Norway wants to extract more resources from the sea – 01/13/2024 – Marcelo Leite

Environmental agency of a country with a well-polished green image warns of the risks of promoting the exploitation of resources at the bottom of the sea. Its experts claim that there is not enough data to guarantee the safety of the operation.

Overriding contrary technical opinion, the government continues with the project of prospecting an area of ​​marine soil larger than the state of São Paulo. Parliament, insensitive to water pollution and damage to fauna and fisheries, approves a reckless plan.

It looks like Brazil, but it’s not. It could be, with the Lula government’s crazy proposal to extract oil from the equatorial margin of the Amazon. But this is Norway, champion of environmental kindness.

On Tuesday (9), its parliamentarians approved the mining of the continental shelf by 80 votes to 20, reports the Nature Briefing newsletter. The Stortinget authorized feasibility studies on the exploration of manganese and sulfides on the ocean floor.

Extraction, if feasible, would require new votes in Parliament, the bulletin explains. But the license granted for studies is seen as the proverbial opening of the gate for the herd to pass through.

Extracting minerals from the seabed is controversial because it would disrupt ecosystems, hundreds or thousands of meters below the surface, that are currently poorly understood. Turning over the Earth’s crust there could almost destroy communities of organisms at the base of the marine food chain.

The area in question covers 281 thousand km^two around Svalbard, an archipelago within the Arctic circle placed under Norwegian administration by a 1920 treaty. The agreement guarantees other countries, however, access to natural resources in the region.

In addition to sulfides and manganese, everyone is keeping an eye on lithium and metals such as cobalt, nickel, lithium and niobium, as well as rare earths. These are essential raw materials for the energy transition: from batteries for electric cars and cell phones to state-of-the-art wind turbines.

It bothers the USA and Europe that a large part of the terrestrial deposits of these ores, in addition to being finite, are found in China and in African or South American countries. Hence the idea of ​​prospecting them at the bottom of the sea, or, in Elon Musk’s delusions, on the Moon and other planets or asteroids.

Arctic countries around Svalbard, with a mining tradition such as Russia, the USA (Alaska) and Canada, may dispute Norway’s sovereignty over possible deposits. The immediate concern, however, involves the environmental impact on a sector of the oceans that already suffers from unsustainable fishing, for example cod.

Not only are they delicious Gadus morhua in decline and the capture of whales that tarnish Norway’s environmental reputation. The Nordic country of just 5.5 million inhabitants is the fourth largest exporter of natural gas and eighth of oil, both fossil fuels — the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

As Rodrigo Tavares pointed out in his column on Wednesday (10), Norway —”Europe’s preppy”, he says— increased gas and oil production by 1.5% in 2023, the hottest year on record. . In March, it discovered another 84 million barrels near the Troll field (not lost on the name).

Despite everything, preppies manage to maintain a good environmental reputation. It has a lot to do with the sovereign wealth fund fed by fossil income, from which resources come out for the Amazon Fund, or for the decarbonization of the Norwegian economy and the electrification of its automotive fleet (80% of new cars).

Here in Brazil, the Amazon equatorial margin is being sold as Petrobras’ new golden goose, after the pre-salt. Gold that, as we know, only nurtured one of the biggest corruption schemes in the country, not the rosy future that Lula and Dilma promised.

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