In a bid to meet demands of various fields, be it as a solvent in industrial chemistry or for use in photocells or as fungicide in gardening ‘ the demand for sulphide mining is increasing rapidly. So, scientists in an effort to meet the market demands and grow industry capital are now planning to exploit the ‘still’ pristine seafloors.
Though various industries using sulphide as a raw material are looking forward to a seafloor mining scheduled to begin within this decade, it’s kicking up worries and dissent among the conservationists and the environmentalists.
Deep under the sea, is a rich habitat supporting rare and potentially valuable organisms. And this mining would risk these marine lives. A new study led by a University of Toronto Mississauga geologist informed this.
The temperature of the frigid deep-sea environment is made suitable for sulphur-loving bacteria and bizarre worm and clam species by the ‘black smokers’. These ‘smokers’ are undersea hydrothermal vent systems, spewing water at 350-degree Celsius.
But, this undersea mining of the massive sulphide deposits near these ‘black smokers’ could smother and contaminate these communities ‘ argued to be the representative of earth’s life origins by biologists.
So, the concerned authorities are required to seriously decide between what they want ‘ their short-time economic benefits and irreversible damage to the world’s environment, the magnitude of whose future consequences are nerve-reckng.