Undersea Mining

[Bycrick]

Ideally, one shouldn’t absolutely trust anyone.

If a doctor recommends major surgery, you get at least a second opinion.

No tort lawyer is going to join the "get rid of liability suits" crowd.

Research scientists are not philanthropists, they have to eat like anybody else. And whoever pays for the research is very likely to want a return on their investment.

That’s not evil, or corrupt, or a conspiracy, that’s human nature.

So, I’m not going to think that a study funded by the Koch brothers is unbiased. Nor one by Greenpeace.

[Bycrick]

Using your very good example of plate tectonics, when it was first proposed by Wegner in 1912, and was roundly ridiculed by all the "experts" until the 1960s. But, it’s not, I think, a good example compared to the climate change discussion. Realistically, we know that earthquakes happen, we just don’t know why in detail, how strong, nor when. It’s not a question of "if." Like hurricanes in Florida. I don’t need science to know that it will happen, and currently science won’t tell me when or how bad. So it’s rational IMHO, to do something so that bridges, houses or building don’t fall down. Even if the developers don’t like that.

Personally, I don’t like the idea of drag mining the seabed, for a whole bunch of reasons. We shouldn’t have allowed commercial fishing fleets to "drag mine" the upper part either. But as long as there is a perceived need for a commodity, and therefore a market for it, and greedy governments waiting to tax the production of it, exploitation and supply is going to follow. Whether it’s alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, coal or undersea manganese and rare earths. But they didn’t ask me first.