The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Mineral exploitation has spread from land to shallow coastal waters and is now planned for the offshore, deep seabed. Large seafloor areas are being approved for exploration for seafloor mineral deposits, creating an urgent need for regional environmental management plans. Networks of areas where mining and mining impacts are prohibited …
The sea below 200 meters depth accounts for 95% of the volume of the ocean, making it the largest habitat for life on Earth. Though it is perpetually cold, generally dark, and subject to extreme pressures, the deep sea contains a wealth of unique and unusual species, habitats and ecosystems. …
Despite a funds crunch and legal challenges mounted by coastal communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the world’s first deep-sea mining industry will go ahead, assures a spokesperson for Nautilus Minerals, the project developer. Noreen Dillane, the corporate communications manager at the Canada-registered Nautilus, tells SciDev.Net that the company views …
Climate change will hit the Pacific harder than anywhere else on Earth and the region's tiny island nations need major international aid to deal with the challenge, the World Bank said. A World Bank report, "Pacific Possible", draws on research from numerous sources to back the long-held view of regional …
A new World Bank report recommends that Pacific Island countries supporting or considering deep sea mining activities proceed with a high degree of caution to avoid irreversible damage to the ecosystem, and ensure that appropriate social and environmental safeguards are in place as part of strong governance arrangements for this …
The deep ocean was once assumed to be lifeless and barren. Today we know that even the deepest waters teem with living creatures, some of them thought to be little changed from when life itself first appeared on the planet. The deep ocean is also essential to the earth’s biosphere—it …
The seemingly new wave of eco sensitivity sweeping New Zealand’s policy making has disappointed the mining industry. The recent ones being companies who had big plans for sea bed minings. New Zealand recently rejected a couple of applications for deep sea mining ventures. The companies applied for licence to explore …
A team of scientists, in a groundbreaking analysis of data from hundreds of sources, has concluded that humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and the animals living in them. “We may be sitting on a precipice of a major extinction event,” said Douglas J. …
NEW DELHI, 24 SEPT: Just a week after filing cases in the coal block allocation scam, the CBI has begun probing alleged irregularities in the country's first-ever attempt to explore untapped mineral wealth worth thousands of crores lying in the deep sea bed, sensing another mega scam. CBI sources said …
India has joined the race to explore and develop deep-sea mining for rare earth elements — further complicating the geopolitics surrounding untapped sources of valuable minerals beneath the oceans. The country is building a rare-earth mineral processing plant in the east coast state of Orissa and it is spending around …
Government approves world's first commercial deep-sea mining project despite vehement objections over threat to marine life A "new frontier" in mining is set to be opened up by the underwater extraction of resources from the seabed off the coast of Papua New Guinea, despite vehement objections from environmentalists and local …
South Korea on Monday announced that it has secured exclusive rights to explore and develop a deep sea mine in the resource-rich Indian Ocean that can produce over USD 300 million worth of minerals like gold, silver and coppers per year. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) last week unanimously agreed …
To counter the growing influence of China over the Indian Ocean region, the government has decided to perk its deep sea mining plans, with a fresh impetus on securing strategic ground. This would also help the country in exploration of rare earth materials from the deep sea and catapult it …
India has announced plans for deep-sea mining to meet its future requirements of rare earth minerals such as titanium, platinum, manganese, copper, cobalt and nickel. These minerals are required for a variety of electronic goods such as lithium car batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, flat screen television, compact fluorescent light …
The objective of ‘Green Economy in a Blue World’ is to analyse the challenges and opportunities of a potential transition towards a green economy in key sectors heavily linked to the marine and coastal environment – the blue world. The report will also analyse the necessary policy and institutional adjustments …
An underwater bonanza of rare earth deposits discovered by Japanese scientists poses little threat to miners already developing major rare earth projects on solid ground. Companies such as Molycorp, Lynas and Avalon Rare Metals may rest assured that developing the offshore bounty could take decades and cost billions, making it …
World demand for rare-earth elements and the metal yttrium—which are crucial for novel electronic equipment and green-energy technologies—is increasing rapidly. Several types of seafloor sediment harbour high concentrations of these elements. However, seafloor sediments have not been regarded as a rare-earth element and yttrium resource, because data on the spatial …
As mining companies prepare to exploit the copper and gold in the seabed, the author explore the fate of the unique ecosystems around tectonic boundaries. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128193.700-deep-sea-gold-rush-mining-hydrothermal-vents.html
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Let's see if we can mine the ores around hydrothermal vents without destroying the marine habitat in the process. (Editorial) http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128192.600-new-dawn-for-mining-at-the-seabed.html
