The topic for the first reaction paper is technology and the environmental/ earth sciences. When I was researching articles, the article “The Ocean Could Be the New Gold Rush” caught my attention because I love jewelry, especially expensive jewelry. The only gold rush I have ever learned about is the California Gold Rush that took place in the middle of the nineteenth century and attracted thousands of gold-seekers from around the country and world. However, a gold rush that could take place underwater and project large quantities of precious materials seemed interesting. Brian Clark Howard’s article is fairly recent and discusses the future of underwater mining. “Deep-sea miners look under water for materials like diamonds, cobalt, and metals that include gold, silver, zinc, manganese, and copper since they are highly likely to be found on the seafloor due to the high pressure of …show more content…
This caused controversy with environmentalists. As a biology major, I agree with environmentalists in that in the great depths of the waters of the world are an abundance of unique and even unidentified species of organisms that need to be protected and an environment that need not be destroyed. We haven’t studied the depths of the water extensively yet and it would be a shame to destroy something we don’t know much about. To mine underwater, they would basically use a robot called ROV. The ROV is made to withstand high pressure from the deep water and can cause damage to its surroundings by either releasing toxic materials and scraping up material from the ocean and sea floor. It takes thousands of years for a coral reef to form, and this operated vehicle can wreck it within