By: Sharon Begley
Newsweek, Inc
September 20, 2010
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/20/is-deep-sea-mining-bad-for-the-environment.html
Summary:
Chinese companies and government-supported funds have recently shown that they are very serious about acquiring the resources needed to help their country's industrial growth. According to this article, China wants to be the first to exploit a source of minerals that has "tempted and frustrated dreamers for almost 150 years: the floor of the deep sea." Recently the Chinese government submitted plans to explore the sea floor where hydrothermal vents have created deposits of gold, silver, copper, nickel, cobalt, and tellurium. This exploration could definitely damage our environment. Mining on the seafloor could potentially kill a lot of organisms that thrive on these minerals. There are so many new species founded at the vents. It would be a major loss to society if we destroyed these organisms without even discovering it. Although the vents can withstand disasters we need to be careful at what we are doing there. By mining only inactive vents where the geysers stopped and the ecosystem has died, we can spare the vent creatures. China has not revealed whether or not they will take any vent-protecting steps yet. As of right now China is not in the mining stage, they are in a researching period.
Opinion:
After reading this article I knew right away what I disagreed with. The Chinese are being very selfish with the exploration of the ocean floor. We cannot survive much more damage to our environment. Yes, there are many valuable items in those vents but think about all of the disastrous things that could happen. Some of the enzymes at the vents could prove effective against cancer or other diseases! I think that China should mine only inactive vents. This way we would be sure that we aren't killing these vent creatures that are very important to our society.
Questions:
1) Do you think the Chinese should explore the ocean floor? Why or why not?
2) Do you think the United States would explore the sea floor despite the environmental damages that could take place?
3) Would mining inactive vents be productive enough to help China's industrial growth?
I agree with Melissa on this one. Chinas already done some unspeakable things such as controlling the climate and get ridding of children to keep the population from exploding. If they carry out this plan, some irreversible effects may take place. And its not just one or two countries we're talking about here. Numerous nations can be negatively affected if this project is carried out. Then theres the organsims we have to take care of. The extinciton level gone up by hundreds in the past 100 years, China's project could raise it by thousands.
ReplyDeleteOpinion: I agree with Melissa too on this one. China is being very selfish on this matter. I mean China is already doing so much to the environment with the pollution of the air from their thousands of factories, that they don't need to do another bad thing by killing these organisms on the ocean floor. Killing these organisms before we get to study them could end up being drastic, as one of these organisms could have a cure to cancer in their bloodstream and China has killed them off before we got to study them. Drilling the ocean floor may make China richer in money, but no drilling will make us so much more richer in knowledge, which is one of the most important things right now.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to Question #2: I think that the United States would definitely explore the floor even with the environmental risks. Our country is so absorbed with making money right now, that I don't think our country would really care about the environmental destruction for a while. We would just be looking at the money aspect of this and then when we finally are out of this recession, they will see what kind of apocalyptic destruction they did on the ocean floor.
Opinion:
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Melissa. China should not be working on active vents. There are so many species that we have not even discovered yet and they should not be destroyed. Without even thinking about this issue, there are already so many environmental problems. By doing this, China will just be beginning another issue for selfish reasons. Since species living by the vents could be very beneficial to mankind, I do not think China should move forward with this idea.
Answer to Question 2:
If the United States were presented with the opportunity, I definitely think that they would do it. The United States often makes choices without thinking of the consequences and especially in this economy, I believe that they would take any opportunity they could get to make more money. As the United States has proved in the past, they do not pay attention to how they are destroying the environment until after the fact.
My response was cut short because MPP ended. But anyways, I definitly think China should reconsider their decision on this. Not only will their mission help them, it'll hurt them too. We're talking about the vents close to China. I'm pretty sure that the organisms inhabiting these vents influence China one way or another. And what if the project failed? It would cost China not just in one way, but rather three. First, all that money spent on searching the vents would go to waste. Then, you have to think about the organisms which have been killed during the process. Also, it would look bad on China's history.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question 1:
Definitly not, and it says all the reasons in the responses. Whether this mission is successful or a failure, China would still lose one or more things. It also would destory another ecosystem(in which many more have been destroyed in the past and still are in the process of being demolished).
I agree with melissa. i do not think that they are being selfish but to do believe they should show some concern. There are tons of organims in in the ocean. If they do decide to mine, i hope they are cautious and mine in the dead spots. It would not be neccessary to mine in a spot with a flourishing ecosystem. But still, I do not think that China should go through with this.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question 1: Yes, explorig the ocean floor is ok. When they want to mine the vents, it is not ok. If something goes wrong when you are exploring the ocean floor it will not be catastrophic. If somethng goes wrong with the mineing the vents, there is a good chance something catastrophic will happen!