Carbon Cycle

Will Seabed Mining Increase Climate Change?

Will Seabed Mining Increase Climate Change?

Gerald McCormack, Natural Heritage Trust
First published CI News 26 Sept. 2019, modified 10 Feb. 2021.

South Penrhyn Basin nodules above the sediment

In July 2019, the Greenpeace report “In Deep Water” warned: “By impacting on natural processes that store carbon, deep sea mining could even make climate change worse by releasing carbon stored in deep sea sediments or disrupting the processes which ……. deliver it to those sediments. Deep sea sediments are known to be an important long-term store of ‘blue carbon’, the carbon that is naturally absorbed by marine life, a proportion of which is carried down to the sea floor as those creatures die.”

Continue reading →

Posted by Gerald in Climate Change, Deep Seabed Mining, 0 comments