Concerned about the potential effects of deep-sea mining on ocean biodiversity, the Pacific islands of Palau and Fiji on Monday launched an “alliance” to call for a moratorium of the nascent industry.
The backing of a moratorium comes amid a wave of global interest in deep-sea mining, but also growing pressure from some environmental groups and governments to either ban it or ensure it only goes ahead if appropriate regulations are in place.
Deep-sea mining uses heavy machinery to suck up off the ocean floor potato-sized rocks or nodules that contain cobalt, manganese and other metals mostly used in batteries.
Photo: Reuters
Speaking to a packed room at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr asked: “How can we in our right minds say: ‘Let’s go mining’ without knowing what the risks are?”
“We believe it is not worth the risk,” Whipps said. “We ask all of you to support that ... deep-sea mining increases the vulnerability of the seabed floor and marine life.”
The UN’s International Seabed Authority (ISA) is drawing up regulations governing seabed mining in the high seas — areas outside any national jurisdiction. Until global rules are in place, seabed mining is not allowed.
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, which also supports a moratorium, said that the ISA would meet next month and in August to try to push through draft regulations that, if adopted, would see mining licensed to begin in the deep ocean as soon as July next year.
Earlier this month, Chile also called for a 15-year moratorium on adopting regulations, citing environmental concerns and a lack of sufficient scientific data.
Members of the G7 last month agreed stringent environmental controls should govern deep-sea mining and that they would consent to such mining projects only if they did not seriously harm the marine environment.
Not all nations are against it. China is a major proponent and even smaller nations such as Nauru, for instance, last year asked the ISA to fast-track the adoption of seabed mining regulations.
Companies such as Google, BMW and Samsung were the first globally to sign up to a WWF call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining.
“The costs outweigh the short-term benefits,” oceanographer Sylvia Earle said. “We need to hit the stop button.”
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RSS