Norway is likely to become the first country in the world to move forward with the controversial practice of commercial-scale deep-sea mining.
The plan, up before a parliamentary vote on Tuesday, will accelerate the hunt for precious metals which are in high demand for green technologies.
Environmental scientists have warned it could be devastating for marine life.
If any country is going to trailblaze here I’m glad it’s Norway.
Why? We have horrendously low transparency on industry lobbyism.
Because Norway has a better than average track record of giving a shit about the environment… And the country is wealthy enough that this won’t be such a large portion of their income that they’ll be dependent on it like a resource state.
Like this isn’t a great direction for us as a world to move in, but this is one of the best countries to establish early industry standards.
A Norwegian mining company partly owned by the government is responsible for purposely releasing toxic waste in the Amazon, even using clandestine pipelines.
Giant mining companies don’t want what’s best for you.