The Statue of Liberty is just sitting there too - it would be far more valuable recycling all that copper and putting it to use. Could there perhaps be another reason we haven't melted it down yet?
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
It's remarkable how people forget how we all got here.
> same math could probably be done for sustainable stewardship of our oceans, just with more steps
Could it? We can measure the cash flow the Statue of Liberty produces relative to its commodity value. A pristine deep sea certainly has value. But it's difficult to argue that every square inch of it is more valuable than the commodities on and below it. Particularly when you start trading off extraction there against terrestrial mining.
But if you rephrase it as "Are those resources more valuable just sitting at the bottom of a deep sea instead of mixing them into our bodies and environment?" my reaction is now: Yes
But then, also: "And what if the (human) environment is damaged / contaminated less by deep undersea extraction vs land-based mines"?
and also:
"What if an abundance of these materials enables vastly cheaper energy storage batteries, making solar / wind energy overnight storage practical, reducing our reliance on cheap fossil fuel energy generation"?
To be clear, I'm not sure if either of those hypotheticals are true, but I have a feeling, as with many things in life is "It's complicated".
Being good stewards of our resources with careful management / regulation is the answer, rather than unfettered exploitation or outright bans.
Those bottom are brittle ecosystem that thrive in silence and total darkness.
It would be nice to document and observe first, rather than barging in to get the riches as fast as possible once again.
( riche in that point being « nodules » it’s a fun resource ! )
