THE BLUE ACCELERATION

Humanity’s expansionist drive is increasingly taking us into the deep ocean. How can we balance that with vital environmental protections, asks Graham Lawton

IN THE 1970s, the tiny Pacific island state of Nauru was briefly one of the richest countries in the world. Its per-capita income was on a par with Saudi Arabia, only this wealth was built not on oil, but on faeces. For millennia, passing seabirds deposited their droppings on the island, creating a thick crust of phosphate-rich guano, ripe to be made into fertiliser. It didn’t last: the guano was all scraped away around 20 years ago. Now Nauru, no longer filthy rich, is the prime mover in another, controversial push to exploit resources. As of last year, the country is fronting an effort to kick-start deep-sea mining in the Pacific, perhaps as early as 2023. It is a microcosm of a much wider story. As pressures on Earth’s land grow and…

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New Scientist (Digital) - 1 Issue, 23-Apr-22

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