This recent development in the extractivist machine should not be underestimated, nor if we can help it be allowed to manifest as the fait accompli that its perpetrators are angling for. The fact that even a news outlet as incisive as The Guardian entertained the official framing of ocean mining as a “lesser evil” than climate catastrophe is baffling and heartbreaking. For sure, it is an indicator of how far down the slippery slope of muddled reasoning society is sliding. Given the international political track record to date, and how far along climate breakdown we already are, can anyone believe that deep-sea mining is going to save the world from climate change, or, for that matter, even contribute a little to saving the world from climate change?
Eileen Crist penned a sharp critique of deep sea mining in Earth Tongues, entitled “Cloak and desecrate: The specter of deep-sea mining.”
