Moratorium

Environmental groups, scientists, and even some corporations in the market for battery metals fear the potential destruction of seabed mining. The oceans provide much of the world’s bio-diversity, a significant chunk of humanity’s food, and the planet’s biggest carbon sink. No one knows how such an unprecedented invasion would affect the many life-forms that live in the abyssal depths, the marine life farther up the water column, or the ocean itself. The European Parliament and countries including Germany, Chile, Spain, and several Pacific island nations have joined dozens of organizations in calling for at least a temporary moratorium on deep-sea mining. Several banks have declared they won’t loan to ocean-mining ventures. Corporations including BMW, Microsoft, Google, Volvo, and Volkswagen have pledged not to buy deep-sea metals until the environmental impacts are better understood. Even Aquaman is opposed: Jason Momoa narrated a recently released documentary impugning sea mining.
–Wired