In a controversial move, Norway has become the first country to allow extracting valuable minerals from the sea bed, which experts state that will irreversibly damage biodiversity and ecosystems.
Norway’s parliament recently voted 80–20 in favour of allowing exploratory mining on the continental shelf in the Norwegian Sea. The aim of this move is to investigate whether sulfides and manganese crusts in the sea bed in Norway’s jurisdiction could be extracted for profit.
Since 2020, the Norwegian government has been pursuing its mining plan with the intention of extracting necessary metals, which can be used in the manufacturing of electric-vehicle batteries and other electronics.
However, many experts and scientists have claimed that these intensions are misleading.
Matthew Gianni, co-founder of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, comments “This is about greed, not need, and will come at a significant cost to our environment for present and future generations.”