen from Kerala and other states.

“ 'We have a highly diverse and extensive fish population in this area. The mining will completely wipe out this habitat, severely affecting the livelihood of fishermen in our region,' Saji Cherian said."

Read more:
https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/economy/kerala-fishermen-up-in-arms-against-deep-sea-mining-proposal-off-kollam-coast/ar-AA1Brtp9

#NoJobsOnADeadPlanet #OceansAreLife #MarineLife #DeepSeaMining #NoDeepSeaMining #DarkOxygen #LifeOnEarth #Extinction #Nodules #Greenwashing #CorporateColonialism #CorporatePolluters
#BatteryAlternatives #NoCobaltMining #RecycleCopper #RecycleCobalt #RecycleZinc #Recycle! #Ecocide #PlanetDestroyers #HumanGreed

#NPR: The U.S. takes a step toward allowing #mining on the ocean floor, a fragile #ecosystem

by Julia Simon, April 25, 2025

"President #Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at making it easier for companies to mine the deep seafloor, saying it would create 'a robust domestic supply for critical minerals.'

"There is currently no commercial-scale deep-sea mining anywhere in the world. But companies have long eyed the ocean floor as a potential source of metals like nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper, which are used in batteries for electric vehicles and other technologies.

"The world has no rulebook for deep-sea mining. One company is pushing forward anyway

"These metals can be found in potato-sized nodules lying on the ocean floor. Many of the nodules are in the middle of the Pacific ocean, beyond the legal territory of individual countries.

"Thursday's order might circumvent ongoing international negotiations to regulate deep-sea mining.

"Those regions have traditionally been overseen by an international organization, the #InternationalSeabedAuthority (#ISA). The ISA has hosted talks for years to try to hammer out a rulebook to govern a potential seabed mining industry. The U.S. did not ratify the treaty that governs the seabed, and is not a voting member of the ISA, though in the past under previous administrations it has respected the ISA process.

"In his executive order, Trump instructed federal agencies to expedite the process for reviewing and issuing permits for mining on the seafloor in both U.S. and international territory. It will use a U.S. law from 1980, the "#DeepSeabed Hard Mineral Resources Act."

"Scientists and environmental groups condemned the order, arguing that opening the deep seabed for mining could disrupt important marine ecosystems, and damage the fishing industry.

" 'This is being planned on some of the least resilient #ecosystems on the planet,' says Douglas McCauley, professor of ocean science at the University of California Santa Barbara. 'It would have #catastrophic biological consequences.'

"Underwater mining can create plumes of sediment that could suffocate marine life, and degrade the #FoodWebs that fish depend on, McCauley says.

"There are also important questions about whether we actually need to be mining the seabed to get enough of these minerals for technologies like batteries, says Micah Ziegler, assistant professor of energy and chemical systems at Georgia Institute of Technology.

"While a couple of years ago researchers were concerned about the limitations of land-based mining for metals like cobalt and nickel, a variety of alternative #battery chemistries have been developed that might reduce the need for those elements, Ziegler says."

Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/25/nx-s1-5376482/trump-seabed-mining-executive-order

#OceansAreLife #MarineLife #DeepSeaMining #NoDeepSeaMining
#DarkOxygen #LifeOnEarth #Extinction #Nodules #Greenwashing #CorporateColonialism #CorporatePolluters #TrumpSucks #Idiocracy
#BatteryAlternatives #NoCobaltMining #RecycleCopper #RecycleCobalt #RecycleZinc #Recycle! #Ecocide #PlanetDestroyers #HumanGreed #NoJobsOnADeadPlanet

'Dark oxygen': a deep-sea discovery that has split scientists

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-dark-oxygen-deep-sea-discovery.html

#HackerNews #DarkOxygen #DeepSea #Discovery #Scientists #Split #Findings #OceanResearch

'Dark oxygen': a deep-sea discovery that has split scientists
Could lumpy metallic rocks in the deepest, darkest reaches of the ocean be making oxygen in the absence of sunlight?

Some scientists think so, but others have challenged the claim that so-called "dark oxygen" is being produced in the lightless abyss of the seabed.

The discovery—detailed last July in the journal Nature Geoscience—called into question long-held assumptions about the origins of life on Earth, and sparked intense scientific debate.

#darkoxygen #environment #mining #ecologicalimpact

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-dark-oxygen-deep-sea-discovery.html

We may have discovered how #darkoxygen is being made in the #deepsea

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2472416-we-may-have-discovered-how-dark-oxygen-is-being-made-in-the-deep-sea/

What Past #Oceans Tell Us About Our #Climate’s #Future : Medium

What lies beneath #Europa’s #Icy surface? Perhaps a #Heart of #Metal ($) : Nature

#DarkOxygen: New deep #Sea #Expedition to #Explore #Mysterious #Discovery : New Sci

Check our latest #KnowledgeLinks

https://knowledgezone.co.in/resources/bookmarks

Did LIGO just see its most important gravitational wave ever? : Medium

'#DarkOxygen' #Mission takes aim at other #Worlds : BBC

#AirPollution and #Brain damage: what the #Science says : Nature

Check our latest #KnowledgeLinks

https://knowledgezone.co.in/resources/bookmarks

Looks like we've got another reason to protect our oceans! 'Dark oxygen'.

#OceanConservation #DeepSeaMining #EnvironmentalImpact #DarkOxygen

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6gg5mnn8eo

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6gg5mnn8eo

(@bbc buying in on the thinnest of confirmation-biased evidence, apparently)

"…could "change the way we look at the possibility of life on other planets too," the researchers say.

initial discovery confounded marine scientists. It was previously accepted that oxygen could only be produced in…photosynthesis.

If oxygen…is made in the dark by metal lumps, the researchers believe that process could be happening on other planets…where life could thrive."

#darkoxygen

https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/7717/
(ouch for the metals idea…)
"…we critique the #methodology that the authors outline and present previously non-disclosed data and metadata directly related to the experiments they present.…The data and #metadata that Sweetman et al. omit significantly alters how one interprets the results and directly undermines their claims…we suggest that the hypothesis that #polymetallicnodules produce oxygen can be wholly rejected…"

#darkoxygen #deepsearesearch

If Earth loses its sources of oxygen, that won't be a very green transition. smh

#DeepSeaMining opponents suffer major setback

by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS
August 3, 2024

"Opponents of deep sea mining suffered a serious setback Friday when they failed to take a first step toward an international moratorium on the controversial practice.

"Until now, those in favor of such mining—which would deliver minerals key to the green transition but with a potentially high environmental cost—have managed to prevent the #InternationalSeabedAuthority (#ISA) from even taking up any debate on the subject.

"This time, the debate took place, but a draft calling for a 'dialogue' toward 'the development of a general policy... for the protection and preservation of the marine environment' did not advance after a week of talks in Kingston, Jamaica.

"Numerous delegations, from #China to #SaudiArabia to the #Africa group of member states, said the draft lacked clarity and that the ISA's full assembly of 168 members was not the forum to make any decision on the protection of #marine habitats.

"Instead, those countries said the Council, made up of 36 states, should decide.

"Faced with consistent opposition, #Chile withdrew the draft measure as the assembly's annual session—which makes decisions by consensus—drew to a close.

"'We are somewhat disappointed,' said Chilean representative Salvador Vega Telias. Though he believed he had support from a majority of states, he opted to shelve the discussions until July 2025—a proposal that was not approved either.

"Deep sea mining in international waters involves scraping the ocean floor for #minerals like #nickel, #cobalt and #copper, crucial for #RenewableEnergy energy technology.

"Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (#UNCLOS), the ISA is responsible for both protecting the seabed in areas beyond national jurisdictions and for overseeing any exploration or exploitation of resources in those zones.

"Deep sea mining has not yet taken place beyond the experimental and exploratory stage.

"The ISA's Council, which for now only grants exploration contracts, has been drawing up commercial exploitation rules for more than a decade. They are aiming to adopt a mining code in 2025.

"Non-governmental organizations and scientists warn that deep sea mining could damage #habitats and harm species that are little understood, but are potentially important to the #FoodChain.

"In addition, they point to the risk of disrupting the ocean's capacity to absorb carbon emitted by human activities, and the noise that could disturb species such as #whales."

Read more:
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-deep-sea-opponents-major-setback.html

#OceansAreLife #MarineLife #DeepSeaMining #NoDeepSeaMining
#DarkOxygen #LifeOnEarth #Extinction #Nodules #Greenwashing #CorporateColonialism #CorporatePolluters

In a global first, scientists working in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the North Pacific Ocean have found that metallic nodules on the seafloor produce their own oxygen, dubbed "dark oxygen."

Potato-size metallic nodules strewn across the Pacific Ocean seafloor produce oxygen in complete darkness and without any help from living organisms, new research reveals.

https://www.space.com/deep-sea-dark-oxygen-from-metal-lumps-evidence-for-origins-of-life

#science
#oceans
#DarkOxygen
#PolymetallicNodules

“To power the green economy we need to extract metals... So what we have discovered means that we’re going to have to carefully think about if deep ocean mining goes ahead, where that mining should take place." #darkoxygen #mining #oceans https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/08/06/news/revolutionary-scientific-discovery-upends-deep-sea-mining-negotiations

@verge
Als je ook dat #ecosysteem opgraaft en vernield, denk je dat er dan nog #darkoxygen wordt gemaakt daar ?
Nou, wat denk je ?
#ecocide
Allover

Finallly got around to reading the #DarkOxygen paper - it's exciting!
There are still gaps (like potential rejuvenation), and I understand the criticism.
Nevertheless, it is an interesting finding. Lots of ideas are opening here, and they could help explain the post #DeepSeaMining recovery failure.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01480-8

#Science video of the day:

#GeoGirl über die Entdeckung von "dunklem" Sauerstoff und die Implikationen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDv09qM_YlE

#geology #DarkOxygen

Bye bye, deep sea mining? #DarkOxygen Oder jetzt erst recht?

@evelynefoerster

As it turns out, the primary work is #OpenAccess !

#DarkOxygen

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01480-8

The researchers, whose study was published in the journal #Nature #Geoscience, found that through a newly discovered process, masses made of #minerals such as #manganese & #iron …can produce #oxygen even in complete darkness. Organisms normally need light to produce oxygen through #photosynthesis, but researchers believe electrochemical activity produced by these masses —called polymetallic nodules— can extract oxygen from #water.

#DarkOxygen #ocean #OriginsOfLife #Earth #Science

Cool

Scientists find ‘#DarkOxygen’ being produced from #metals on the #seafloor

Organisms normally need light to produce #oxygen through #photosynthesis.

Scientists have found evidence that metals naturally occurring on the #ocean floor may be able to produce oxygen — a potential “game changer” they say could change our understanding of the #OriginsOfLife on #Earth.

#Science
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024/07/23/dark-oxygen-deep-ocean-mining/