CNN's John Sutter talks with Eric Barron, the man trying to get seabed metals for electric cars. He says he sees environmentalists as "hypocrites" who want Teslas more than minerals. The mining company is partnering with two tiny island nations in the Pacific that have a history of being exploited by entrepreneurs from Australia.
The adoption of electric cars has been hailed as an important step in curbing the use of fossil fuels and fighting climate change. There is a snag, however: such vehicles require around six times as many metals as their gasoline-powered counterparts.
A giant storehouse of the necessary resources sits at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. But retrieving them may, in turn, badly damage the environment.
Guest: Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.
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