Nautilus must provide info
I would like Mel Togolo, country manger for Nautilus Minerals, to provide the public with information on the hydrodynamics of deep water mass movements.
I am saddened that such information is not readily available.
I have been visiting the Nautilus website as a concerned citizen to see if there is any mention of hydrodynamic analysis because such information should be disseminated and circulated widely.
As you are aware, PNG as a young nation, suffers from a knowledge gap in scientific fields such as this. For that reason, I called together a group of colleagues, who are frontier scientists developing the partially floating runway in Tokyo Bay, a superstructure involving a great engineering feat.
It will extend the Hanade International airport over the sea.
My colleagues have spent three years doing intensive numerical simulation of water mass movements as well as comprehensive environmental impact assessments that integrate ecological, hydrodynamic and hydrological models.
I asked them about deep sea mining especially the methods proposed by Nautilus, and the response was that without any hydrodynamic simulation and intensive field surveys with the use of long term sensors, it is a risk that PNG has to face.
I urge you as a representative and a son of PNG to ask the basic questions that govern deep sea mining operations.
If industrial countries such as US, Japan, China and UK poured thousands of tons of harmful carbon emissions into the atmosphere thousands of kilometres away, and Pacific islands are now sinking, what is the guarantee that mining hundreds of metres of the seabed floor will have no influence on the coastal ecosystem in 50 years time?
What scientific guarantee can Nautilus provide for the people of PNG apart from the word of world scholars?

V. Badira, Tokyo
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