Environmentalists demonstrated today in Lisbon against deep sea mining – a practice being promoted as a way of securing metals required for decarbonisation but which, they say, will have devastating effects on marine ecosystems. Portugal has flirted with the idea of deep sea mining in the past, which is possibly one reason behind the demo. The other is that the International SeaBed Authority is to start receiving bids from July, from companies who want to mine minerals from the sea bottom. Various countries have shown themselves to be against this idea: today’s activists want to ensure Portugal joins them.
