DEEP SEA MINING PETITION: (ISA): Protect Our Oceans

DEEP SEA MINING PETITION: (ISA): Protect Our Oceans

Postby Oscar » Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:24 am

SIGN PETITION: International Seabed Authority (ISA): Protect our oceans

[ https://secure.avaaz.org/en/deep_sea_mi ... 1/?tQSgrdb ]

To ISA Secretary General Nii Allotey Odunton, members of the ISA Assembly, Council and Committees, and relevant ministers:

As citizens concerned about the health of our oceans, we call on you to agree to a moratorium on seabed mining unless and until independent scientists agree it is safe, and the ISA dramatically increases transparency and access for all meetings and reports. To date the ISA has been biased towards facilitating seabed mining. As the global steward of the world’s ocean heritage, it must instead prioritise conservation and the rights of coastal communities.


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For years they’ve poisoned rivers, devastated forests and displaced communities, and now massive companies are rushing to dig up the seabed for precious metals.

The people who can stop this plunder of our planet’s most fragile places, are meeting now!! The International Seabed Authority normally attracts as little attention as an underwater mine miles offshore, but our community can change that.

A few countries have agreed full or partial bans, and leading scientists just appealed for a freeze on deep sea mining contracts. Let’s amplify their message with a million-strong call, take out newspaper ads to hand deliver to each delegate, then publish their names and their responses.

Add your voice and share this widely.

[ https://secure.avaaz.org/en/deep_sea_mi ... 1/?tQSgrdb ]

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RELATED:

Deep sea mining: the new resource frontier? (Al-Arabiya)

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/n ... tier-.html

Deep sea mining hopes hit by New Zealand decision (Financial Times)
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6edaeea8 ... z3VFC8Wm1y

New Interest in Seafloor Mining Revives Calls for Conservation (National Geographic)
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/20 ... servation/

Deep sea mining: the new frontier in the struggle for resources? (World Economic Forum)
https://agenda.weforum.org/2014/11/deep ... resources/

Shedding some light on the International Seabed Authority (University of Southampton)
http://moocs.southampton.ac.uk/oceans/2 ... authority/

Marine mining: Underwater gold rush sparks fears of ocean catastrophe (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... ean-threat

Scientists call for temporary halt on new deep sea mining projects (Popular Science)
http://www.popsci.com/some-scientists-u ... ter-mining
Oscar
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Re: DEEP SEA MINING PETITION: (ISA): Protect Our Oceans

Postby Oscar » Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:45 am

Landmark Lawsuit Challenges U.S. Approval of Deep-sea Mineral Mining

[ http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/camp ... index.html ]

For Immediate Release, May 13, 2015

Contact: Emily Jeffers, (408) 348-6958 or, ejeffers@biologicaldiversity.org

New Ocean Gold Rush Could Hurt Marine Life Before Impacts Are Known

SAN FRANCISCO— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. government today over its first-ever approval for large-scale deep-sea mining, a destructive project between Hawaii and Mexico that would damage important habitat for whales, sharks and sea turtles and wipe out seafloor ecosystems.

The lawsuit targets the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for issuing and renewing exploratory permits for the work before completing environmental impact studies required by federal law. This is the first major legal challenge to an emerging global industry that is seeking to extract gold, nickel, copper and other increasingly valuable metals and minerals from the seabed beneath international waters.

“Like mountaintop-removal coal mining, deep-sea mining involves massive cutting machines that will leave behind a barren landscape devoid of life,” said Emily Jeffers, the Center attorney who filed the case in federal district court in Washington DC. “Deep-sea mining should be stopped, and this lawsuit aims to compel the government to look at the environmental risks before it leaps into this new frontier. We need to protect the ocean wildlife and habitat, and the United States should provide leadership for other nations to follow before more projects get underway.”

The lawsuit challenges a pair of exploratory permits that were issued to OMCO Seabed Exploration LLC, a subsidiary of defense contractor Lockheed Martin, to pursue mining work in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and Mexico. NOAA issued the first licenses in 1980, but they expired in 2004, and this case challenges their renewal in 2012, which was based on a request from the company.

The deep ocean is believed to contain billions of dollars worth of nickel, copper, cobalt, manganese, zinc, gold and other rare-earth metals and minerals. Extracting those materials has been considered too expensive, difficult and risky for investors, but technological advances and skyrocketing prices for these materials, much of which are used in consumer electronics, have triggered a strong push by the mining industry.

There are now 26 mining permits that have been issued to explore mining, including an active commercial mining operation that has been permitted by Papua New Guinea, the Solwara I project. Most of the permits have been issued through the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone which is rich in valuable polymetallic nodules, but the United States asserts claims in the area independent of the multi-nation ISA.

“The rush to strip-mine the deep-ocean floor threatens to damage mysterious underwater ecosystems. If we aren’t careful, this new gold rush could do irreparable harm to the basic building blocks of life,” said Jeffers. “The federal government has a moral duty, as well as a legal one, to understand the full environmental impacts before the mining industry scrapes away our deep-sea resources.”

For more information and to download a copy of the lawsuit, please visit the Center’s Deep-sea Mining webpage and list of FAQs at
[ www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/d ... index.html ].

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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 825,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
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Re: DEEP SEA MINING PETITION: (ISA): Protect Our Oceans

Postby Oscar » Thu Aug 11, 2016 8:22 am

Greed vs sanity - Canadian company planning deep sea mine

[ https://secure.avaaz.org/en/png_nautilu ... de3e534d48 ]

Shocker -- the first-ever deep ocean mine is licensed to go ahead. It's a horrific new threat to our already dying oceans. But it's struggling to raise money and worldwide condemnation could end the project and kill the whole insane idea of deep sea mining. Sign the petition!

SIGN NOW

[ https://secure.avaaz.org/en/png_nautilu ... de3e534d48 ]

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A Canadian mining company has a license for an insane idea that could become a planetary disaster: the world's first deep sea mine.

We all know how toxic mines can devastate land-based ecosystems -- imagine corporations unleashed to dig up the ocean floor for minerals, far from any scrutiny. It's the last thing our dying oceans need!

The good news is the company is having trouble raising funds. Let's drop an ocean of condemnation on this project, scare any further investors away, and make sure this horrific new threat to our environment dies quickly. Click to sign the petition, which will be publicised and sent to every potential investor:

Click to sign the petition to save our oceans
[ https://secure.avaaz.org/en/png_nautilu ... de3e534d48 ]

Of course, the site chosen for the mine is right next to one of the world's ocean treasures, a rich ecosystem off the coast of Papua New Guinea that has everything from teeming coral reefs to sperm whales. It's a sign of what's to come if we don't stop this monstrous emerging industry.

The mining company has never operated at this scale, and is already in financial trouble. The project is risky. If we make it even more hazardous by showing the significant economic uncertainties, we might actually stop the mine, and make sure the industry gets a cautionary tale about messing with our oceans!

Across the planet, we're in a battle to maintain a sane balance between humans and the natural world, a balance that is necessary for sustainable development, and that scientists tell us is necessary for our own survival, as well as countless other species. It's greed vs sanity -- let's make sure the right one wins:

Click to sign the petition to save our oceans
[ https://secure.avaaz.org/en/png_nautilu ... de3e534d48 ]

Scientists who study ecosystems talk about how remarkably interdependent they are. We humans are enormously dependent for our survival on small creatures like plankton, or larger ones like sea urchins. We often think of humans as a virus, predatory on our ecosystem. But Avaaz is a movement for people who seek to be protectors and stewards of our natural world, to eventually live in harmony with it.

From that perspective, this campaign is part of our role in our ecosystem, as guardians protecting and serving the wondrous planet that is our home. We on the Avaaz team are so grateful to play this role with all of us in this magical movement.

With hope,

Ricken, Nell, Christoph, Lisa, Luis, Risalat and the rest of the Avaaz team

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MORE INFORMATION:

Deep Sea Mining: An Invisible Land Grab (National Geographic)
[ http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/20 ... land-grab/ ]

Nautilus Minerals continues to consider alternative financing (Reuters)
[ http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSASC08VK8 ]

The Ocean Could Be the New Gold Rush (National Geographic)
[ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016 ... ive-facts/ ]

Tiny sea creatures are saving us from hell on earth. So why are we endangering them? (Grist)
[ http://grist.org/science/tiny-sea-creat ... ring-them/ ]
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