Transcript

7.31.25 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to radioiz's Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader's
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Kelly Taylor. I'll have articles related to science and nature,
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but first a reminder. RADIOI is reading service intended for
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people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
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it difficult to read printed material. Her first article comes
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from Smithsonian. The headline reads, as interest in deep sea
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mining grows, scientists raise alarms about the possible ecological consequences.
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This is from July the eighteenth. The deep sea is
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an extreme environment, featuring crushing pressure, near freezing temperatures, and
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total darkness. It can be hard for humans to imagine
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anything capable of withstanding such conditions, and ye yet life persists.
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In rare trips to the deep sea, scientists have uncovered
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sea cucumbers with purple magenta omber coloring, yety crabs with
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hairy featherlike claws, octopuses with ears like the Disney character Dumbo,
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irridescent mollusks, and phantasmic jellyfish. This life is all but
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a fraction of what scientists suspect exists on the deep
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sea floor. But just as researchers are beginning to discover
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the multitude of species that call the ocean floor. Home
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countries around the world are already making plans to mine it.
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Minerals on the deep sea floor were discovered in most
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oceans in the eighteen seventies during the Challenger expeditions. However,
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interest in mining these minerals was not popularized until the
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mid twentieth six century, when American geologist John L. Merrow,
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known as the father of ocean mining, promoted the practice
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in his nineteen sixty five book The Mineral Resources of
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the Sea. Global demand for critical minerals found in seabed
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areas like nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium or on the rise. Currently,
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these minerals are most commonly mined in Indonesia, the Democratic
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Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Australia, respectively. Many of
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these sites have been accused in recent years of committing
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a variety of human rights and labour abuses. Concerns about
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the long term viability of such minds are also leading
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companies to look for minerals elsewhere. These minerals are used
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in defense technology, smartphones, electric vehicles, and even medical devices.
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The International Energy Agency predicts that by twenty forty, demand
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for these minerals from clean inners technologies will at least
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double under one scenario. So now the prospectors are turning
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to the depths of the ocean. The International Seabed Authority,
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the body in charge of approving exploration and development of
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deep sea mining projects in the international waters, has currently
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issued thirty one mineral exploration contracts, but it has not
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yet approved any commercial mining operations, as the regulations for
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such activities are still under review. Meanwhile, thirty seven countries
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have so far taken positions against deep sea mining on
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international waters, citing potential environmental harms. Last month, the Trump
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administration announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management would
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begin to fast track the development of deep sea mining projects.
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The move follows and executive order President Donald Trump released
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in late April calling for the expedition of domestic and
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international deep sea mining projects as a means of strengthening
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our economy, securing our energy future, and reducing dependence on
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foreign suppliers for critical minerals. The debate surrounding deep sea
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mining represents an interesting tension, as the minerals it produces
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help power many of the technologies that countries need to
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achieve sustainability. Goals such as reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
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Yet many environmental scientists are wary of how the process
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might harm the deep sea ecosystem, an area of the
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world that we still know very little about. Current estimates
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say that less than point zero zero one percent of
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Earth's deep sea floor has been explored. In an effort
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to understand how the deep sea environment might be affected
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by mining, we contacted five experts and ask them several
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d questions. How does deep sea mining work? As of now,
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geologists are considering three different methods to mine the floor
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of the deep sea, Though some effects and processes overlap,
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each type employs different technology that picks up distinct mineral deposits,
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and their environmental impacts vary. The first of these methods
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targets sulfide deposits by crushing or on hydrothermal vent systems
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near the sites of volcanic activity at depths between three
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thousand and thirteen thousand feet. The second looks to obtain
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cobalt rich crusts that have accumulated over millions of years
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on the tops of seamounts between depths of approximately three
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thousand and eight thousand feet by peeling these crusts off
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from the bedrock. The third targets polymetallic nodules, potato shaped
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mineral bits about the size of a fist that contain manganese, iron, copper,
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and nickel. These nodules are found at the deepest parts
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of the ocean, at depths surpassing thirteen thousand feet. Polymetallic
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nodules are mined using a subsea collector. Imagine an undersea
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rumba about the size of a small house, tracking over
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the seafloor and scooping up what's there. Hydrothermal vent mining
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and cobalt crust mining also employ mining vehicles on the
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seafloor in order to collect sulfide deposits and cobalt crusts
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after they are broken off and removed. Each mining method
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involves transporting a slurry of mined minerals to a surface vessel,
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where valuable minerals are then separated from useless residue. Polymetallic
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nodule mining has drawn the most interest. Nineteen of the
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International Seabed Authority's thirty one explorations contracts are four identifying
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potential sites for mining these nodules, the largest of which
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is the Pacific Ocean's Clarion Clipperton Zone or CCZ for short.
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This section of the Eastern Pacific spans one point seven
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million square miles off the western coast of Mexico. How
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would deep sea mining affect deep sea wildlife? Scientists are
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still unsure about deep sea mining's potential impacts on creatures
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that call the seafloor home, but from what they have
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been able to uncover, many predict that mining will have
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an incredibly negative, if not irreversible effect on this unique ecosystem.
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According to Muriel Rabone, a researcher in the Deep Sea
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Ecology and Systematics Group at London's Natural History Museum, though
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the CCZ has been under the most exploration to identify
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sites for nodule mining, the area is essentially a scientific
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black hole. There's such extensive knowledge gaps in a lot
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of deep sea habitats, Raboni says. Rabone was a key
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or co author of a twenty twenty three study examining
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biodiversity in the CCZ. Based on existing data on the
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area's species, Her team found that approximately ninety percent of
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species in the area are undescribed. Of the few species
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that have been characterized so far, scientists have uncovered arthropods
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and worms to the most common creatures on the floor
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of the CCEZ. Quote. Wherever you're going to be mining
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in the deep sea, you're going to be disturbing very
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slow growing types of habitats, says Catherine Miller, an environmental
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scientist at Lancaster University in England. Quote. There's also a
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high degree of endemism, which just means the organisms are
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really highly specific to live in that particular area. According
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to Miller, because everything evolved to live in an extremely dark, cold,
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and high pressure environment, species on the seafloor are highly specialized.
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She adds that any sort of ecosystem recovery will likely
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be extremely slow or simply won't happen at all, because
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the deep sea's unique habitat conditions would be so disrupted.
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How would deep sea mining affect other ocean animals? Environmental
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concerns associated with each form of deep sea mining are
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not limited to its effects on species that live in
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the deepest abysses of the ocean. Species that live higher
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up in the water column may also be affected by
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the mining as it dredges up sediment plumes that then
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rise toward shallower areas. According to Miller, modeling of the
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proposed mining plans suggests that sediment plumes could drift for
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several miles through out the water column, though Miller acknowledges
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that it's difficult to predict exactly how far this sediment
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plume would travel. Scientists are worried about its potential risk
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to filter feeders organisms like baleen whales, certain fish and
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sponges that feed through filtering water. Quote, They're going to
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be filtering sediment, which could clog up their gills and
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cause them all sorts of problems, she says. Moreover, the
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noise pollution associated with deep sea mining technologies also has
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the potential to harm cetaceans species like dolphins and whales
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that use echolocation to communicate, even though these creatures largely
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inhabit waters miles above where the direct impact of mining
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would be. Quote. The thing with sound is it travels very,
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very well in water, says Kirsten Young, population biologists at
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England University of Exeter. According to Young, because the ocean's
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unique physics, certain frequencies can travel more than three hundred
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miles through different ocean basins. Quote. Cetaceans use sound to
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communicate all the time. So if there's something that's a
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really loud noise, and it could be a loud constant noise,
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or it could be a sharp bang, and it depends
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on where it is and what frequency that noise is,
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it can mask the communication that they have between each other.
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As young. For example, the noise is produced by deep
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sea mining technologies could startle deep diving deep toils, causing
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the animals to rise to the surface much faster than
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is safe due to the pressure change. A mass stranding
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of beaked whales in twenty eighteen, possibly due to an
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unknown source of seismic activity, offers a bleak look into
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how noise pollution might harm these animals. What would be
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the long term effects of deep sea mining. A study
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published this March in Nature confirms many scientists fears that
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deep sea mining would damage the seafloor ecosystem. Researchers compared
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to nineteen seventy nine sight of a deep sea mining
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test in the CCZ with neighboring undisturbed areas, had found
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that the site still had lower levels of biodiversity nearly
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forty four years later in twenty twenty three. Moreover, the
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study found that the physical signs of the test were
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still visible. Scientists could still see a clear zone that
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had been stripped of polymetallic nodules and track marks from
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the vehicle used to collect them. The original nineteen seventy
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nine tests employed roughly forty five foot long experimental mining
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machine that mined an unknown quantity of nodules over four days.
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Daniel Jones, co author of the study and research leader
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at the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Center, said that the
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law long term impacts of the mining disturbance are still
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clear when observing wildlife such as sponges, corals, and sea
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anemonies that spend their lives largely immobile on the seafloor.
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According to Jones, although some of the more mobile creatures
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had begun to repopulate to similar numbers seen in undisturbed
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parts of the ocean, the diversity of life may take
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centuries or more to return. Although Jones acknowledges that modern
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mining vehicles may have the technology to create less of
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a disturbance than the nineteen seventy nine test vehicle, he
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emphasizes that the extent of that old test was incredibly small,
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yet still left a long lasting mark. Modern mining sites,
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he notes, will likely be the size of a small
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town or larger. Quote. The current proposed method of mining
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is still to have a vehicle on the seabed floor,
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so the mining vessel will be on the seafloor. Miller heads,
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I don't see how with the weight of that vessel
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it's going to not cause the same amount of environmental damage.
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Could mining affect other environmental elements on the seafloor. Andrew Sweetman,
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a seafloor ecologist and biogeochemist at the Scottish Association for
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Marine Science, had been doing experiments with benthic landers, large
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devices used to observe the ocean floor when he and
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his colleagues noticed something strange quote. They were showing that
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the oxygen, instead of going down, instead of it being consumed,
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was going up, Sweetman says. A few more tests later,
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and Sweetmen's team confirmed that oxygen was being produced by
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manganese oxide particles on the seafloor, most commonly found in
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polymetallic modules or nodules. Sweetman and his team coined the
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term dark oxygen to refer to this discovery. Oxygen production
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that does not depend on traditional photosynthesis processes which require light.
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Scientists are still unsure of what purpose the dark oxygen
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serves in the ocean floor ecosystem. It's even possible that
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the substance was triggered by researchers' instruments disturbing the nodules.
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Quote Is it a microbial process linked to the manganese oxides?
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Is it an electrochemical process linked to the manganese oxides?
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Is it something completely different that we haven't thought about,
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Sweetman says quote. Once we figure that out, we should
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be in a better position to figure what is the
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ecological world if any of the process in the ecosystem.
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Sweetmen's findings are evidence that scientists simply don't know much
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about the deep ocean ecosystem at all. The worry is
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that if the nodules are indeed naturally producing oxygen, then
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the removal of those nodules could have grave consequences for
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the local ecosystem. What are the key takeaways about the
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environmental impacts of deep sea mining? Mining companies have lauded
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the lower environmental effects of deep sea projects compared with
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land based mining, while also emphasizing that the retrieved minerals
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will be used in green technologies. Quote. The polymetallic nodules
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literally sit there like golf balls on a driving range,
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says Gerard Barren, CEO of the Metals Company, which is
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looking to be the first to commercially mine the ocean floor. Quote.
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We can pick those nodules up and turn them into
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metals at a fraction of the environmental and human impacts
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compared to mining on land. Proponents say that the demand
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for these minerals will keep rising and that the deep
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sea offers a valuable alternative source for them. The Energy
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Transitions Commission think tank reports that under a baseline scenario
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where we deploy more or clean energy technologies and maintain
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the same recycling trends, our demand for nickel, lithium, cobalt,
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and copper will be higher than supply by twenty thirty. However,
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other groups have pushed back against this prediction. In an
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October twenty twenty four report, the International Council on Clean
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Transportation think tank wrote that concerns over a supposed mineral
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deficiency were quote overblown. Many scientists have doubts about deep
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sea mining's claim to sustainability. Besides preliminary research on mining's
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impact on the ocean ecosystem, and still unanswered questions on
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its potential effects on the ocean's oxygen production and carbon storage.
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Scientists also say that the deep sea is a near
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impossible place to regulate. While terrestrial mining can be monitored,
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says Jung, the CCZ, for example, is a particularly difficult
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place to oversee, and it would require a serious financial
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investment meant to fully understand the impacts of mining there.
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Young's worry is that commercial deep sea mining will go
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something like commercial fishing, which historically has not been well regulated.
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Quote the ocean is a bit of a black box,
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and I don't think we know enough about it to
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be embarking upon an industry which is going to change
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it irrevocably. Young ads. I'm not convinced that we can't
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find the minerals in other ways, and we can't be
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more responsible with the minerals that we have in use already. Quote.
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Sweetman emphasizes that scientists need more time to do research
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and to be more vocal with their concerns. Quote We're
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going to need to eventually, you know, be brave and say, Okay,
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we know we don't know everything, but we know enough
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to make a few decisions now, he says, now we're
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going to turn to National Geographic. In this article's headline,
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The Hidden Talents of Nature's Unloved Animals, written by A. J. Jacobs,
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the vulture has to be one of the most reviled
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creatures on Earth. The very word vulture is an insult,
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a synonym for a greedy exploiter. In a way, vulture's
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bad reputation is understandable for starters. They are neither cute
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nor cuddly, while with their stooped posture, bare heads, and
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beady eyes. They spend their days eating dead animals, and
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they do it in a stomach churning way by entering
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the corpse at its soft parts such as mouth, nose,
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or anus. Vultures definitely have an image problem, says natural
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geographic explorer Darcy Ogata, African program director at the conservation
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nonprofit Peregrine Fund, who points out that a bald bird
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sticking its beak up the rear end of a wildebeest
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wouldn't make for the most appealing magazine cover. The bird's
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pr problem has real world consequences. It causes us to
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overlook the vulture's fascinating behavior and vital role in our ecosystem.
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Without vultures, bad things happen. These birds act as nature's cleaners,
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hoovering up rotting carcasses and preventing the spread of disease.
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Considered the drastic situation in India, starting three decades ago,
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vultures nearly disappeared after millions of them there were accidentally
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poisoned by medicine used on capples, which turned out to
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be toxic to vultures. As a result, the countryside became
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littered with rotting, germ filled animal corpses that infected the
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rivers and drinking water, and also boosted the population of
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rabies carrying feral dogs. According to a recent study in
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the American Economic Review, the decline in vultures correlated with
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more than half a million excess human deaths in a
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population sample in India between and two thousand and five.
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In an ideal world, the disappearing vulture population would be
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a conservation priority, but it isn't. The vast majority of
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global conservation money goes to a few top species, usually
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large animals such as rhinos, elephants, and gorillas. Quote The
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rest of conservation gets the scraps of Goddes said, the
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animals fighting over those crumbs are what you might call
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the d list species, the outcasts. We're talking about the vultures,
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the naked mole rats, and the probosis monkeys with their pendulous,
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blobby schnazes. They're not pretty, they're not colorful. They often
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do gross things, such as eating feces, a habit of
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the naked mole rat. They are the polar opposites of
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the conservation icons, the lions, panda's, penguins, and giraffes that
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star in nature documentaries, appear on our cereal boxes, and
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get the lead rolls in animated movies. Conservationists call the
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A listers, charismatic megafauna, or flagship species. Several studies show
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that they get a lopsided share of donations. As one
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study puts it, animal charisma Trump's endangered status. Just one example,
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Amphibians account for about twenty five percent of threatened vertebrate species,
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but only get two and a half percent of funding.
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No one wants to kiss or donate to a slimy frog.
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What does it take to be a very important animal?
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It helps if you're cute, furry, jumbo size, and or
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adorned with attention grabbing outerwear. Think the interesting patterns of
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leopards and zebras. Cuteness is an especially powerful draw thanks
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to our brains programming que what we find is cute
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in animals is often the same things we find cute
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in human babies, such as big, forward facing eyes, says
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Gabby Salazov, a environmental social scientist and National Geographic explorer.
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We're genetically designed to love and nurture babies and baby
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ish animals, such as the panda, which appears on the
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WWF logo reap. The benefits being on the A list
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comes with yet another benefit, what psychologists call the halo effect.
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This means that we mistakenly imbue attractive people in animals
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with additional positive characteristics, such as moral goodness. It's why
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so many movie heroes are equipped with gleaming teeth and
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chiseled jaws, and so many villains have scars. But in reality,
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both with humans and animals, prettiness doesn't equal benevolence or courage,
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and neither does ugliness equal nastiness or cowardice. Just look
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at the two can quote. I love twocans, but they
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don't just use that beak to eat fruit, says Salazar.
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They also use that beak to scoop up baby birds
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from other birds nests, not something you'd see too, can
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sam from fruit loops doing so, how do we fix
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this pr problem? How do we get the animal kingdom's
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outcasts more attention and the conservation dollars they deserve? Salazar says.
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One key is to tell better stories. For starters, we
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can highlight the benefits some of these animals provides, such
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as the vulture's role in garbage disposal. This is actually
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a century's old strategy and a tongue in cheek letter
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to his daughter, Ben Franklin questioned the candidacy of the
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bald eagle as a national emblem. He argued that dumpy
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turkey was respectable and a bird of courage that defended
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its home turf, just as the American colonists defended theirs.
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He contrasted this with the bald eagle, which Franklin called
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a bird of bad moral character and accused of stealing
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fish from other birds, which it does. Another strategy is
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to reframe these animals supposedly bad carearacteristics. For instance, the
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vulture's unpleasant looking bald head is in fact a clever
25:05
way to help keep the bird from collecting germs in
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its feathers when it's eating carcasses. The sloth's alleged laziness
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is really a brilliant evolutionary adaptation. Its slowness is a
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super efficient way to survive on a low energy leaf
25:22
filled diet. The naked mole rat may look like a wrinkly,
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bucktoothed hot dog, but this quirky creature has evolved to
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survive without oxygen for eighteen minutes. One other idea is
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to lean into these animals freakiness. Salazar says there's some
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new research on water being called ugly cute animals quote
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ugly cute animals or animals that are so weird or
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not stereotypically cute that they actually end up being fun
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and make a smile and laugh. She says some species
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are wacky enough that they can benefit from this ugly
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cute fun nomenon. Exhibit A is the blobfish, an Internet
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star with its ugly mug featured next to captions such
26:08
as how I Feel on Mondays. Salas are sites a
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recent study on probosis monkeys and how Internet memes correlated
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with an increase in donations to protect these Southeast Asian primates. Quote.
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In this attention economy, there's some novelty and humor we
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could capitalize on, she says, So let's get the revolution started.
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It's time to embrace the outcasts. Here's to hoping that
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one day we see cartoon naked mole rats on cereal boxes,
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college football teams named the Vultures, and a blobfish getting
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its own Pixar movie. For now, across these pages we
26:47
celebrate the bizarrely brilliant traits and behaviors of these d
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list creatures. And now we'll share just a small portion
26:57
of an article in The Guardian about the importance of
27:01
the ocean being realized. David Attenborough, just a earshy of
27:06
his one hundred birthday, has said that he's come to
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the realization that the most important place on Earth is
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not on land but at sea, and this message, backed
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by undeniable indicators of poor ocean health, has boosted calls
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for more ocean governance and protection. They had a UN
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Ocean summit in Nice, France and decided that if ever
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there was a defining moment for the ocean, it was
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happening here. There was also a sense of this sentiment
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being shared in the wider world, where, partly thanks to
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the Summit, many are finally waking up to the reality
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of the serious decline of something that makes up more
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than seventy percent of Earth's surface. That will be all
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for today's Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader was
27:59
Kelly Taylor. Now stay tuned for the Health Corner on
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