One thing that ocean mining makes me think about is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
In the movie, a mysterious alien probe comes to Earth and starts causing major environmental damage.
The crew eventually figures out that the probe is trying to communicate with humpback whales.
T The problem is that, in the future, humans have driven humpback whales to extinction.
With no whales left to answer, Earth is in serious trouble.
Captain Kirk and the crew end up traveling back in time to 1986 to bring two whales into the future and save the planet.
What I like about the movie is that its environmental message is pretty simple.
Humans assumed whales weren’t that important and wiped them out.
It turns out they were far more important than anyone realized.
The story is basically a reminder that we don’t always understand the full role a species plays in the bigger picture.
That’s what concerns me about ocean mining.
The deep ocean is one of the least explored places on Earth.
Scientists are still discovering new species and trying to understand how these ecosystems work.
Yet there is growing interest in mining/harvesting the....
