Norway just decided to split open the deep sea for profit, becoming the first country to dare do so.
Well – they’re doing it for metals. Y’know, the lynch pins for modern society; nickel, cobalt, copper, all that good shit. All those sweet rarities that make your car go electric and your TikToks run smooth. The very same precious blocks of rock that have perpetuated slavery and colonialism in Africa, and that will purportedly raise humanity out of the dead-end technological spiral of fossil fuel dependency.
The decision isn’t… popular. Environmentalists raised their banners, protested outside the Norwegian parliament with some 500’000 voices shouting into their sails. With the WWF and scientists crying havoc because there is literally no telling what damage deep sea mining might cause. We just do not know, because 1500-6000 meter deep sea research (the depths of these supposed riches) is prohibitively expensive. That is, prohibitively expensive unless you have the mining moguls backing your dive.
Aside from the fact that humanity has an absolutely rotten track record of the impact of our industrial meddling in habitats which we don’t understand (our own included), there’s another red flag vis-a-vis Norway’s decision. And that’s the fact that it’s Norway making it.
See here – Norway likes to paint itself as an natural paradise. Deep fjords, vast tracts of uninhabited land, and a population that takes pride in always looking like they just stepped inside from a five mile hike morning constitutional… but the fact is that Norway is one of the worst exporters and producers of environmental disasters, if not in the world than at least in Europe.
Norway’s rich. Very rich. It is, for example, one of the first nations to be converting its vehicle fleet into electrics. But all of Norway’s many splendours are based on its export of oil and natural gas. A little fact which Norway would rather turn a blind eye to. What matters the export of poison to the rest of the world if it can make its own citizens free from it?
And you know what happened when Norway slowly started trying to step away from its oil reliance? They turned to fish. And not just any fish, but fish farms. Who hasn’t heard the gospel of Norwegian salmon, eh? But they couldn’t even manage to do that right, and turned salmon farms into one of the worst environmental disasters that their rivers and fjords have ever seen, with disease, chemical waste, and inbreeding to the point of killing off the wild stock. All of which Norway’s government not only wants to turn a blind eye to, but actively tries to silence.
The Norwegian government is one of the greatest environmental villains in Europe. And they’re the ones who’re saying that any permit for deep sea mining will need to be validated by judicious research into its environmental impact.
Lying scum pinky swears that they’re not going to mismanage an(other) environmental blind spot for the purpose of progress. Oh, and of money! They promise not to be bad for the sake of making more money.
If we’re to split the unknown depths of the ocean apart for its hidden riches, maybe we aught to let someone with a liiiittle better track record do it, non?
/Sebastian Lindberg 16/1-2024
WastedWords 