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“It is hard to imagine how seabed mines could feasibly operate without devastating species and ecosystems,” says UK marine biologist Helen Scales – a view shared by David Attenborough, who has called for a moratorium on all deep-sea mining plans. At the same time, plumes of sediments, laced with toxic metals, would be sent spiralling upwards to poison marine food-chains. Delicate, long-living denizens of the deep – polychaete worms, sea cucumbers, corals and squid – would be obliterated by dredging. They say mining deep-sea nodules would be catastrophic for our already stressed, plastic-ridden, overheated oceans. “We cannot increase land supplies of these metals without having a significant environmental impact. “We desperately need substantial amounts of manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper to build electric cars and power plants,” says Hans Smit, chief executive of Florida’s Oceans Minerals, which has announced plans to mine for nodules. By dredging up nodules from the deep we can slow the scorching of our planet’s ravaged surface. These metallic morsels could therefore help humanity save itself from the ravages of global warming, argue mining companies who say their extraction should be rated an international priority.