Major companies join call for deep-sea mining moratorium

On April 6th, activists on the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior took the first-ever action at sea against companies preparing to mine the Pacific Ocean’s seabed. The ship in the background is owned by DeepGreen — a Canadian mining company that’s spearheading the drive to mine the biodiverse, barely understood deep sea ecosystem.

And for the first time ever, major companies like BMW, Volvo, Google, and Samsung have pledged to exclude ocean-mined minerals from their supply chains until the associated risks are better understood.

The pledge serves as a direct counter to mining companies’ claims that kick-starting this whole new ocean-destroying industry would help meet demand for minerals.

Greenpeace is celebrating this news with … friends at the WWF, who prepared the pledge in question. At the start of … campaign against deep-sea mining last year, Greenpeace called on Google to swear off ocean-mined minerals for good.

We know more about the surface of Mars than the deep ocean, and both governments and corporations have a role to play in preventing a literal race to the bottom!