The seabed between Hawaii and Mexico is blanketed with black potato-sized rocks. They have a high content of manganese, nickel and cobalt; they're just sitting there on the bottom of the ocean. Scientists are studying these nodules to prepare for industrial scale mining. Eric Schlossberg: I think if we're not getting the best environmental data out there, several decisions may end up being wrong.
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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