5 ms·

The unseen man-made 'tracks' on the deep ocean floor

24 points by akeck 6y ago

ggm 6y ago
Smallish autonomous craft picking one nodule in 10...
- analognoise 6y ago
  Not economical and absolutely not what will happen. Think more like strip mining for coal.
Animats 6y ago
"Scars that have never fully healed." Oh, please.
- pygy_ 6y ago
  The metaphor seems apt. FTA: > On land, life tends to spring from the ploughed lines of a field, but in the deep sea the trenches are relatively barren. The creatures that relied on the nodules, now removed, cannot re-colonise. And others, which require soft sediment to burrow and find mobilised food, cannot live on the artificially compacted surfaces. The nodules were harvested 30+ years ago on a small scale and local life still hasn't recovered. Given the time scale required for them to build up (millions of years) they are effectively non-renewable. There's a tipping point at which the global ecosystem will be too screwed up to bounce back to a point where it can sustain us. We won't know where that point is until we're past it. I'd rather avoid going that far.
  - RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
    For better or worse, we have already outstripped the ability of the earth to sustain us without massive tech input. If we had to farm like we did a few hundred years ago, civilization would collapse and billions would die. For better or worse, we are committed to either becoming a multi planetary species able to make planets suit us, including Earth, and collapsing into something worse than the Stone Age given we have used up all the easily accessible mineral and fossil fuel deposits. So, I think worrying about stuff that can happen centuries later is a waste of time. A few centuries ago people could not imagine we would be able to instantly communicate across the world, cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than a day, or walk on the moon. The best thing we can do is maximize human potential.
    - pygy_ 6y ago
      Massive tech will not prevent billions from dying. The point where tech is able to sustain itself without human input is in sight now. I still can't see why an automated economy would waste resources on useless meat bags.
throwawaysea 6y ago
This is very concerning given that there is a new wave of companies looking to engage in deep sea mining (example https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/15/ceo-of-deepgreen-metals-talks-mining-nickel-other-rees-from-the-seafloor-cleantechnica-interview/ https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/15/ceo-of-deepgreen-metals...). As with other industries, I expect they will be running ahead faster than regulation and impact studies can keep up.

24 points by akeck 6y ago

ggm 6y ago

Smallish autonomous craft picking one nodule in 10...

analognoise 6y ago
Not economical and absolutely not what will happen. Think more like strip mining for coal.

Animats 6y ago

"Scars that have never fully healed." Oh, please.

pygy_ 6y ago
The metaphor seems apt. FTA: > On land, life tends to spring from the ploughed lines of a field, but in the deep sea the trenches are relatively barren. The creatures that relied on the nodules, now removed, cannot re-colonise. And others, which require soft sediment to burrow and find mobilised food, cannot live on the artificially compacted surfaces. The nodules were harvested 30+ years ago on a small scale and local life still hasn't recovered. Given the time scale required for them to build up (millions of years) they are effectively non-renewable. There's a tipping point at which the global ecosystem will be too screwed up to bounce back to a point where it can sustain us. We won't know where that point is until we're past it. I'd rather avoid going that far.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
  For better or worse, we have already outstripped the ability of the earth to sustain us without massive tech input. If we had to farm like we did a few hundred years ago, civilization would collapse and billions would die. For better or worse, we are committed to either becoming a multi planetary species able to make planets suit us, including Earth, and collapsing into something worse than the Stone Age given we have used up all the easily accessible mineral and fossil fuel deposits. So, I think worrying about stuff that can happen centuries later is a waste of time. A few centuries ago people could not imagine we would be able to instantly communicate across the world, cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than a day, or walk on the moon. The best thing we can do is maximize human potential.
  - pygy_ 6y ago
    Massive tech will not prevent billions from dying. The point where tech is able to sustain itself without human input is in sight now. I still can't see why an automated economy would waste resources on useless meat bags.

throwawaysea 6y ago

This is very concerning given that there is a new wave of companies looking to engage in deep sea mining (example https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/15/ceo-of-deepgreen-metals-talks-mining-nickel-other-rees-from-the-seafloor-cleantechnica-interview/ https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/15/ceo-of-deepgreen-metals...). As with other industries, I expect they will be running ahead faster than regulation and impact studies can keep up.