Dark Oxygen and the Metacrisis

[The title of this post is neither a Harry Potter book, nor the name of a death metal band!].

About half our oxygen comes from the ocean … and some of that comes from deep sea ‘batteries’ - metallic nodules that are found on the deep ocean floor, far below where sunlight can reach.

This ‘dark oxygen’ was first noticed in 2013 by scientist Andrew Sweetman, but “I just ignored it, because I’d been taught - you only get oxygen through photosynthesis.”

This is kinda nuts, when you think about it: we’ve only just discovered that not all of our oxygen comes from plants.

Some of it comes from these ‘nodules’ - lumps of metal, containing lithium, cobalt and copper. There are already plans to start mining these valuable resources.

A couple of things jump out from this …

1️⃣ The oxygen was noticed a decade ago, but ignored because it didn’t seem to make sense - it didn’t fit with the accepted understanding.

2️⃣ Despite the discovery, and despite the fact that we know very little about deep sea ecosystems, plans to mine the resources are still in place.

Let’s go back in time …

🌳 When we first started clear cutting trees, we didn’t know what we were doing - we didn’t understand the crucial role forests play in the ecosystem.

🔥 When we first started burning fossil fuels, we didn’t know what we were doing - we didn’t understand that the CO2 emissions would raise the temperature of the planet.

🌊 If we start mining the deep ocean floor for these nodules, we don’t know what we are doing - we don’t understand what the long-term effects will be.

But because there is a profit to be made, the mining will probably happen.

Why?

Why does this keep happening?

Our current system incentivises First Mover Advantage:
“If I go first, I increase my likelihood of winning”.
So, mining companies want to get started ASAP.

This combines with Multi-polar Traps:
“If I don’t, someone else will”
So, Abyssal Resources Inc. won’t stop in case they lose to DeepBlue Mining Co.

What we have ended up with is an approach that focuses on short-term benefits, and doesn’t consider long-term risks - it fails to account for externalities.

On one level, this is frustrating …

However, what if we could move away from a narrow boundary, short-term profit lens, and towards a wider horizon perspective that sees the entangled connections?

If we can do that, then maybe we can come up with some different responses?