Lesson 42

Card 5.7: The Deep-Sea Mining Debate

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Format: Structured debate

Time: 40 min, best seminar of the year

Prerequisites: Card 0.1

Core Question

The deep seafloor holds metals the battery economy wants, in nodules that took millions of years to form, in ecosystems we have barely met. Mine them or leave them? This one is genuinely unsettled, and smart people disagree.

Resource (before class, ~10 min)

Read the provided two-sided brief: the case for (battery metals, land mining’s real damage, poorer nations’ seabed claims) and the case against (irreversibility, unknown ecosystems, sediment plumes, weak governance).

Activity: Sides You Do Not Choose

You draw your side at random and argue it regardless of your view; the ability to state the other side’s best case is the skill. Format: two prep minutes with your side, alternating two-minute openings, open cross-talk under seminar rules, then everyone drops roles and says what they actually think and whether anything moved them.

Prep Notes (your artifact)

The strongest argument FOR each side, one paragraph each, written before you know which side you will draw.

Clearing This Card

Prep notes with both sides genuinely steel-manned, plus participation.

If You Miss This Class

Prep notes plus a one-page position memo that presents both sides before taking one.

Why This Matters

Marine technology, including everything we build, lives inside this tension: the same ROV skills survey a sanctuary or prospect a mine. Engineers who have practiced holding both sides argue better in every design review, and in every DDR.