But then, also: "And what if the (human) environment is damaged / contaminated less by deep undersea extraction vs land-based mines"? and also: "What if an abun

But then, also: "And what if the (human) environment is damaged / contaminated less by deep undersea extraction vs land-based mines"? and also: "What if an abundance of these materials enables vastly cheaper energy storage batteries, making solar / wind energy overnight storage practical, reducing our reliance on cheap fossil fuel energy generation"? To be clear, I'm not sure if either of those hypotheticals are true, but I have a feeling, as with many things in life is "It's complicated". Being good stewards of our resources with careful management / regulation is the answer, rather than unfettered exploitation or outright bans.