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Is deep-sea mining the Pacific Ocean a green energy dilemma?

An aerial picture shows the Diamonds Sea Mining vessel MAFUTA from Debmarine, a joint venture between Diamonds Mining Giant De Beers and the Namibian Government on June 25, 2017 in waters outside Oranjemund.
An aerial picture shows the Diamonds Sea Mining vessel MAFUTA from Debmarine, a joint venture between Diamonds Mining Giant De Beers and the Namibian government, in waters outside Oranjemund on June 25, 2017 [Gianluigi Guerics/AFP]
Published On 2 Aug 2023

Resource companies and island nations are scouring the Pacific Ocean for untapped minerals. Trillions of rocks on the seabed contain metals that could power electric cars and green energy making us less reliant on fossil fuels. The Cook Islands believes deep-sea mining could contribute to the fight against climate change and end the country’s economic dependence on tourism. But environmentalists say extracting minerals beneath the ocean’s surface could be catastrophic for fragile marine ecosystems the scientific world knows little about.

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Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Khaled Soltan and our host Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera AlDosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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Source: Al Jazeera