Interview highlights why mining the deep sea is an unnecessary risk

An interview with Environment North Carolina Advocate Emily Mason explains key points of a new report by Environment North Carolina Research and Policy Center, “We don’t need deep-sea mining”. In the interview, concerns about how destructive deep sea mining is to ecosystems and better alternatives which make deep sea mining unnecessary are highlighted. Reducing the use of and reusing critical minerals instead of mining for them in remote wildernesses such as the deep sea was a key theme.

“We just need to adopt common sense strategies such as the ‘five R’s.’ And those five R’s aren’t just your traditional reduce, reuse, and recycle. It’s also repairing and reimagining products,” said Environment North Carolina Advocate, Emily Mason.

The interview came out before the International Seabed Authority is set to meet in late July, where they will decide whether or not to institute a precautionary moratorium on mining in international waters. This decision could have ripple effects on our coast here in North Carolina and on coastal areas across the United States.

There are better ways to meet our critical mineral needs. Solutions to the problem could be right at your fingertips. Holding on to devices for longer, fixing old electronics when they break, and recycling the minerals in them instead of throwing them away help to make better use of the critical minerals we already have. You can hear more about the issue here.