11

Should we mine on the ocean floor?

Posted by $ nickursis 8 years, 9 months ago to Technology
33 comments | Share | Flag

Interesting notion, I am all for mining, especially if they find rare earths, but I would say they need to understand the impact of it on the ocean itself, it wouldn't do to give the environmentalists something else to try to restrict due to not doing the homework first.

All Comments

Previous comments...   You are currently on page 2.
  • Posted by Dobrien 8 years, 9 months ago
    Bearing Sea in Nome Alaska is mined mostly using divers and dredges sucking up the yellow gold. Sections are leased or claims are staked.
    Tough and dangerous work.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by voodoo59 8 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I love that! When I was a hardrock miner, our sticker said:

    EARTH FIRST
    We can mine the other planets later

    Awesome no matter how you phrase it!
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ nickursis 8 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    One would think that this will lead to nations stretching their borders out until they run ito another nations declared borders, and then the wars start, especially if there is big money at stake. Look at China and the East China Sea. You want it? Build an island and claim it!
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 8 years, 9 months ago
    What is missing is property rights. Mine the ocean floor or the stratrosphere, what matters most is being able to own it. That was the brilliant insight of Hernando de Soto the economist who wrote Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else.

    Bright ideas that benefit a home, farm, or village burn out for lack of capital to fuel them because the poor have no property rights. That is why they are poor. The consequences are manifold (another mathematical concept). The government's own electrical power utility cannot borrow capital to maintain or expand because the poor steal electricity. It is not the mere tapping of current, but the fact that the users have no legal addresses. Here in America your home will be a good asset for your power company for the next 30 years no matter who lives there because your home address has legal reality. You have a right to the property; when you buy power, you lease that value.

    There's a lot of oil under Michigan. When we lived there the last time, I saw a bumper sticker:
    EARTH FIRST
    We can drill the other planets later.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 9 months ago
    Me dino thinks that is a great idea. Lib econazis will hate it.
    How much sea floor can we actually mine? Think of all the mines on dry ground. I have a stepson who is a coal miner, but I've never seen where he works.
    Mines are spaced tiny little dots on a map of any continent. The ocean floor will not disappear should there be mining there.
    Reply | Permalink  

  • Comment hidden. Undo