logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2021
17m 59s

Mining the ocean

Bbc World Service
About this episode

How rocks on the ocean floor could be key to the transition to electric cars. Justin Rowlatt speaks to Gerard Barron, boss of DeepGreen, a company that wants to gather rocks from the ocean floors rich in the metals essential for making electric car batteries. He tells us why this kind of mining is crucial to transitioning away from fossil fuels. Louisa Casson, senior campaigner with Greenpeace, warns of the environmental devastation this could cause. And zoologist Adrian Glover tells us how mining could take place alongside conservation of the deep seabed.

(Photo: A sunset over an ocean, Credit: Getty Images)

Up next
Today
Small country, auto giant
When Slovakia was part of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the cars it made were noisy, thirsty and slow by western standards at the time. But when Volkswagen bought the car-maker Skoda, that was the beginning of a major change. Now, Slovakia makes almost a million cars a yea ... Show More
17m 28s
Yesterday
America's affordability question
In the second of two programmes, we look at Donald Trump's record on the economy one year into his second presidential term. Today, we are asking is the United States still facing a cost of living crunch?Its economy - the largest in the world - is still growing faster than most o ... Show More
17m 29s
Jan 19
Life after DOGE
Twelve months into Donald Trump’s second term as President, we examine what it’s meant for the US workforce.For government workers it has been a year of cuts, sackings and Elon Musk’s now disbanded DOGE - Department of Government Efficiency - group. Some sections of the workforce ... Show More
17m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2022
Should we mine the deep sea?
The first license of its kind has been granted for deep-sea mining. It will be used to run early tests to see whether the seabed could be good place to harvest rare earth materials in the future. These earth minerals are what powers much of our modern technology, and the demand i ... Show More
53m 37s
Sep 2022
Should we mine the deep sea?
The first license of its kind has been granted for deep-sea mining. It will be used to run early tests to see whether the seabed could be good place to harvest rare earth materials in the future. These earth minerals are what powers much of our modern technology, and the demand i ... Show More
26m 33s
Jul 2023
An ocean of opportunities
For World Ocean Day, Gaia Vince finds out how the planet’s seas could help us to generate clean power, capture CO2 and feed the world. Gaia is joined in the studio by science journalist and marine biologist Olive Heffernan. She dives into the controversy regarding the potential o ... Show More
33m 2s
Oct 2023
The energy transition needs minerals. Is deep sea mining the best way to get them?
<p>The International Energy Agency last month held its first ever&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iea.org/news/iea-critical-minerals-and-clean-energy-summit-delivers-six-key-actions-for-secure-sustainable-and-responsible-supply-chains" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">summit</ ... Show More
53m 14s
Feb 2024
The War Below
Inside your cell phone, your car, even your leaf blower – there’s a collection of small, precious minerals making each one work.  Ernest Scheyder is a Reuters reporter covering the clean energy transition and author of the new book, “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Globa ... Show More
25m 36s
Feb 2022
Deep sea exploration
UCL oceanographer Helen Czerski explores life in the ocean depths with a panel of deep sea biologists. They take us to deep ocean coral gardens on sea mounts, to extraordinary hydrothermal vent ecosystems teeming with weird lifeforms fed by chemosynthetic microbes, to the remarka ... Show More
37m 22s
Oct 2021
The Necessary Evil
<p>Mining is a complicated business. It’s destructive, it’s dangerous. But in order to get the lithium we need to power the energy transition, mining could be a necessary evil.</p><br/><p>In this episode, we go from protests in South America to a gold mine in Nevada, where we tak ... Show More
32m 25s