The debate over deep-sea mining exposes a contradiction between the country’s proud culture of environmental stewardship and its dependence on the extraction of the ocean’s riches.
Over the last decade and a half, deep-sea mining has captured worldwide attention as a potential source for the minerals like manganese, nickel, and cobalt that are needed to make electric vehicle batteries and other technology in support of the global energy transition.
While the most coveted seabed area for potential mining — the vast and relatively flat Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean — is under international jurisdiction, parts of the world’s oceans controlled by individual nations have also attracted interest.
Some countries, like Papua New Guinea, have taken the step of issuing exploration contracts. France, by contrast, passed an outright ban on mining in its waters. (In Papua New Guinea, reports recently emerged of illegal mining in its waters.) Other countries are still debating what to do.
Since 2017, Norway has been considering the possibility of mining in the part of the Arctic Ocean set aside as its exclusive economic zone — specifically in an area comprising over 100,000 square miles, about the size of Italy.
The resources of interest there include two coveted deposits: polymetallic sulfides, which are ores that form around hydrothermal vents, and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts, or accretions of metal along the sides of underwater mountains.
Earlier this year, in January, a proposal to allow companies to survey Norway’s waters and assess its resource potential sailed through parliament with an 80-20 vote. Until that point, seabed mining had not been a widely publicized issue in Norway, but the vote prompted a groundswell of civil society opposition.
“To large parts of Norwegian society, this came as a surprise when the Norwegian government suddenly announced that they were going for deep sea mining, and it sparked a lot of outrage,” said Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle, a deep sea mining campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic.
Environmental organizations found themselves in an unusual alliance with the country’s fishing industry, which organized against the mining plan because of the threat it posed to fish stocks (seafood is Norway’s largest export after oil and gas).
Se ha dicho que “Detrás de una gran fortuna hay siempre un gran crimen”. En España todos los que no tenemos esa fortuna tenemos la sospecha de que así fue en el caso de los grandes financieros que nos gobiernan en realidad y que están exentos de la cris actual si no son los causantes más o menos directos de ella, sin Justicia que llegue inquietarlos, pues tienen comprado el poder político. Y esta novela expone magníficamente cómo uno de estos magnates utiliza su rapacidad y astucia para ascender, de simple campesino catalán emigrado a Barcelona en las postrimerías del s XIX, a ser uno de los hombres más ricos de España y de Europa. Onofre Bouvila llega efectivamente emigrado del campo y, tras unos trabajos miserables de albañil en las obras de la exposición mundial que tuvo lugar en esa ciudad, encuentra el modo de ascender por medio del crimen, si es necesario violento, asesinatos incluidos, la extorsión y matrimonios y manejos varios de conveniencia, aun siendo prácticamente analfabeto. Solo tiene una debilidad, y es la desdichada camarera que lo atiende en la triste pensión donde vive al principio, nada afortunada en ningún sentido salvo el intelectual. Sin duda, seguramente es la mejor y más trabajada novela de Eduardo Mendoza aunque aquí, su humor tradicional puede brillar menos.
Una de esas obras en las que el autor parece dedicar todos sus recursos de muchos años para levantar un monumento y sorprendentemente este se sostiene. Es una historia trepidante, asombrosa, cruel y despiadada, como su protagonista Onofre Boavila, y repleta de disgresiones históricas que pasan por escenas como Antonio Gaudí pidiendo limosna o Mata Hari saltando a un tren desde un automóvil. A caballo entre la novela picaresca y el realismo mágico, el libro te conduce a la Barcelona de finales del siglo XIX y te deja a las puertas de la Segunda República y la tormenta por descargar en España y el resto de Europa. En el trayecto verás una ciudad cambiar hacia un progreso desbocado del que no está claro el para qué. Como le ocurre a Onofre con su vida. Lo que más me gustó: esa voz irónica y sarcástica de un narradador sin embargo benevolente. Novela que camina entre el realismo mágico y el surrealismo. Mendoza, con su estilo fresco, culto y esos toques de humor con los que yo me desternillo, nos muestra las luces y las sombras propias de la ciudad de Barcelona entre los siglos XIX y XX sin pretender moral alguna, sólo el desarrollo de la ciudad mediante un impresionante collage de personajes. Narra el ascenso imparable de su protagonista en el plano económico en el período comprendido entre las dos Exposiciones Universales llevadas a cabo en Barcelona. La acción sirve al autor para describir a la perfección cómo era esta ciudad a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX. Como todos los libros del autor está muy bien escrito, aunque en este caso tiene más fondo quizás que los libros del «detective sin nombre» (muy recomendables también), pero al mismo tiempo, echo en falta más toques cómicos de los suyos. Los personajes secundarios, como es habitual en él, sobresalientes.
It has been said that “Behind every great fortune there is always a great crime.” In Spain, all of us who do not have that fortune suspect that this was the case with the great financiers who govern us in reality and who are exempt from the current crisis if they are not the more or less direct cause of it, without Justice that comes to disturb them, because they have bought political power. And this novel magnificently exposes how one of these magnates uses his rapacity and cunning to rise, from a simple Catalan peasant emigrated to Barcelona at the end of the 19th century, to become one of the richest men in Spain and Europe. Onofre Bouvila actually arrives emigrated from the countryside and, after some miserable jobs as a bricklayer on the construction site of the world exhibition that took place in that city, finds the way to rise through crime, violent if necessary, including murder, extortion and marriages and various schemes of convenience, despite being practically illiterate. He has only one weakness, and that is the unfortunate waitress who serves him in the sad boarding house where he lives at the beginning, not very fortunate in any sense except the intellectual one. Without a doubt, it is surely Eduardo Mendoza’s best and most elaborate novel, although here, his traditional humor may shine less.
One of those works in which the author seems to dedicate all his resources over many years to raise a monument and surprisingly it stands up. It is a fast-paced, amazing, cruel and merciless story, like its protagonist Onofre Boavila, and full of historical digressions that go through scenes like Antonio Gaudí begging for alms or Mata Hari jumping onto a train from a car. Halfway between a picaresque novel and magical realism, the book takes you to Barcelona at the end of the 19th century and leaves you at the gates of the Second Republic and the storm about to break out in Spain and the rest of Europe. Along the way you will see a city change towards unbridled progress for which it is not clear why. As happens to Onofre with his life. What I liked most: that ironic and sarcastic voice of a narrator who is nevertheless benevolent. A novel that walks between magical realism and surrealism. Mendoza, with his fresh, cultured style and those touches of humor that make me laugh, shows us the lights and shadows of the city of Barcelona between the 19th and 20th centuries without any moral pretensions, only the development of the city through an impressive collage of characters. He narrates the unstoppable rise of his protagonist in the economic field in the period between the two Universal Exhibitions held in Barcelona. The action serves the author to perfectly describe what this city was like at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. Like all of the author’s books, it is very well written, although in this case it has more depth perhaps than the books of the «detective without a name» (also highly recommended), but at the same time, I miss more of his comic touches. The secondary characters, as usual, are outstanding.
What exactly is going on with this Labour government? It’s like they have decided to set out to piss off as many pensioners as they can in the shortest amount of time. If that’s what they’re doing, then they are certainly one of the most successful governments in modern history. Perhaps they’re hoping all the […]
The Turkish State and its jihadi mercenary proxies have prepared a large scale offensive to cross the Euphrates, and attack Kobanê.Turkey has also opened their wall with Kobane and massed troops and artillery on the border.
Kobanê now: tens of thousands of residents on the streets in protest against the attacks and threats of the Turkish occupation state and its mercenaries in the city of Kobanê (Syrian Kurdistan)
From Kobanê they plan to push into the rest of North East Syria. They did not stop at Afrin, Shehba or Minbic. They will not stop at Kobanê. The Turkish State wants it all.
Yesterday thousands of people in Kobanê protested against Turkey’s plans.
Türkiye ‘building up forces’ on Syrian border – WSJ
For days, there have been increasing reports that a large-scale attack on Kobane is imminent. Turkish media are openly announcing this. We see videos of SNA convoys, already camouflaged with mud, gathering on the west side of the Euphrates.
Kurdish officials are reportedly pleading with US President-elect Donald Trump to convince Ankara not to launch an invasion
Türkiye and its militia allies are reportedly building up their forces near the Syrian border in what is speculated to be preparation for a large-scale incursion into Kurdish-held territories, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing senior US officials.
On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of shareholders from Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), environmental rights defenders were arrested, and an environmental journalist was kidnapped after displaying banners denouncing PHC’s mistreatment of local communities. PHC, formerly known as Feronia, is a multinational company that operates large palm oil plantations in the DRC.
Trump and his allies are doing their donors’ bidding (open bribery) by rigging a $4 trillion giveaway to wealthy elites —while preparing cuts to programs that working and middle-class US Americans depend on.
IT’S NOT FAIR.. screamed little Bill the nepo-billionaire when Bob got the cherry on the cake
Its not your fault if you were born into a US Billionaire family.. But later you’re likely conditioned into being a monster.
The Fairness Report is only about US Americans and how they could revel in a Tsunami of Dollars if the Billionaires were taxed ‘fairly’.
But of course the USA is a Mafia State, pulling in trillions of dollars from the other ‘would-be’ mafia States by means of its military and financial control..
The rest of us just don’t matter to conditioned monsters.
We don’t matter even to the ‘fairness advocates’ of the Report. US folks are steeped in a culture of privilege, especially for the ‘white’ race and those privileged who are already nepo-rich.
A privilege which has hardly ever reached the workers, and is now fast fading, as the US Israeli-backed Corporate Ecocidal War State splurges its ill gotten gains, indulges in Humongous Debt, and lavishes the spoils on its 0.1% of Billionaires.
Of course most capitalist States might be just as bad if they had ‘Hegemoney’
Alongside cheeky profiles of inheritors wasting family fortunes on failed vanity businesses, medieval church purchases, lifestyle brands, private jets, and more, the report examines the startling realities of billionaire wealth growth.
Example: 30 of the largest billionaire dynasties have seen their fortunes swell by 54% over the past nine years, while the wealth gap between the top 0.01% and bottom 90% has reached its highest level since the Great Depression.
Catastrophe waiting to Happen… in Mayotte , a French colony part of the EU, Most people live in now destroyed cardboard and metal sheet huts, with water a few hours every 3 days. Under French military rule half the 320k population survive without papers while rich EU Tourists stay in luxury resorts.
views Dec 15, 2024 Mayotte: “Everything was written in advance”, Gaël Musquet, meteorologist specializing in the anticipation and forecasting of natural disasters who believes that “a crisis like this is prepared decades in advance”
Mayotte is legally PART OF FRANCE
“I am surprised that people are surprised by what is happening in Mayotte today,” adds Said Omar Oili, senator of Mayotte.
Tropical Cyclone Chido made catastrophic landfall over the island of Mayotte on Saturday, December 14, 2024, as a category 4 equivalent cyclone. Reports suggest hundreds or thousands of fatalities linked to the storm with widespread damage being reported across the island.
The French led military declared an ongoing curfew, a surrealist repression as up to half the population have lost any home to stay in.
Satellite image of Tropical Cyclone Chido making landfall in Mayotte at 07:30 UTC on December 14, 2024. Credit: EUMETSAT/Meteosat, Zoom Earth,
Cyclone Chido causes hundreds of deaths on Mayotte islands in Indian Ocean, officials say
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The death toll in the French territory of Mayotte from Cyclone Chido is “several hundred” and may be close to 1,000, the island’s top government official told the local broadcaster Sunday.
Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ere that “I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand.”
He said it was “extremely difficult” to get an exact number right now after the Indian Ocean islands were pummeled by the intense tropical cyclone on Saturday, causing widespread destruction. Officials had confirmed at least 11 deaths in Mayotte earlier Sunday but said that was expected to increase.
Chido has now made landfall on the east coast of Africa, where aid agencies are warning of more loss of life and severe damage in northern Mozambique.
Docu from Feb 2024-Catastrophe waiting to Happen
Catastrophe waiting to Happen…Mayotte – An island on the edge | DW Documentary 337,310 views Jan 22, 2024 France’s overseas territory Mayotte is in a deep crisis. Can inhabitants like Wadaanti fulfil their dreams and leave precarious housing to study? Geographically, the island of Mayotte is part of the Comoros archipelago, situated northwest of Madagascar. Yet politically, Mayotte is part of France and therefore a territory of the EU. A popular destination for migrants, mainly from the neighboring Comoros, but also from Africa, Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Most of these migrants are forced to live in precarious housing, living in constant fear of being deported again. Frustration is growing among the local population due to a rise in crime, a lack of infrastructure, and inflation. Locals feel abandoned by the government and believe that migrants are to blame. With a water shortage on the island now, the situation is threatening to escalate. A report by Luisa von Richthofen.
People wave French flags as they hold a banner that reads “My life is Wuambush” during a rally in support of Operation Wuambushu (“Take Back”) in Chirongui, on the island of Mayotte, on April 27, 2023. – French Authorities in Mayotte have fomented division in the impoverished population and launched Operation Wuambushu to remove illegal migrants who have settled in slums on the island, with more than 2,000 police and administrative officials mobilised to set in train the expulsions of those illegally on the island and tear down the makeshift squats housing them. (Photo by Patrick Meinhardt / AFP)France: Violent Military Operation to Deport Irregular Migrants in … May 5, 2023 France launched military operationWuambushu in Mayotte to dismantle shanty towns, expel irregular migrants and combat delinquency amid polarised debate with reactions ranging from NGOs’ concerns to calls to murder from an official. … After more than 100 years of French colonialrule, an….
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The tropical cyclone blew through the southeastern Indian Ocean, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. Mayotte was directly in its path and suffered extensive damage on Saturday, officials said. The local prefect said it was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Saturday night after an emergency meeting in Paris that there were fears that the death toll in Mayotte “will be high” and the island had been largely devastated.
Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took office on Friday, said public infrastructure on Mayotte had been severely damaged or destroyed, including the main hospital and the airport. He said many people living in precarious shacks in slum areas have faced very serious risks.
Chido brought winds in excess of 220 kph (136 mph), according to the French weather service, making it a category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale.
High End Tourists inhabit Luxury Segregated Resorts
Mayotte has a population of just over 300,000 spread over two main islands about 800 kilometers (500 miles) off Africa’s east coast. It is France’s poorest island and the European Union’s poorest territory.
In some parts, entire neighborhoods were flattened, while local residents reported many trees had been uprooted and boats had been flipped or sunk.
The French Interior Ministry said 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers have been deployed to “help the population and prevent potential looting.”
The Free 