Resource companies and island nations are scouring the Pacific Ocean for untapped minerals. Trillions of rocks on the seabed contain metals that could power electric cars and green energy making us less reliant on fossil fuels. The Cook Islands believes deep-sea mining could contribute to the fight against climate change and end the country’s economic dependence on tourism. But environmentalists say extracting minerals beneath the ocean’s surface could be catastrophic for fragile marine ecosystems the scientific world knows little about.

In this episode: 

• Lucy Murray (@lucymurraynews), journalist, SBS News Australia

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Khaled Soltan and our host Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal.  Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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