Janet Domenitz
Executive Director, MASSPIRG Education Fund
Dangerous and unnecessary: New report finds we shouldn’t mine the deep sea
Media Contacts
Boston, MA — According to a new report released Tuesday, we do not need destructive deep-sea mining operations to meet our critical mineral needs as Massachusetts and the world move toward clean, renewable energy. In fact, the world trashes more of two such minerals, copper and cobalt, in our electronic waste – from digital devices like cell phones – than miners would likely extract each year from the central Pacific through at least 2035, underscoring the importance of Right to Repair and other initiatives that reduce unnecessary electronics production.
The report, We don’t need deep-sea mining, released by Environment Massachusetts Research and Policy Center, MASSPIRG Education Fund, and Frontier Group just weeks ahead of a key international summit on the topic, outlines how mining operations could destroy vulnerable ecosystems off our coasts. It also details how taking common sense steps such as reducing the electronic waste we generate can help meet our mineral demands.
“Mining the deep sea will destroy one of the most mysterious and remote wildernesses on the planet, just to extract the very same metals we throw in the trash every day,” said Janet Domenitz, Director of MASSPIRG Education Fund. “Digital devices we are tossing—like tablets and cellphones–could last much longer and save these resources, if only we had the right to repair them,” she added.
“Deep sea mining would devastate ancient, slow-growing and remote ecosystems that are home to deep-sea coral, anemones, sponges and more,” said Kelsey Lamp, one of the report’s authors and the director of oceans campaigns for Environment Massachusetts Research & Policy Center. “Seabed mining would strip these habitats of life, introducing noise, light and pollution to places that are not equipped to handle it. We don’t know if these places will ever recover from mining damage – and that loss could have consequences for marine ecosystems beyond the seafloor.”
The report finds that deep-sea mining could irreparably alter hundreds or thousands of square miles of seafloor, and create plumes of sediment and mining waste that could spread even further. Yet, mining proponents are using the threat of potential shortages of critical minerals – such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earth elements – as justification to carry out mining in one of the world’s last great wildernesses.
The report cites research indicating that deep-sea mining is not needed to meet the critical mineral needs of the energy transition. The authors outline how we can build a circular economy for critical minerals around the “5 Rs” – the traditional 3 Rs of “reduce, reuse and recycle,” coupled with reimagining products for greater efficiency and durability and repairing products to extend their lifetimes. Strategies like these could, according to research cited in the report, fully close global supply gaps for nickel and copper by 2030 and dramatically narrow gaps for cobalt, lithium and the rare earth element neodymium.
“We all know that repair is common sense — it cuts down waste and saves consumers money,” said state Rep. Adrian Madaro, chief sponsor of the MA Right to Repair bill. “We should not be doing lasting damage to the earth just to make more short-lived devices. Right to Repair can help us chart a smarter path ahead.”
This report comes as diplomats from around the world prepare to travel to Jamaica in July, where the International Seabed Authority could debate, for the first time, a proposal to put a moratorium on mining – or see a loophole pave the way for the first commercial exploitation of the deep sea for minerals ever undertaken.