The 2030 Spike

CHAPTER 10

THE VALUES OF THE SEA

Recent discoveries and research are signalling that much needed materials for the infrastructure of sustainability, and perhaps much of the additional food protein the world will need, could come from that 70 per cent of the planet's surface which is sea. The idea that we know more about the outer planets than about the ocean deeps is now due for change with the development of robot drilling and exploration probes, which can operate miles deep in toxic environments no human miner could approach. Investigations using modern machinery already indicate that a great deal of the world's mineral reserves are under the sea¹ – global assets that can only be valued at trillions of dollars. At least three submerged sites ...