There are plans to harness our seas to help tackle the effects of the climate emergency. But without understanding and respect a life support system for our planet could be trashed
became part of the UN’s climate COP processes. We’re hearing about the importance of the sea for the Earth’s carbon cycle, and possible changes in ocean circulation due to polar ice melt. But alongside all that, there’s a detectable assumption that the sea is available space to expand into.
You can’t “just” fertilise the ocean, or change its alkalinity, or park huge new farms there, or dump billions of tonnes of biomass into the deep sea without affecting the existing ocean physics, chemistry and biology. I have frequently heard engineers and businesspeople state that they have two aims – to restore a pristine oceanto make the ocean do the clearing up for us by taking up carbon, producing vast quantities of seaweed as a material resource, or whatever this week’s scheme is.
Dismissal of the idea that the ocean matters is apparent in a different way with deep-sea mining. There are vast areas of the deep sea floor that are covered with “polymetallic nodules” – potato-sized lumps rich in manganese, nickel, copper and cobalt. The nodules take millions of years to form in this incredibly calm environment. These plains are home to a phenomenal array of strange life that drifts and crawls across the nodules, secure in the darkness and the quiet.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have any ocean infrastructure. Offshore wind is going to be a critically important energy resource, and there may be places where tidal and wave energy generation is the best option. But even these projects should start from the recognition that there is already a physical fluid engine and an ecosystem there, and we should understand that and minimise our influence on it as we stamp our mark on the sea.
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