In a new study, scientists from University of Southampton, University of the West of England Bristol, University of Exeter, University of Cambridge, University of Leeds and University of Bath have developed a way to make smart, electronic textiles that are also sustainable and biodegradable.
The researchers have created ‘Smart, Wearable, and Eco-friendly Electronic Textiles’ (SWEET), technological fabrics with features like sensors or lights that are designed to biodegrade after they reach the end of their lifespan.
“Integrating electrical components into conventional textiles complicates the recycling of the material because it often contains metals, such as silver, that don’t easily biodegrade,” explained Nazmul Karim, lead author of the study and a professor at the Winchester School of Art at University of Southampton. “Our potential ecofriendly approach for selecting sustainable materials and manufacturing overcomes this, enabling the fabric to decompose when it is disposed of.”
To make a biodegradable e-textile, the researchers created a three-layer fabric with a Tencel-fabric base, an interface layer, and the sensor layer. The Tencel is a wood pulp-based fabric, and the team used graphene and a type of conductive polymer known as PEDOT:PSS for the electronic elements.
From there, they were able to use inkjet printing to adhere these materials to the fabric, as this process used less water and energy and produced no material waste, according to the researchers.
The researchers tested the fabric by attaching it to gloves, which five humans wore in the study. The fabric was able to effectively measure the humans’ electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and skin temperature, just like many smart wearables on the market today.
Gloves with swatches of e-textile attached inside and wired for sensing testing. Marzia Dulal
“Achieving reliable, industry-standard monitoring with eco-friendly materials is a significant milestone. It demonstrates that sustainability doesn’t have to come at the cost of functionality, especially in critical applications like healthcare,” Shaila Afroj, a co-author of the study and associate professor of sustainable materials at the University of Exeter, said in a statement.
After testing how the fabric performed in tracking human physiology metrics, the team put SWEET to its bigger test — whether it was biodegradable. The fabric was buried in soil with a 6.5 to 6.8 pH in an incubator with a temperature of around 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit) and a relative humidity of around 90%.
After a four-month period, the fabric had a 48% decrease in weight and 98% decrease in strength. The graphene elements also revealed a 40 times smaller impact upon decomposition compared to standard electrodes in wearables. The researchers published their findings in the journal Energy and Environmental Materials.
According to Statista, smart wearable shipments were expected to reach 543 million units worldwide in 2024, and this number is only expected to grow, reaching an estimated 612.5 million units by 2028.
Further, a report by ResearchAndMarkets.com has estimated that the global smart textiles market will increase from $4.85 billion as of 2024 to $29.1 billion by 2033.
With this increasing demand comes the risk of increasing e-waste, or electronic waste. As Earth.org reported, humans currently generate about 50 million to 60 million tons of e-waste per year, and much of this waste does not break down into the soil. Instead, the materials can corrode or react to UV rays and leach harmful substances into the environment. According to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, e-waste is slated to increase 32% by 2030.
With the growing demand for smart, wearable technology, advancements such as biodegradable electronic textiles will be necessary to meet demand without contributing to more e-waste. The researchers noted that their study can help further additional research into more sustainable, and ultimately fully biodegradable or recyclable, e-textiles and other materials.
“Amid rising pollution from landfill sites, our study helps to address a lack of research in the area of biodegradation of e-textiles,” Karim said. “These materials will become increasingly more important in our lives, particularly in the area of healthcare, so it’s really important we consider how to make them more eco-friendly, both in their manufacturing and disposal.”
Each leopard can be identified by their own unique roar, the first large-scale study of its kind has found.
Using a combination of camera traps and recordings, the research team was able to identify the vocalizations of individual leopards with 93.1 percent accuracy, a press release from University of Exeter said.
“Discovering that leopards have unique roars is an important but fundamentally quite basic finding that shows how little we know about leopards, and large carnivores in general,” said Jonathan Growcott, lead author of the study and a University of Exeter Ph.D. student, in the press release. “We hope it will allow leopards to become the focus of more acoustically complex science such as population density studies and open the door to more work on how large carnivores use vocalizations as a tool.”
Due to leopards being solitary, nocturnal and occupying large expanses of terrain, scientists have had a difficult time gathering reliable data to help with reversing population declines.
A scant amount of research has been done regarding the “sawing roar” of a leopard — a low-frequency, repeated pattern used mostly for territorial defense and to attract mates that is often able to be heard at distances of more than a kilometer away.
By using bioacoustics to study leopards — a technique more often used to monitor marine species and birds — researchers can track much bigger areas.
This could allow for more complex studies like population estimates, which are a key metric for aiding conservationists and policymakers in their understanding of landscape management and the mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts.
“Conservation requires accurate information about species occupancy, populations and behaviour. However, gathering these data for elusive, solitary species, such as leopards (Panthera pardus), is often challenging. Utilizing novel technologies that augment data collection by exploiting different species’ traits could enable monitoring at larger spatiotemporal scales,” the authors wrote in the study.
The study was conducted across 450 square kilometers in Tanzania’s Nyerere National Park, where the team attached 50 camera pairs to trees alongside trails and roads. They then placed microphones beside each camera to enable them to identify individual leopards from the camera, then extract the sound of their roars from the accompanying audio.
A modeling system was used to analyze the temporal patterns of the big cats’ roars. What the researchers discovered was that not only was individual identification possible, but an overall accuracy of more than 93 percent could be achieved.
The findings, “The secret acoustic world of leopards: A paired camera trap and bioacoustics survey facilitates the individual identification of leopards via their roars,” were published in Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation.
The study showed that a wider array of species traits can be captured with the use of multiple technologies to record complementary data, rather than using a single form of technology alone.
“Importantly, our success in using a combination of different types of technology could hopefully lead others to think about how to integrate different types of technology into their research, as the rich data this provides could really push science ahead and help us understand ecosystems and landscapes in a much more holistic way,” Growcott said in the press release.
In devastating news for the Pacific Northwest population of southern resident killer whales (SRKW), Tahlequah, a 25-year-old member of the group, has lost another newborn female calf.
The mother made headlines seven years ago when she swam with her deceased calf for 17 days around the Salish Sea in an act of grieving. She has two other calves, one 14 years old and another born in 2020, both males.
Southern resident killer whales are a critically endangered population of orcas, and each loss, especially a female, is considered a huge blow to the 73 who remain. According to the Center for Whale Research, it is believed that there are just 23 breeding females left, reported The Guardian.
“The death of any calf in the SRKW population is a tremendous loss, but the death of J61 is particularly devastating, not just because she was a female, who could have one day potentially led her own matriline but also given the history of her mother J35 who has now lost two out of four documented calves – both of which were female,” the center wrote in a statement on Facebook.
The primary food source of southern resident killer whales is Chinook salmon, which have been in steep decline for years, BBC Wildlife reported. According to researchers at University of Washington, this impacts the nutrition and reproduction of the whales, which are listed as endangered in the United States and Canada.
Conservation groups have asked the environment minister of Canada to issue an emergency order to protect the imperilled species, reported The Guardian. The powers have been used just twice before: once to protect the western chorus frog of Québec, and the other to save Alberta’s greater sage-grouse.
Southern resident killer whales have been known to travel as much as 75 miles a day. In 2018, Tahlequah’s heart wrenching display of grief for her baby happened off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia. This time, she is mourning the loss of her newborn in Puget Sound, off the shores of Washington State.
SRKW face other threats, including disturbance and noise from vessels — which make it more difficult for them to hunt — as well as fishing gear, plastics and other pollution in the food chain.
“It’s so much harder to see now that she has lost another one,” said Brad Hanson, a research scientist with Seattle’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as The New York Times reported.
Hanson said he wasn’t sure why Tahlequah’s calf, born around Christmas, had died.
The deep mourning of Tahlequah of her first female calf in 2018 became a symbol of the southern resident killer whales’ plight. Though orcas sometimes display their grief as Tahlequah did, scientists considered the roughly 1,000-mile journey carrying her calf unprecedented.
Tahlequah is still caring for the second son she gave birth to in 2020.
Scientists said on Thursday that, as she clings to the body of her dead calf, Tahlequah cannot forage for food, but that her loyal pod, especially her sister, had been seen at her side throughout the ordeal.
SRKW are one of several orca communities that live in the Pacific Northwest. While they mostly occupy waters near Washington State and British Columbia, some venture south to California and north to Alaska.
Females typically live as long as 50 or 60 years and weigh as much as 16,000 pounds, while males live approximately 30 years and can weigh 22,000 pounds.
Researchers were at first optimistic about Tahlequah’s newborn, known as J61, but quickly suspected the calf was having health problems, reported The Guardian.
“Early life is always dangerous for new calves, with a very high mortality rate in the first year. J35 is an experienced mother, and we hope that she is able to keep J61 alive through these difficult early days,” the Center for Whale Research wrote on December 23.
The orca’s death left the team “deeply saddened.”
About 50 percent of orca calves die in their first year, and many orca pregnancies fail, The New York Times reported.
Another calf born to the same pod was spotted on Wednesday. Neither the mother nor the gender of the newborn have been confirmed. The calf, who appears to be healthy, brings hope to the population.
It came as no surprise to scientists that Tahlequah mourned the loss of her babies in such a profound way.
“Over the last few years, we realize that we have the same neurotransmitters that they have,” said Joe Gaydos, science director of University of California, Davis’ SeaDoc Society, as reported by The New York Times. “We have the same hormones that they have. Why shouldn’t we also have the emotions that they have? We don’t have the market cornered on emotions. So I think it’s fair to say that she is grieving or mourning.”
At the end of December 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Service awarded $1.4 billion in grant and loan financing to San Miguel Electric Cooperative, a utility provider that operates in rural Texas. The financing will go toward a total of 600 MW of renewable energy, including 400 MW for solar panels and 200 MW for a battery storage system.
According to the USDA, the projects will help power rural households across 47 counties in southern Texas and will offer lower cost, renewable power.
“We are very excited to be named a selectee for the New ERA program, providing our community with unprecedented opportunities,” Craig Courter, general manager of San Miguel Electric Cooperative, said in a statement. “This includes a wide range of educational, agricultural, and infrastructure improvements that will benefit our employees, cooperative members, and the region as we continue to deliver affordable, reliable energy to rural Texans at a time of record demand.”
The funding was made possible through the Empowering Rural America (New ERA), a $9.7 billion program under the Inflation Reduction Act. The program is designed to help rural communities transition to cleaner energy sources while reducing environmental pollution.
The USDA reported that the awarded projects for San Miguel Electric Cooperative will create about 600 jobs, and the renewable energy will save customers more than $1.09 billion over the course of 30 years.
In total, the project is expected to reduce emissions by 1.8 million tons per year, or the equivalent of removing about 446,000 cars from the roads annually.
“The USDA funding represents a new era for the San Miguel Electric Cooperative, which has long been the backbone of electric generation for generations of South Texans,” Courter said in a statement. “New ERA program funding will allow us to virtually eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions, while continuing to provide affordable and reliable power to rural South Texans.”
As CleanTechnica reported, San Miguel Electric Cooperative currently sources much of the electricity it provides to its rural customers from a lignite-burning thermal generating station. According to Greenpeace, combustion of lignite, a type of coal, can contribute more carbon emissions than burning hard coal and up to seven times more emissions than using gas for fuel.
Additionally, lignite is a notorious pollutant that can emit particulate matter, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, mercury and other harmful emissions when burned, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported.
Currently, San Miguel Electric Cooperative has a Wholesale Power Contract with South Texas Electric Cooperative (STEC) for electricity sourcing, but it intends to establish a new Wholesale Power Contract as the cooperative switches from lignite to renewable energy.
The new solar and battery storage facility is slated to begin operations by 2027, CleanTechnica reported. San Miguel Electric Cooperative joins nine other cooperatives receiving a total of $4.37 billion in funding announced in December. An additional six cooperatives have been selected to move forward with the process to receiving funding for clean energy through the New ERA program. In total, the New ERA program has awarded 15 cooperatives so far.
“USDA is committed to enhancing the quality of life and improving air and water in our rural communities,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “The Inflation Reduction Act’s historic investments enable USDA to partner with rural electric cooperatives to strengthen America’s energy security and lower electricity bills for hardworking families, farmers and small business owners.”
For the second year in a row, Massachusetts beaches have recorded more nesting Piping Plovers than anytime in the last four decades — 1,196 nesting pairs, a 1.5 percent increase over 2023 and a 500 percent jump since the program began, according to preliminary data gathered by MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program and Mass Audubon.
Mass Audubon has been leading the Coastal Waterbird Program (CWP) since 1986. The program is a collaboration between state, federal and local agencies. It engages in conservation research while monitoring and protecting vulnerable beach-nesting birds. In the mid-1980s, fewer than 200 pairs of breeding Piping Plovers existed in the state.
“Piping Plovers were on the brink of extinction in Massachusetts and now, through collaborative partnerships and strategic conservation strategies, this is a species recovering at an encouraging rate,” said Lyra Brennan, Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program director, in a press release from Mass Audubon.
Piping Plovers on a Massachusetts beach. Pat Ulrich / Mass Audubon
The sand-colored shorebird is about the size of a sparrow and feeds along sand and gravel beaches on the North American coast.
While Piping Plovers are still listed as threatened on the state and federal endangered species lists, the last several years of data show that the elegant shorebirds are making a comeback in Massachusetts.
CWP protected 379 pairs of Piping Plovers in 2024, representing 17 percent of the Atlantic Coast population and almost a third of the state population.
In 2024, pairs of Plovers nesting at sites protected by CWP produced 1.24 fledglings per pair — nearly the same as the 1.25 chicks in 2023 — which is considered to be a sustainable reproductive rate.
“Long-term investments in coastal communities and implementing a combination of wildlife management, science-based conservation, policy development, and education is paying off,” Brennan said in the press release.
In a first, Plovers also successfully fledged chicks at Eastham’s Dyer Prince Beach, while Sagamore’s Scusset Beach saw its first Plover pairing in over a decade. Additional hotspots included an 83 percent leap in productivity in fledged chicks on Lobsterville Beach in Aquinnah, a 56 percent jump in Plover pairs at Barnstable’s Long Beach and twice as many pairs on Chatham’s Tern Island.
Other vulnerable seabirds have also had success, including Least Terns, who experienced a 37 percent population increase in 2024 to 4,901 pairs, following a drop in numbers the previous year. Mass Audubon’s 42 protected nesting sites for the birds maintained steady reproductive success with rates ranging from zero to 1.35 fledglings per pair, making them the most successful sites for Least Terns in Massachusetts.
As was true a year earlier, predators were the most significant factor determining nesting success for terns in 2024. Major overwash and predation events impacted several of the main sites, including South Beach, which saw no Least Tern fledges last year, despite having a colony of more than 100 pairs.
American Oystercatchers also experienced their second record year in a row with 250 nesting pairs detected — a year-over-year increase of five percent.
Brennan said Oystercatchers in Massachusetts were the most productive of any state reporting the same metrics.
“Mass Audubon monitors 30 percent of the state population and despite the fledgling rate dropping from 1.23 chicks per pair to .99 in 2024, this is still well above the .35 fledged chicks per pair rate estimated to maintain a stable oystercatcher population,” Mass Audubon said.
The report found that per unit carbon dioxide emissions have fallen by over two-thirds in a decade. The analysis attributed this to the phasing out of coal in the UK, which now generates less than half the amount of electricity from fossil fuels than it did a decade ago. Meanwhile, the generation of power from renewable sources has more than doubled.
“Having risen to global dominance on the back of coal-fired industrial might, the UK has made significant progress in cleaning up its power supplies over the past 75 years,” the Carbon Brief analysis said. “In addition, electricity demand has been falling for nearly two decades, as appliances have become more efficient, and the economy has shifted away from heavy industry.”
As the report pointed out, the UK shut down its last coal-fired power station in September, ending 142 years of coal burning and making the UK the first G7 country to totally phase out the dirty fuel.
“The end of coal power, combined with the rise of renewables, means the UK’s electricity was the cleanest ever in 2024,” the report said.
Fossil fuels made up 29 percent of electricity generation in the UK last year — the lowest level ever recorded — with renewables accounting for a record 45 percent, nuclear and biomass each generating roughly 13 percent, imports 11 percent and solar producing four percent, according to Carbon Brief.
This resulted in each unit of electricity generating an average of 124 grams of carbon, compared with 419 grams of “carbon intensity” for each kilowatt hour in 2014.
“The UK’s cleaner electricity generation in 2024 makes electrified heat and transport far more beneficial in terms of reducing CO2 emissions,” the analysis said. “For example, an average petrol car in the UK generates 2.7 tonnes of CO2 (tCO2) per year. In 2014, an EV would have generated 830kg of CO2 – but in 2024 this was just 245kg.”
Gas was still the biggest single source of power in the UK last year, generating 28 percent, in comparison with 26 percent from wind energy, reported The Guardian.
“When accounting for all plants burning gas for power in the UK, the fuel remained as the single-largest source of electricity in 2024, slightly ahead of wind,” Carbon Brief said in its report. “However, increasing wind power capacity as new projects are completed in the coming months – and below-average wind speeds in 2024 – mean wind is likely to generate more electricity than gas in 2025.”
The analysis said wind was “expected to form the backbone of the nation’s electricity system by 2030.”
The Labour government has pledged to decarbonize electricity in the UK by then, with ambitious plans to ramp up solar and wind, The Guardian reported.
“Under the government’s target for clean power by 2030, the carbon intensity of electricity generation should fall by another two-thirds by the end of the decade, according to NESO,” the report said. “In its advice on how to reach the target, NESO set out pathways to clean power by 2030 that would see carbon intensity falling to 50gCO2/kWh or lower, depending on how it is measured. This will be a very significant challenge. Nevertheless, the power sector has already been transformed over the past decade. It was the UK’s largest source of CO2 until 2014 and is now only the fifth largest, after transport, buildings, industry and agriculture.”
The target of creating an electricity grid that is 95 percent low-carbon by 2030 is possible, according to the UK Energy Research Centre, but there is “very little room for error,” reported The Guardian.
Chicago, Illinois is kicking off the New Year with clean energy. As of Jan. 1, all of Chicago’s 411 municipal buildings, such as its international airports, fire stations, libraries and City Hall, are now powered entirely by renewable energy.
The feat has been made possible through a 5-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Constellation signed in August 2022, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“Every Chicagoan interacts with a city-owned building, whether the cultural center, City Hall, Harold Washington Library, O’Hare and Midway (international airports) or your local library. To be able to achieve this milestone on behalf of city residents is exciting,” Angela Tovar, chief sustainability officer for Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune.
Most (70%) of the municipal buildings’ 900,000 MWh of annual power demand is now met through a new, 4,100-acre solar farm called Double Black Diamond, which was established in Sangamon and Morgan counties, about 30 miles from Springfield, Illinois. Double Black Diamond, developed and operated by Swift Current Energy, is the largest solar farm east of the Mississippi.
As explained by the U.S. Department of Energy, a PPA is when one party purchases power supply from a third-party, which handles the development and operation of the power source. This allows the power source owner and operator to reap tax benefits and generate income by selling energy, while the customer who is buying the power can access clean energy without the cost of installing the infrastructure.
Through this plan, all of Chicago’s municipal buildings now run on clean energy, which the city buys from Constellation and is supplied by renewable energy sources, including the Double Black Diamond solar farm.
“It’s a plan that gets the city to take action on climate and also leverages our buying power to generate new opportunities for Chicagoans and the state,” Tovar said, as reported by Grist. “There’s opportunities everywhere.”
Constellation will provide the remaining 30% of clean energy for Chicago’s city buildings through renewable energy credits (RECs), where funding from the Chicago’s energy bills is put toward clean energy projects around the U.S., Chicago Tribune reported.
While the move to power Chicago’s municipal buildings entirely with renewable power is expected to reduce the city’s carbon emissions by around 290,000 metric tons — or around the same effect of taking 62,000 vehicles off the roads, Grist reported — some people have concerns over the inclusion of RECs in the plan.
As the Chicago Tribune reported, critics have argued that these credits are a type of greenwashing that don’t necessarily contribute to local clean energy generation.
However, the city addressed concerns over RECs, noting that the plan could still encourage more renewable energy development locally.
“That’s really a feature and not a bug of our plan,” Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer Jared Policicchio told Grist. “Our goal over the next several years is that we reach a point where we’re not buying renewable energy credits.”
Additionally, Tovar told Chicago Tribune that securing the 30% energy from RECs will give the city the time to explore solar installation on local buildings.
The city has also collaborated with Constellation and Swift Current Energy on a $400,000 annual deal for clean energy job training, American Cities Climate Challenge reported. Chicago further set a goal to power all buildings in the city, not just municipal buildings, through renewables by 2035. If it achieves the goal, Chicago would be the largest U.S. city to power all buildings entirely with clean energy, the Sierra Club reported.
Chicago joins around 700 other municipalities in the U.S. that have committed to PPAs, totaling over 18,372 MW worth of renewable energy, or enough clean energy to power about 4 million homes per year, as of 2021, the World Resources Institute reported.
Demand for critical minerals can be reduced by 58 percent by 2050 through the use of new technologies, circular economy strategies and increased recycling.
Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the ocean floor using destructive methods such as dredging, drilling and hydraulic pumps. These methods disrupt and harm marine life and their ecosystems.
The seabed is a largely unexplored world of unidentified species and mystery. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone — a 1.7 million square mile area of the Pacific Ocean — is a focal point of deep-sea mining for its polymetallic nodules rich in minerals such as copper, nickel, manganese, cobalt, rare earth elements and other precious metals used in the making of zero-carbon technology components. This abundant expanse is the subject of 17 exploration contracts with a total area of roughly 621,371 square miles — approximately the size of Ethiopia. But it is also home to more than 5,000 recently discovered marine species.
A sea cucumber of the species Deima after being transferred into an ethanol-filled specimen jar for scientific preservation, in a laboratory at the Natural History Museum in London, England on May 24, 2023. Researchers collected thousands of samples of deep-sea anthropods from the sea bed using a remotely-operated system. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone holds great biodiversity but is also the world’s largest mineral exploration region. Leon Neal / Getty Images
The sought-after nodules embedded in the ocean floor are about the size of a potato and take millions of years to form, along with mineral-rich crusts and sulfides surrounding hydrothermal vents. Due to recent technological advancements, mining these ecologically sensitive areas is achievable by razing the surface of the seabed, sweeping away layers of biodiverse sediment and pumping displaced and often destroyed organic materials back into the water.
A star fish collected from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone before being transferred into an ethanol-filled specimen jar for scientific preservation, in a laboratory within the Natural History Museum on May 24, 2023 in London, England. Leon Neal / Getty Images
Brief History of Deep-Sea Mining
Some small-scale exploratory mining has already taken place to test deep-sea mining equipment, but no commercial mining of the seabed has yet occurred. However, some mining companies and national governments have plans to start doing so as soon as they can — possibly in the next few years. Whether that happens or not will mostly depend on how the International Seabed Authority (ISA) chooses to regulate deep-sea mining.
In 2021, Nauru — a tiny Pacific Island nation in Micronesia — gave the ISA notice that it planned to start mining in international waters. This triggered the “two-year rule,” a controversial provision of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The rule mandates that the ISA must “consider” and “provisionally approve” deep-sea mining applications, whether or not there has been a finalized set of regulations.
The two years was completed for the Nauru application in July of 2023, but the ISA meeting that followed concluded without a final rule being agreed upon. The 168-member ISA Assembly has been working on establishing the rules for deep-sea mining. ISA’s Council — made up of 36 Assembly-elected members — has a goal of adopting finalized regulations by 2025.
As of July of last year, several nations — including Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, France, Palau and New Zealand — had called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, before regulations are adopted, the ISA must address how the impacts of mining will be monitored and addressed, what level of harm is allowed and how compliance with the regulations will be enforced.
Currently, contractors like corporations or individuals are only permitted to extract seabed minerals if they are sponsored by a UNCLOS state party and have obtained an exploitation contract from the ISA.
Contractors are required to use best environmental practices and a precautionary approach in order to control or prevent hazards like pollution of the marine environment. In addition, they must develop programs for evaluating and monitoring impacts in conjunction with the ISA. Consultation between stakeholders is also mandated at crucial junctures of the exploration stage — a period that can take years.
While they wait for an international waters code of conduct, countries can still proceed with mining projects inside domestically controlled waters, or “exclusive economic zones” (EEZs).
In January of 2024, Norway started the process of opening its waters to deep-sea mining exploration, which would likely begin in the 2030s.
Most mineral deposits that are sought after by mining operations are located outside EEZs on the vast abyssal plains of international waters, such as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
Arguments for Deep-Sea Mining
Those in favor of deep-sea mining say it will help meet the growing need for critical minerals used in the global decarbonization process. As we rely more on solar and wind energy, electric vehicles and other green technologies, the demand for some of these minerals could increase by four to six times. However, studies have shown that there are plenty of land-based sources for critical minerals.
Some proponents of deep-sea mining view it as a way to avoid some of the environmental hazards of mining on land, like pollution of freshwater by mining runoff and deforestation. But the destruction of marine life and ecosystems wrought by deep-sea mining means it would not be a better alternative for biodiversity or the planet.
Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company Gerard Barron, seen in 2021 near the Maersk Launcher research ship which returned to San Diego after conducting environmental impact studies on the ocean floor to learn about the effects of mining for nodules containing nickel, cobalt and manganese. Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times
Threats Posed by Deep-Sea Mining
Harms Marine Life and Ecosystems
Posters from Greenpeace against deep-sea mining displayed during the Glastonbury Festival 2024 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 27, 2024 in Glastonbury, England. Luke Brennan / Redferns
The largest biome on the planet — 90 percent of the total marine environment — the deep sea is home to vast biodiversity that is being threatened by deep-sea mining. It is highly likely that the heavy equipment used to mine the seabed would kill less mobile deep-sea creatures.
Many deep-sea species make their homes in the polymetallic nodules that are the harvest of deep-sea mining operations. The nodules develop over millions of years, so the recovery of the ecosystems they support would be extremely slow if possible at all. The removal and destruction of these important habitats would almost surely result in the extinction of some species.
Releases Stored Carbon
Not only is the ocean floor home to an unknown wealth of species, it plays an essential role in the regulation of our planetary systems by absorbing and storing enormous amounts of the carbon dioxide humans emit through the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, industrial enterprises, agriculture and other activities.
Mining the seafloor can cause the release of carbon sequestered in sediments and reduce deep-sea biodiversity, impacting the ocean’s carbon cycle and exacerbating the climate crisis.
For each kilometer of the seabed that is mined annually, 190.2 tons of carbon could be released through sediment plumes. These plumes can block sunlight, reducing the photosynthetic abilities of marine organisms who help mitigate temperature increases worldwide by absorbing carbon for energy.
A protest against deep-sea mining by Ocean Rebellion near the mining vessel ‘Hidden Gem’ in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on Feb. 8, 2022. Charles M. Vella / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Releases Toxic Sediment Plumes
There are many detrimental impacts to marine life and ecosystems by the release of sediment plumes during the deep-sea mining process. Among the most direct and devastating is that the plumes can suffocate and smother organisms who make their home on the seafloor. Some of these creatures are not as mobile and may be killed by the mining equipment itself.
Clouds of sediment have the potential to choke midwater marine ecosystems. The plumes can interfere with the reproduction and feeding of species through the introduction of heavy metals like cadmium and copper into the natural food chain. These metals can also be released in toxic concentrations when seafloor sediments are disturbed, polluting the water column. The metals can have deadly effects on filter feeders and organisms who are unable to move freely, like sessile suspension fauna.
A giant jawfish in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. Reinhard Dirscherl / ullstein bild via Getty Images
The discharge of mining wastewater can also create underwater dust storms that pollute and confuse marine organisms, preventing them from navigating through the water, feeding and reproducing.
Light Pollution
Marine organisms are used to an environment that is quiet, dark and peaceful. In addition to the direct harm caused by the process of mining the ocean floor, longer ecosystem and species disruptions can result from mining activities, such as light pollution interfering with reproduction and feeding.
Noise Pollution
Sound pollution from deep-sea mining can impact large whales, narwhals, dolphins and other marine mammals who rely on echolocation — or biological sonar — to hunt, navigate and locate one another. These species are already threatened by human activities like fishing and boating, as well as human-caused climate change.
Leaves Behind Waste Materials That Poison Marine Life and Impact Fisheries and Food Security
Mining wastewater is warm and filled with chemicals, which can kill marine animals by overheating and suffocating them. The chemicals also pollute the ocean floor and water column, making the seawater toxic, as well as altering its pH and oxygen content, all of which are harmful to marine life.
Ocean advocates protest against deep-sea mining in Luís de Camões Square in Lisbon, Portugal on June 7, 2023. Jorge Mantilla / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Economic and Social Risks of Deep-Sea Mining
Deep-sea mining is conducted offshore in the depths of the ocean, but the industry would still need to build facilities onshore to process and ship materials. This would require the acquisition and development of land, which leads to habitat loss and impacts on coastal communities who rely on marine resources for their food and livelihoods.
Minerals extracted from the high seas have been designated by the UN as “the common heritage of [hu]mankind” for the benefit of all nations. However, the current ISA regulatory regime seems to support the flow of profits to mining company shareholders and developed nations, instead of to developing countries.
Why Deep-Sea Mining Is Not Necessary for Renewable Energy
Deep-sea mining is not necessary to obtain the critical minerals needed for zero-carbon technologies. In order to supply the rare earth elements needed to meet the demands of the growing renewable energy sector, mining and processing of land-based mineral reserves must be increased responsibly to minimize negative environmental and social impacts.
In the coming 15 to 20 years, recycling of minerals will hopefully become a feasible alternative to mining. According to World Bank estimates, the significant increase of end-of-life battery recycling rates by mid-century could reduce the necessity of newly mined minerals by roughly 25 percent for nickel, lithium and copper, and approximately 15 percent for cobalt. Unfortunately, there will not be an adequate supply of these minerals circulating for recycling to be a workable approach by 2030.
Improved recycling methods in established channels — electrical and electronics, for instance — could lessen some of the shorter-term pressure on supply while preparing a secondary supply chain to tackle future end-of-life carbon-neutral energy products.
Research is also being done on obtaining critical minerals from hard rock mine tailings and coal waste, rather than mining undisturbed land.
The evolution of battery technologies may also make mineral deposits found in the deep seabed obsolete for renewable products. An example is the shift from those that use nickel manganese oxides toward lithium iron phosphate batteries. While the nodules that are the focus of deep-sea mining operations are rich in cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and rare earth elements, they do not contain an abundance of lithium and iron.
Sodium-ion batteries could also change the EV battery market, replacing cobalt and lithium with alternatives that are more abundant and less expensive.
What We Can Do to Help Stop Deep-Sea Mining
Apply the ‘Three Rs’ to Electronic Products
The more we do to ensure mining for minerals is avoided, the better it will be for the environment. One of the best ways to do this is to apply the “three Rs” — reducing, reusing and recycling — to batteries, cell phones, computers and even renewable energy products like solar panels.
Choose Sustainable Alternatives
A shift away from traditional lithium-ion and nickel manganese cobalt oxide batteries to those made with lithium iron phosphate, which do not need cobalt or nickel — raw materials sought through deep-sea mining — could help lessen the pressure to find as many critical minerals.
Other alternatives being developed include sodium-ion batteries — a more abundant and less expensive choice — which could replace cobalt and lithium.
Do Away With Electronic Waste
The vast majority of electronic waste — 90 percent — is dumped or illegally traded. More copper and cobalt is discarded each year in e-waste than could be supplied by deep-sea mining in the central Pacific Ocean for a decade.
To cut down on e-waste, we can encourage governments to pass “right to repair” legislation, as they have in Portland, Oregon. These laws ban disposable electronics, make fixing products easier and develop standards for helping consumers identify longer-lasting products.
Reduce Overconsumption
One of the best ways to reduce electronic waste is to not buy electronics you don’t really need in the first place. When you do decide to spring for a new electronic device, donate or sell your old one online or bring it to a local electronic collection center.
Another way to reduce overconsumption and e-waste is to buy quality products that will last and won’t need to be replaced quickly. You can also purchase gadgets with repair services and extended warranties. It’s always a good idea to check a product’s lifespan before purchasing it.
Avoid electronics that are trendy and will go out of style. Some products will try and tempt you with the latest upgrade when it really isn’t that different from earlier models. Avoiding the urge to stay “up to date” can mean creating a lot less e-waste. You can also support companies that use sustainable manufacturing practices.
Build a Circular Economy
A 2022 report by SINTEF found that we can reduce critical mineral demand by 58 percent by 2050 by using circular economic strategies, new technologies and increased recycling.
One option is to use the minerals we already have access to through urban mining. Another is to develop improved designs and technologies so that we can recover minerals from products that are no longer being used.
Takeaway
There are many environmental reasons not to pursue deep-sea mining — its impacts on marine animals and the environment, as well as its ecological implications.
As we stand on the cusp of a full transition away from fossil fuels to a world powered by green energy and a circular economy, it is essential that we focus our energies on sourcing minerals in a way that doesn’t decimate habitats and ecosystems. To do this, we must prioritize increased critical minerals recycling, ethical land-based mining practices and improved product designs so that they can be used and reused longer without needing to be replaced, thereby reducing demand for these elements.
An octopus on the floor of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. Goran Safarek / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Maryland is suing W.L. Gore & Associates, the maker of Gore-Tex — a waterproof material often used in outdoor gear such as raincoats — alleging its leaders continued to use per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals” long after they learned of the chemicals’ serious health risks.
The complaint filed in federal court last week by the state’s attorney general on behalf of the departments of environment, health and natural resources said the company has been aware for decades that the substances posed serious health risks to residents of Cecil County, but did not notify nearby communities or the state about the dangers, reported The Washington Post.
The lawsuit states that the company’s operations released perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a highly regulated forever chemical, into the area, contaminating drinking and surface waters, groundwater, soils, animals, plants and natural resources owned by the state, The Baltimore Banner reported.
Maryland sues W.L. Gore over decades of forever chemicals pollution
“It is unacceptable for any company to knowingly contaminate our drinking water with these toxins, putting Marylanders at risk of severe health conditions,” said Attorney General of Maryland Anthony G. Brown in a statement, as reported by The Washington Post.
Maryland seeks to hold Gore, a Delaware-based company, liable for the costs of the state’s investigation, contamination cleanup and other damages.
The company denied the state’s allegations. Over the past two years, Gore has provided water filtration and bottled water to nearby residents, conducted sampling and made efforts to limit potential damage around the sites, according to company website forward.gore.com.
Amy Calhoun, spokesperson for Gore, said the company “is surprised by the Maryland Attorney General’s decision to initiate legal action, particularly in light of our proactive and intensive engagement with state regulators over the past two years,” reported The Washington Post.
The action by the state comes after another lawsuit was filed by a family in Maryland, in addition to a class-action suit, making similar claims.
The class action, filed on behalf of residents of Cecil County last year, demanded that Gore pay for medical bills, water filtration systems and additional damages associated with harmful pollution being pumped into the mostly rural community for decades, The Associated Press reported.
“PFAS are linked to cancer, weakened immune systems, and can even harm the ability to bear children,” Brown said, as reported by The Associated Press.
PFAS are particularly harmful because they can accumulate in various environments and are almost indestructible. They can also cause developmental delays in children and increased cholesterol levels, among other health issues, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said.
Philip Federico, an attorney representing plaintiffs in lawsuits against Gore, including the class action, said the company’s efforts were “too little, much too late,” The Associated Press reported.
“It’s typical corporate environmental contamination,” Federico said. “They’re in no hurry to fix the problem.”
Federico said that, in the meantime, residents continue to suffer, and one of his clients has been diagnosed with kidney cancer.
The complaint claims Gore’s failure to warn those living close to its Maryland facilities of the potential harms has resulted in “a toxic legacy for generations to come.”
The lawsuit highlights Gore’s relationship with DuPont, pointing out that knowledge of the dangers of PFAS have been long known by both companies as they continued to rake in profits. It states that DuPont scientists knew as early as 1961 that adverse liver reactions were caused by PFOA in rats and dogs.
“Gore, through these discussions with DuPont and otherwise, knew of the potential for releases of PFOA to air and water from the Gore Facilities and yet did not inform the State,” the attorneys said in the lawsuit, as reported by The Baltimore Banner.
State officials have said recent tests of residential drinking water near certain Gore sites have shown levels of PFOA well above EPA safety limits, according to The Associated Press.
In 2014, Gore announced that PFOA had been eliminated from raw materials used in the making of Gore-Tex. However, the chemical continues to cause long-term impacts due to its persistence in the environment, the attorneys said.
“While we appreciate Gore’s limited investigation to ascertain the extent of PFAS contamination around its facilities, much more needs to be done to protect the community and the health of residents,” said Maryland Secretary of the Environment Department Serena McIlwain in a statement, as The Associated Press reported. “We must remove these forever chemicals from our natural resources urgently, and we expect responsible parties to pay for this remediation.”
The trees will be planted in forestlands and communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia, a press release from ADF said.
“In seeing the devastation of Helene and Milton, we felt a strong pull to make a bold commitment to recovery — and we weren’t alone. We received an outpouring of calls and emails from people eager to help the communities and forests impacted by these storms and we’re proud to be in a position to help make restoration happen,” said Dan Lambe, ADF’s chief executive officer, in the press release. “Human life and safety always take precedence in the wake of a natural disaster, so we don’t rush to replant. We collaborate with our on-the-ground planting partners to know when the time is right. And when they’re ready, we’ll be there with 10 million trees, prepared to put hope in motion.”
The global nonprofit said the precise impact to tree cover caused by the back-to-back hurricanes is still being determined, but it will be the biggest undertaking in ADF’s more than 50-year history, reported The Guardian.
ADF has worked in other areas impacted by storms, most recently with partners in Miami and along the Florida Panhandle and Gulf Coast following Hurricanes Michael and Irma.
“The emotion that you see from people when they get to get a tree, to take home to plant, to be an active part of recovery, bringing life and hope and healing back to their neighborhoods and to their community is inspiring,” Lambe said, as The Guardian reported.
After the most urgent humanitarian needs in the region have been addressed, ADF will collaborate with partners in both the public and private sectors, along with local tree planting organizations, to determine a replanting timeline, the press release said.
“What’s so cool about it is it’s every different part of the community you could imagine, every demographic, every age category. People are just so excited to be contributing to the recovery,” Lambe said, as reported by The Guardian. “And beyond the emotional side of it, in these cities, these communities and these forests, trees are not a nice-to-have, they are a must-have. From extreme heat, from biodiversity challenges, and ecosystem challenges to the just broader resilience and readiness for the next storm, trees just do so much for us. So it’s both an emotional and an environmental recovery, and we’re proud to get to be a part.”
Tampa Bay will be one of the largest focus areas. The region was heavily impacted by the gigantic wind fields of Hurricanes Debby, Milton and Helene.
“I was born and raised here, and I’ve never before seen such devastation, so many trees down,” said Debra Evenson, executive director of environmental organization Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, one of ADF’s partners, as The Guardian reported. “Just on our property, at our office, we probably had five trees down. The devastation was everywhere. It wasn’t just one specific area, it hit all of Tampa Bay, just thousands and thousands of trees.”
A tree blocks a street after Hurricane Milton swept through downtown Tampa, on Oct. 10, 2024. Kathleen Flynn for the Washington Post
More than 25,000 volunteers will assist with the Tampa Bay area project, with early attention being given to schools, community spaces and lower-income neighborhoods.
“It’s in the community, in people’s homes, where so many were lost. They’re crepe myrtles, live oak and magnolia trees… you don’t really understand everything the trees provide until they’re gone. It’s not just air quality, it’s reducing stormwater runoff, it’s providing shade that regulates temperature. We’re in Florida, it’s 100F sometimes, and it’s like ‘why is my electric bill so high?’ It’s because you’re missing your shade trees now,” Evenson explained.
She said they would also prioritize the replacement of fruit trees in areas that need them.
“We go into areas that are food deserts, where they don’t have the funds to replant these types of big trees that grow and give shade and bear fruit. To them, this is life-changing,” Evenson added.
Lambe said another area of enormous need was historic Asheville, North Carolina, a city torn apart by Helene’s damaging winds and torrential rainfall that led to deadly flooding.
“We’ve already been distributing trees with community leaders there, to neighborhoods that are ready to replant,” Lambe said, as reported by The Guardian. “It was shocking that a community like Asheville was being impacted by a hurricane, and they don’t have a lot of experience with recovery. We’ve been able to take lessons from elsewhere and remind partners that first of all you take an inventory, do an assessment, don’t rush the restoration.”
ADF has helped plant more than half a billion trees all over the world, assisting with recovery efforts following hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and floods in more than 60 nations since it began in 1972.
