Kite & Key Media: Mining the Ocean for Green Energy?

New video from Kite & Key Media about the economic potential of the ocean floor and green energy:

The next frontier in energy: the deep ocean, where there are enormous deposits of the minerals needed for clean energy technologies.

Is this a game-changing breakthrough or an environmental disaster in waiting? Our new video weighs the arguments.

A 2019 World Bank report estimates that technologies like batteries, wind, solar, and geothermal power will require a 500% increase in the production of several types of minerals by 2050.

Unfortunately, China dominates existing supply chains and environmental concerns make people reluctant to open new mining operations on land.

That has led some experts to the bottom of the sea. Of the 50 minerals the U.S. government considers “critical,” 37 have been found within America’s continental shelf. And in the open ocean, there are deposits that dwarf the available supplies on land.

Our incomplete knowledge of the deep ocean, however, means there are huge questions.

How would mining affect deep-sea wildlife? Could mining the ocean actually make climate change worse? At present, there’s no consensus on whether deep-sea mining would be better or worse for the environment than the status quo.

Which leaves us with a dilemma: Charging ahead increases the environmental risks … but too much caution could imperil national security — and our dreams of a green economy.