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Cited by 36International Maritime Law IssuesMining and Resource ManagementCoastal and Marine Management

Geographies of deep sea mining: A critical review

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Childs, John·2022·The Extractive Industries and Society
DOI 10.1016/j.exis.2022.101044
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Abstract

Commercial deep sea mining (DSM) stands at a threshold as both national and global legal regimes seek to move beyond exploration of the seabed towards its exploitation. As an emerging political issue that takes place in complex geographies that are not always accounted for by science, deep-sea mining demands critical attention. It is against this background that this paper aims to highlight work that foregrounds these different geographies and actors that together shape the politics of DSM. As it emerges as a political reality in the Anthropocene, it asks what geographies are implicated and why do they matter? It highlights scholarship that has explored both the human and more-than-human dimensions and relations of DSM and argues for a broad range of thinking that is appropriate to the complex deep-sea environments being targeted for extraction.

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  • Researching extractivism extends to the subsoils, the deep sea and outer space, as well as to solar extractivism, wind extractivism, recycling lower-carbon technologies, hydrological extractivism, green hydrogen, the renewable energy-extraction nexus of battery storage technologies, green data extractivism complexes, and atmospheric geoengineering.

    “Researching extractivism extends to the subsoils (Hokkanen, 2024), the deep sea (Childs, 2022) and outer space (Klinger, 2017), as well as to “solar extractivism” (Hu, 2023) “wind extractivism” (Dunlap & Marin, 2022, 7), recycling lower-carbon technologies (Sovacool et al., 2020), and hydrological extractivism”

    From The political ecologies of "green" extractivism(s): An introduction (2024) · cites this paper as Childs, 2022

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  • The political ecologies of "green" extractivism(s): An introduction

    Dunlap, A., Verweijen, J., & Tornel, C. (2024) · Journal of Political Ecology · doi:10.2458/jpe.6131 · Cited by 126 · see citing works

    “…monocultures) and uneven distributional burdens emanating from energy transformers (Dunlap, 2020), high-voltage power lines (Dunlap & Laratte, 2022), battery energy storage systems (Archer & Calvão, 2024) and, most of all, so-called 'green' technologies (Chagnon et al. , 2021, 2022; Brodie, 2024).”
    Background

Authors
Childs, J.
Affiliations
Lancaster University (GB)
Corresponding author
Childs, John
ORCID
Childs, John
Venue
The Extractive Industries and Society
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2022-03
Volume
9
Pages
101044
ISSN
2214-790X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.exis.2022.101044
OpenAlex
W4210428745
Cited by
36
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 1
FWCI
6.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • The Extractive Industries and Society (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/N016548/1)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › International Maritime Law Issues
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Mining and Resource Management
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Coastal and Marine Management
Keywords
deep-sea mining, more-than-human relations, Anthropocene, mining

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