Perhaps, Norway fails to remember that a living sea is worth more than the minerals it contains or that the deep-sea has in its store the greatest diversity of plant and animal species on the Earth and is a vital storage area of carbon. Hence, the Scandinavian country has decided to begin deep-sea mining in the Arctic. Although a number of countries, environmentalists and marine scientists have repeatedly requested Oslo not to disturb the climate by destroying important ecosystem processes, Norway does not pay heed to the warning.

In June 2023, the Norwegian Government announced that it would open up a large area in the Arctic for deep-sea mining between Greenland and Norway. The global community immediately opposed the plan, stating that the region was home to vulnerable whales, seabirds, fish and other deep-sea creatures, which are still getting discovered. However, Oslo argued that mining could be done with an “acceptable degree of environmental impact”. The UN Environment Programme, the World Economic Forum, the International Ocean Panel, the Norwegian Environment Agency (Miljødirektoratet) and the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (Havforskningsinstituttet) counter-argued that mining on the seabed would certainly harm the deep-sea environment.

As the international community has been going through a Climate Crisis, the environment activists from different parts of the globe have decided to intensify their movements against Norway. They have made it clear that deep-sea mining is totally unacceptable especially in the Arctic that is widely considered as the air conditioner of the Planet Earth. Activists are of the opinion that as a rich and unique animal life has evolved slowly in the deep-sea over millions of years, it could help scientists find clues to the origin of life on the Earth. Hence, any sort of disturbance there would cause irreversible damage to the ocean and the species that live there. Marine scientists, too, have expressed serious concern over deep-sea mining, stressing that full-scale commercial mining would have a negative impact on the oceans’ capacity to act as carbon sinks.

According to experts, the ocean floor is as important as mountains, rivers and forests on land. Some countries have called to ban the mining activities so that they can get time to monitor the deep-sea properly. Even some private companies are in favour of monitoring the deep-sea. It may be noted that the blue whale is close to extinction and the environment activists have just managed to convince Europe to close its ports to whalers. Furthermore, deep-sea mining shall also negatively affect coastal communities, especially those dependent on fishing. Among the countries that are alarmed by this gesture, led by Palau, Chile and France, recently demanded a moratorium, citing the potential ecological damage of deep-sea mining.

Meanwhile, oceanographers have claimed that bulldozers on the seabed is a bad idea, stating that deep-sea mining would rip up the 40cm thick, rocky crust of the seabed, called manganese crusts. Interestingly, each centimetre of manganese crusts’ thickness is believed to have taken one million years to build up. One should keep in mind that manganese crusts are a vital part of the deep-sea habitat as they suck up to a receiving vessel on the surface through a pipe several thousand metres long. Then, they discharge sewage and rock fragments into the sea, resulting in huge underwater clouds of sediment, which could suffocate different species of plants and animals present there. Apart from that, the noise and light pollution from the machines could also disturb the wildlife in the sea. Oceanographers have explained that water conducts sound quite well, and the sound travels hundreds of kilometres through the water. Hence, noise pollution triggered by the machines could be harmful to marine mammals, like whales and dolphins.

Greenpeace believes that mining deep-sea minerals would be disastrous for nature. The Canada-based independent global campaigning network mentioned in a report published on its website on September 27, 2023 that minerals and metals for the green shift could also be obtained from consumption reduction and better reuse of materials, and not from the deep-sea. Greenpeace slammed Norway for ignoring the European Union’s (EU) call to refrain from mining on the seabed. Neighbouring Sweden and Finland recently assured the European bloc that they would never mining the seabed.

Meanwhile, the EU has thanked large international corporate houses, like Google, BMW Group, Volvo and Samsung, for their decision not to use materials mined from the seafloor in their products. The European Investment Bank (EIB), too, has excluded seabed mining from its portfolio for climate and environmental purposes.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das