Key points
- Gerard Barron, CEO of DeepGreen, says he hopes deep-sea metal collection will let the world move away from rainforest destruction and child labor used to source metals for electric cars and mobile phones.
- Barron says the environmental impact of collecting metals from the ocean floor is measurable and will be a fraction of the impact of terrestrial ore mining.
- He cites unintended consequences of terrestrial mining as evidence supporting DeepGreen’s approach.
- Barron says he is troubled by global inequality and views getting deep-sea mining right as a step toward addressing it.
