Former environment minister Lord Zac Goldsmith and Green party MP Caroline Lucas are among at least 22 members of the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and Scottish National parties calling on Rishi Sunak to back a moratorium on mining in international waters.
The UK government sponsors two exploration contracts across 133,539 square kilometres in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico for small lumps that sit on the seafloor and contain nickel, copper and cobalt. It has invested £6mn through the Natural Environment Research Council, according to the Natural History Museum, in a four-year research project involving trips to the area by scientists.
I’m all for protecting biodiversity, but is there actually anything living there?
Paywall btw https://archive.is/gd2Uv
Jon Copley, a professor of ocean exploration at the University of Southampton, and a member of the team of UK scientists studying the possible impacts of deep-sea mining, said he was “less worried” than activists about the carbon and biodiversity impact. Plains where polymetallic nodules are found are “much more sparse” in marine life and in carbon-rich sedimentation than other deep-sea habitats, he said.