Trump wants mine near the Marianas Trench – some of the deepest water in the world
The Trump administration is expanding its deep ambitions for mining ills in the region around the Marianas area in the Western Pacific and almost doubling the proposed area around 33 million hectares to Greece.
The move ignores the collective opposition from indigenous leaders in American Samoa, which put a surprise in the hair mine last year. Governor Pulaali’i Nikolao Pula has asked the Trump administration not to proceed without a field permit, but the federal government plans to move forward with an environmental review. “Our fisheries are important to food security, recreation, and the experience of our Samoan culture,” said Nathan Ilaola, director of the Department of Water and Wildlife, last week in Samoa News. Tuna makes up 99.5 percent of the area’s exports.
In a press release, POST bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or director, director Matt Giacona said that minerals can help us produce and protect ourselves. “These resources are the key to ensure the United States is not allowed to China and other nations with their critical needs,” he said. In April, the Trump administration issued an executive order to speed up live mining despite international opposition and widespread concerns among scientists about low-quality scientists and the impacts of mining.
The announcement is the first time the Trump administration has expressed interest in the waters surrounding the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands, an American territory in the Marianas Archipelago in the western Pacific. The southernmost island in the archipelago is Guam, a separate US territory. It is the latest of at least four areas in the Pacific that the Trump administration wants to open mines from April, including the waters around the Cook Islands and the Clarion-Klippperpton Zone south of Hawai’i.
About 100 square miles of water surrounding the Marianas Archipelago are part of the Marianas Trench National Marine Monument. “These water bodies are among the most diverse in the western Pacific and include the greatest diversity of seamont and hydrothermal vent life,” says a description of the memorial on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website. “It has many secrets of renewal and many important potential lessons that can benefit the whole world.”
Mining will take place west of the monument in an area that covers 35 million hectares with the southern point of Rota and December 12. “The Our Said Boehm. The Commonwealth is home to about 44,000 residents, including the terrestrial Chamorro and the Carolininike people.
The update from the Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week comes days after the University of Hawai’i harmed zooplankton, the tiny marine creatures that make up an important part of the ocean’s food web. Investigators discovered that the piles of pedumes stretching hundreds of kilometers were created by sea mining equipment. The zooplankton were then fed on sediment-digested particles that were found to be 10 to 100 times healthier than their normal diet. “Because this is a very interconnected, strong community food web, it will have these low impacts when the zooplankton will starve and then the micronekton (that feed on it) will collapse,” said Michael Dowd, the lead author of the report.
Dowd initially chose to study the water at a depth of 1,250 meters because that is where the steel company planned to release its releases. The company has since decided to do so at a lower depth, 2,000 meters under the sea, partly because of data obtained where zooplankton is lower at depth. Dowd said the absence of studies in this depth is not exaggerated. “We don’t really know what a deep community is like,” she said.
In the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, where critical tourism has sparked a long-term decline this year, forcing hotels and business closures, news of deep-sea mining has been met with both concern and interest. “Success will depend on the careful management of the environment, respecting local and traditional interests, and making practical decisions, designed for development that prioritizes both decisions,” Floyd Masga, head of Marianas Press.
This article originally appeared on Grist in incrofit, an independent news organization dedicated to telling stories about climate solutions and the foreseeable future. Learn more at Grist.org.
