Now, Chelsea, I know we're used to the doom and gloom kind of fringy minis coming from me.
I tend to think of them not as doom and gloom or pessimistic, but just information that needs to
be conveyed, which is like the one topic I have. I think this one is less doomy and gloomy,
but there may be an implication of doom gloom stuff in it. So let's just go into this.
Not quite sure how to take that. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see what you think when we're done.
Okay, so this comes from the BBC. It was published on July 22, 2024, written by Victoria Gill.
Title, Oxygen Discovery defies knowledge of the deep ocean. What? We'll read it.
Scientists have discovered what they call dark oxygen being produced in the deep ocean,
apparently by lumps of metal on the sea floor. About half of the oxygen we breathe comes from
the ocean. Before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants
photosynthesizing, something that requires sunlight. Here at depths of five kilometers where no sunlight
can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic nodules, which
split seawater, H2O, into hydrogen and oxygen. Several mining companies have plans to collect
these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process and damage
any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make. I was just thinking, and it's just sitting
there not being mined. Yeah, exactly. Those fools. Surely he can't be doing that.
Quote, I first saw this in 2013, an enormous amount of oxygen being produced at the sea floor
in complete darkness. I just ignored it because I'd been taught you only get oxygen through
photosynthesis. Explains lead researcher Professor Andrew Sweetman from the Scott's Association for
Marine Science. Eventually, I realized that for years, I had been ignoring this potentially
huge discovery. He and his colleagues carried out their research in an area of the deep sea between
Hawaiian Mexico, part of a vast swath of seafloor that is covered with these metal nodules. The
nodules form when dissolved, metals in seawater collect on fragments of shell or other debris.
It's a process that takes millions of years. And because these nodules contain metals like
lithium, cobalt and copper, all of which are needed to make batteries, many mining companies
are developing technology to collect them and bring them to the surface. But Professor Sweetman
says the dark oxygen that they make could also support life on the seafloor. And this discovery,
published in the journal Nature Geoscience, raises new concerns about the risk of proposed deep
sea mining ventures. The scientists worked out that the metal nodules are able to make oxygen
precisely because they act like batteries. If you put a battery into seawater, it starts fizzing,
explained Professor Sweetman. That's because the electric current is actually splitting seawater
into oxygen and nitrogen, which are bubbles. We think that's happening with these nodules in
their natural state. Like a battery in a torch, he added, you put one battery in by torch, they
mean a flashlight. Just so you know, that's British for flashlight. We're just gonna say what
language are we reading? Yes. I think Scottish might be British. But who knows? Who knows? You
put one battery in, it doesn't light up, you put two batteries in, you've got enough voltage to
light up the torch. So when the nodules are sitting at the seafloor in contact with one another,
they're working in unison like multiple batteries. The researchers put this theory to the test in
the lab, collecting and studying potato sized metal nodules. Their experiments measured the
voltage on the surface of each metallic lump, essentially the strength of their electric current.
They found it to be almost equal to the voltage of a typical AA sized battery. This means they
say that the nodules sitting on the seabed could generate electric current large enough to split
or electrolyze molecules of seawater. The researchers think the same process, battery powered oxygen
production that requires no light and no biological process could be happening on other moons and
planets creating oxygen rich environments where life could thrive. That took a turn from what I
thought the article was about. Yeah, I know. They've really not talked about the mining at all.
I know. I thought it was going to be about mining. Yeah. The Clarion Clipperton Zone,
where the discovery was made, is a site already being explored by a number of seabed mining
companies. Here we go. Which are developing technologies to collect the nodules and bring
them to a ship at the surface. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at OAA
has warned that the seabed mining could, quote, result in destruction of life and the seabed
habitat in the mined areas, that quote. More than 800 marine scientists from 44 countries have signed
a petition highlighting the environmental risk and calling for a pause on mining activity.
New species are being discovered in the deep ocean all the time and it is often said that we know more
about the surface of the moon than we do about the deep sea. And this discovery suggests that the
nodules themselves could be providing the oxygen to support their life. Professor Marie Roberts,
a marine biologist from the University of Edinburgh, is one of the scientists who signed the seabed
mining petition and quote, there's already overwhelming evidence that the strip mining
deep sea nodule fields will destroy ecosystems we barely understand, he told the BBC News.
Because these fields cover such a huge area of our planet, it would be crazy to press ahead with
deep sea mining knowing they may be a significant source of oxygen production. I don't see this
study as something that will put an end to mining, said Professor Swiman. But we need to explore it in
greater detail and we need to use this information and the data we gather in future if we are going
to go into the deep ocean and mine it in the most environmentally friendly way possible. That's the
article. We still must mine it. Yeah, it's kind of sad that he's just like resigned himself, so it's
gonna get mine. So I guess like we'll try to do it responsibly, I guess. No one's gonna stop this. I do
have a few thoughts did take a twist in there about the implications about life elsewhere. Yeah, just
kind of off handed suggestions of like, yeah, you actually could very easily get oxygen and oceans
without photosynthesis, which is crazy because yeah, that does have implications for other
planets that have oceans. But my thoughts on this, I would say generally as a rule that like
everything in nature has a purpose. I don't think anything really happens in nature without a purpose.
Everything kind of balances each other out. Oh, well, you say that we've gone through like what five
mass extinctions, six mass extensions, I can't remember which, but kind of because nature isn't
doesn't inherently balance itself. So you end up with huge issues. That that's balance. It's
balancing. That's fair. It needs to bring the balance back. You give some you lose. Yeah,
yeah, exactly. It seems ballsy to just be like, we don't know what this is for. Yeah, we don't
know anything about the devotion, but we're definitely mining it as environmentally friendly
as we can, which is probably not very because we don't know what that oxygen is doing there.
Yeah, and especially when they say right off the bat, hey, by the way, most are oxygen actually
comes from the ocean. This might actually be part of the reason why we've always kind of just assumed
this vital plankton, but maybe it's not. This could be our source of air. Yeah, but we're just
going to mine that. I also it kind of bothers me a little bit. They didn't reach out to any of the
companies who are mining to see what their position is on it. It probably doesn't matter
because they're the mining companies. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, that's probably what they said. And
therefore the company pushed this aside as inconvenient or something like that. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. But yeah, that's that's a huge discovery. The fact that it's not just photosynthesis that's
creating oxygen in our environments. And we're also just going to do some shit with it. So, yeah,
that we need batteries, not for making oxygen for, I don't know, moving around go-karts or
something like that. I feel like this is on par for your regular type of episode because I'm
feeling uncomfortable about this. But it started with a new scientific breakthrough, which was fun.
We need to mine. Yes. We can't just discover that and not mine it. No. It's like an itch you need
to scratch. You gotta mine. Yeah, you gotta mine. Anyhow, you guys, you go have fun mining whatever
it is you mine for the next 48 hours. Do it responsibly, at least a reasonable amount
responsiveness. And we'll see you back here. Bye. Bye.