The Wealth from Oceans Flagship at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) released a new report on seafloor mining Friday. The story follows on the heels of controversy about the environmental impacts of seafloor mining. Australia’s EEZ is rich in submerged minerals.
According to the project leader, CSIRO’s Dr Joanna Parr, the message from industry, the scientific community, governments and the social sector is clear: “This is an exciting and challenging field. All parties realise that much work would be needed to build a socially, environmentally and economically acceptable foundation on which to develop seafloor exploration and mining operations in Australia.”
The Marine Campaign Coordinator of … Australian Conservation Foundation, Chris Smyth, says knowledge and capacity building, community engagement, institutional and legislative reform are essential if Australia is to adequately protect its oceans and ensure their ecologically sustainable use. “If our governments fail to deliver on these, then the future of Australia’s oceans is grim”.
A copy of the report called “Exploring the social dimensions of Australia’s seafloor exploration and mining industry” is available at CSIRO website here.
Thanks for the link to the CSIRO report, I hadnt seen that yet.
That sounds like a standard quote from the ACF whenever someone asks them about marine conservation.
Basically the issue as I see it is that the Australian Govt is determined to mine every last mineral within Australia’s borders. That already includes a ridiculously intensive oil industry based off the coast of the Kimberley in Western Australia (see my blog post here) and now seems to include mining the seafloor. I have another post about that here (please excuse the blatant blog promotion).
Australian environmental legislation is completely misconfigured to protect marine ecosystems and little political will exists to change that legislation at the moment. Industry voices are heard much more clearly by politicians that the voices of concerned constituents.
ACF, WWF and other conservation groups need to urgently increase the volume of the debate about whether this is a good thing or not. They currently seem to be more concerned about fund raising and not squandering political capital by getting too involved with contentious issues.
Thanks for the link to the CSIRO report, I hadnt seen that yet.
That sounds like a standard quote from the ACF whenever someone asks them about marine conservation.
Basically the issue as I see it is that the Australian Govt is determined to mine every last mineral within Australia’s borders. That already includes a ridiculously intensive oil industry based off the coast of the Kimberley in Western Australia (see my blog post here) and now seems to include mining the seafloor. I have another post about that here (please excuse the blatant blog promotion).
Australian environmental legislation is completely misconfigured to protect marine ecosystems and little political will exists to change that legislation at the moment. Industry voices are heard much more clearly by politicians that the voices of concerned constituents.
ACF, WWF and other conservation groups need to urgently increase the volume of the debate about whether this is a good thing or not. They currently seem to be more concerned about fund raising and not squandering political capital by getting too involved with contentious issues.
“The Oceans are Dying”
http://edro.wordpress.com/our-oceans/
Glad to see you’re on top of ocean mining bc as you fellas know, it sure makes me nervous…