Latest news with #Sweetman
Agriland
25-04-2025
- General
- Agriland
Rosderra Farms granted planning for Tipperary pig fattening shed
An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission to Rosderra Farms for a new pig fattening shed in Co. Tipperary. The proposed development involves the construction of the shed and effluent tank on a long-established pig farm at Barnlough, Bansha. The proposed building would have a floor area of 551m2 and a height of 5.35m. According to the planning documents, the development is 'intended to provide enhanced animal welfare (increased floor space per pig) to ensure maximum efficiency and to comply with animal welfare requirements'. Rosderra Farms The proposed development is located in the Glen of Aherlow which runs between the Galtee Mountains and Slievenamuck. The River Aherlow is around 750m to the south of the site, while the East Ballinlough stream is located on the western boundary of the farm. On December 20, 2024, Tipperary County Council, granted planning permission for the development subject to six conditions. This decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by Cork-based environmentalist Peter Sweetman. In his appeal, Sweetman claimed that the council had failed to carry out an Appropriate Assessment according to the law. He added that 'Tipperary County Council does not have legal jurisdiction to give permission if this standard is not met'. In response, CLW Environmental Planners on behalf of Rosderra Farms said that 'the application and further information documentation demonstrate a complete and through assessment of the proposed development and its potential impacts'. 'Tipperary County Council completed an appropriate and thorough examination of the application, as comprehensively outlined in the planner's report,' they said. Planning An Bord Pleanála inspector Ciara McGuinness assessed the proposed development and found that it was in accordance with the Tipperary County Development Plan. 'Based on the proposals submitted, I do not consider the proposal would not cause a deterioration of water quality within water bodies adjacent to the development, nor would the proposal result in a change to the existing 'good status',' she added. An Bord Pleanála agreed with the recommendation of its inspector and granted planning permission for the development, subject to six conditions. The board ruled that the proposed development 'would not seriously injure the visual or scenic amenity of the area and would be acceptable in terms of public health, traffic and environmental sustainability'. 'The proposed development would, therefore, be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area,' it added. The board noted that 'the grant of permission does not authorise an increase in stocking rates above that previously permitted for this facility'.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Mexican sewage gushing into Navy SEAL training waters is US' 'next Camp Lejeune,' vets warn
"Disgusting," said Navy SEAL veteran Rob Sweetman in describing the smell and mist of Mexican sewage spewing into U.S. waters as he stood on a hill overlooking the Tijuana River estuary in California. Sweetman, a Navy veteran who served on the SEALs for eight years, spoke to Fox News Digital to sound the alarm on a water crisis rocking the San Diego area, including where SEALs train, taking a camera with him to show viewers firsthand how the contaminated water flows into the U.S. Just one mile away from where Sweetman spoke, SEALs and candidates train in the same water, which has sickened more than 1,000 candidates in a five-year period, per a Department of Defense watchdog report released in February. San Diego and the surrounding area are in a clean-water crisis that has raged for decades, but it is finding revived concern from the Trump administration as SEALs and local veterans warn of a "national security crisis" that they say is on par with the Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, water crisis. Thousands of Marines and others were sickened at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune base between 1953 and 1987 as a result of water contaminated by industrial solvents used to drink, bathe and cook at the training facilities and on-base housing. Epa Chief Takes On Mexican 'Sewage Crisis' Flowing Into Us Waters Where Navy Seals Train Read On The Fox News App Kate Monroe, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of VetComm — which advocates for disabled veterans and those navigating the VA's complicated health system — told Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview, "San Diego County is as big as some states. It's giant. Millions of people live here and are breathing the air of this water. It goes well beyond the military. It's a crisis. It's a FEMA-level travesty, and we have just been hiding it." The Navy has deep roots in the San Diego area, with the United States Naval Special Warfare Command headquartered in America's Finest City and where Navy SEAL candidates complete their arduous six-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. The sewage problem flowing from neighboring Mexico into the U.S. has percolated in San Diego for years. But the water crisis hit crisis level when it was reported in 2024 that 44 billion gallons of contaminated water imbued with raw sewage was released along the California coast in 2023, the most on record since at least 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. The issue of sewage water flowing into U.S. waters is largely attributed to outdated wastewater infrastructure across the southern border, local media outlets recently reported, with Mexico reportedly in the midst of addressing its infrastructure to curb the leaks of sewage water. The Tijuana River has for decades been plagued by sewage and waste that has affected its beaches and neighboring San Diego. In February, the Department of Defense's inspector general released a report finding that the Naval Special Warfare Center reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses among SEAL candidates between January 2019 and May 2023 alone. "Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water occurred because (Naval Special Warfare Command) did not follow San Diego County's Beach and Bay Water Quality Program's beach closure postings," the inspector general report found. "As a result of Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water during training, candidates are presented with increased health risks and NAVSPECWARCOM's training mission could be impacted." It was when Monroe, who is well-versed with veteran health through VetComm, was working with SEALs who were retiring that she realized the severity of the San Diego water pollution of the past few years. She observed an increase in health claims related to intestinal issues and "weird cancers," which was a departure from typical claims related to PTSD or orthopedic ailments. Us Senator Blasts President Of Mexico, Says Toxic Sewage Dump Threatens 'National Security' "I started creating relationships with the SEAL teams, the people that were exiting the SEALs, you know, at 14 years, 20 years, nearing their retirement," Monroe told Fox News Digital. "And the claims that we were making for these guys were surprising to me because a lot of them, they have combat PTSD, a lot of orthopedic issues. But we were having guys coming to us with, like, IBS, GERD, skin issues, weird cancers, and they were all attributing it to their time spent in San Diego training to be a SEAL in that water here that we have in San Diego." Swimming and spending time in water contaminated with feces can lead to a host of illnesses, including bacterial, viral and parasitic infections that leave people nauseous, vomiting and rushing to the bathroom. Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum was only days from entering the SEAL's aptly named Hell Week — the fourth week of basic conditioning for SEAL candidates — when nausea hit him. He was trapped in a cycle of drinking water and vomiting when he realized a serious illness had its grips on him. Gum is a retired SEAL who served from 2007 to 2017 and was exposed to the contaminated water in 2008 during BUD/S training off the San Diego coast. "I couldn't stop," Gum recounted of how he couldn't keep water down without vomiting. "You never really want to go to medical because they can pull you out or make you get rolled to the next class, but I couldn't even drink water without throwing up. It's the only time in my whole life that this has happened." Gum's nausea overcame him on a Friday in 2008, with Hell Week kicking off that Sunday night. Hell Week is a more than five-day training that puts candidates through rigorous training, including cold-water immersion, "surf torture," buoy swims, mud runs, all while operating on minimal sleep. San Diego Suburb Faces 'Sewage Crisis' From Local Beach "The sun goes down, and the instructors come out with big machine guns, that kicks it off," Gum said of how Hell Week began. "We run out to the beach, right into the ocean. You spend the rest of the week soaking wet, covered in sand. And everywhere you go, you have a 200-pound boat on your head that you and your boat crew of six to seven guys will share the weight of, and you just run everywhere." "You're just in the water. There's no escaping it. It's part of what makes BUD/S BUD/S. And it's part of what makes the Navy SEALs America's premier maritime special operators," he said. "There's not getting around how comfortable we have to be in the water. Cold, wet, miserable, doesn't matter, we suck it up and we do it." Mexico Is Poisoning Southern California In A Border Crisis Almost No One Knows About Gum received IVs the weekend ahead of Hell Week and was able to keep food and water down by the time the intense training began, but he had been diagnosed with viral gastroenteritis, commonly known as the stomach flu and highly contagious, which then morphed into rhabdomyolysis due to exerting so much energy while dehydrated from viral gastroenteritis Rhabdomyolysis is a serious illness that causes muscle to break down quickly and can lead to "muscle death" and the release of high levels of myoglobin in the blood that can injure a person's kidneys. Gum failed the first phase of BUD/S, but he was granted permission to return to training for a second time after senior leaders saw he had viral gastroenteritis. Gum again went through the first phase of BUD/S, but again he went to medical, where tests showed that his "blood came back toxic" from rhabdomyolysis. The SEAL was put on medical leave and able to fully recover in his home state of Pennsylvania before he "crushed" the hellish training on his third try. He served on SEAL Team Five, deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, and taught combatives and prisoner handling to SEAL trainees in San Diego from 2013 until his retirement in 2017. Sweetman told Fox Digital that "everyone who goes through training is going to get sick." "They're going to get infections, and it's terrible," Sweetman told Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview. "And some might argue that this is Navy SEAL training. You have to go through the toughest conditions to be able to survive and make it. I would say that it's gotten a little bit out of hand." The SEAL vet, who lives in the San Diego area, said the issue has gotten worse in recent years as Tijuana's population grows. I Trained With The Navy Seals For A Day. This Is What I Learned "When I went through training, it was absolutely a thing that they'd shut down the Imperial Beach because the ocean water was so bad, because the waste coming from Tijuana had infected the water," Sweetman said. "You could always smell it. And oftentimes, even in the bay, we'd need to wash our wet suit after being out on a swim." "Now, some of the training causes us to be deeply immersed in the water, and infections and all types of things can come up from being in the water. But I'll say that it has gotten significantly worse as the population has doubled in Tijuana." Gum and Monroe both said that water issue is a crisis, with Gum identifying it as a national security crisis that could cull well-suited candidates from the SEALs due to acute illnesses as well as sicken active SEALs. "This is a huge national crisis," he said. "Like half the SEAL teams are located in San Diego, the other half are in Virginia Beach. So when you've got half the SEAL teams who are getting exposed to this, then it's a major issue." Monroe called it the "next Camp Lejeune" crisis, which sickened Marines with contaminated drinking water at the North Carolina Marine Corps base camp for nearly three decades. The crisis has cost the U.S. billions of dollars, including legal costs and settlements to vets and their families. "This is going to be, in my opinion, the next Camp Lejeune water problem that cost our government $21 to $25 billion," she said. "That's just in the compensation directly, like the lawsuit portion of it. That doesn't cover all the compensation you have to pay these veterans tax-free for the rest of their lives. I would say that this issue here in San Diego, if you look at it over the time that people have been training here, you're looking at another $21 to $25 billion, plus all of the compensation that's going to come. It would be cheaper for our country to fix this than it would to allow it to continue." The three veterans who spoke to Fox Digital all responded with optimism that the Trump administration will tackle the crisis and end it. Will Cain, Navy Seals Honors Veterans At 2024 Nyc Seal Swim Fox Digital exclusively reported earlier in April that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is heading to San Diego to meet with SEALs and see the crisis firsthand April 22, 2025. "The raw sewage flowing from Mexico into the Tijuana River is creating serious, detrimental issues for communities with affected waterways," Zeldin told Fox Digital ahead of the Tuesday trip. "Ensuring America's waters are clean is part of EPA's core mission, and I look forward to being on the ground in San Diego in a few days to assess the situation and hear directly from those affected," he said. "It is top-of-mind knowing that as this issue persists, more and more Navy SEALs remain at risk of sickness because of the contaminated waterways they train in. I strongly believe the time has come to finalize and implement an urgent strategy to end decades of raw sewage entering the U.S." A spokesperson for Naval Special Warfare added in a comment to Fox News Digital that SEALs and candidates' health are a top priority and that officials are monitoring water quality in areas where they train. "The Navy takes the health and safety of our personnel very seriously," the spokesperson said. "Water quality at Navy training locations on the beach waterfront is closely monitored in coordination with local authorities. We are fully committed to ensuring warfighters at U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command train in a safe environment." Ahead of Zeldin's visit, the water flowing from Mexico into the U.S. is as "nasty" as ever, according to Sweetman. "What I see here is a tremendous amount of green, nasty water," Sweetman said while pointing at the murky water. "I mean, you can smell it. This is disgusting. As it pours through, it doesn't clear up. There's no clarity to it. It just turns into a foam. And the foam sits on top of the water where it's murky and it just continues to flow towards Imperial Beach and the ocean down here." "It's absolutely disgusting. I can't comment strongly enough about how bad it is to be here. I'm here specifically because I want people to see just how bad it is," he said. "The moment that I leave here, I'm going to go take a shower."Original article source: Mexican sewage gushing into Navy SEAL training waters is US' 'next Camp Lejeune,' vets warn
Fox News
21-04-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Mexican sewage gushing into Navy SEAL training waters is US' 'next Camp Lejeune,' vets warn
"Disgusting," said Navy SEAL veteran Rob Sweetman in describing the smell and mist of Mexican sewage spewing into U.S. waters as he stood on a hill overlooking the Tijuana River estuary in California. Sweetman, a Navy veteran who served on the SEALs for eight years, spoke to Fox News Digital to sound the alarm on a water crisis rocking the San Diego area, including where SEALs train, taking a camera with him to show viewers firsthand how the contaminated water flows into the U.S. Just one mile away from where Sweetman spoke, SEALs and candidates train in the same water, which has sickened more than 1,000 candidates in a five-year period, per a Department of Defense watchdog report released in February. San Diego and the surrounding area are in a clean-water crisis that has raged for decades, but it is finding revived concern from the Trump administration as SEALs and local veterans sound the alarm about a "national security crisis" that they say is on par with the Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, water crisis. Thousands of Marines and others were sickened at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina between 1953 and 1987 as a result of water contaminated by industrial solvents used to drink, bathe and cook at the training facility. Kate Monroe, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of VetComm, which advocates for disabled veterans and those navigating the VA's complicated health system, told Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview, "San Diego County is as big as some states. It's giant. Millions of people live here and are breathing the air of this water. It goes well beyond the military. It's a crisis. It's a FEMA-level travesty, and we have just been hiding it." The Navy has deep roots in the San Diego area, with the United States Naval Special Warfare Command headquartered in America's Finest City and where Navy SEAL candidates complete their arduous six-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. The sewage problem flowing from neighboring Mexico into the U.S. has percolated in San Diego for years. But the water crisis hit crisis level when it was reported in 2024 that 44 billion gallons of contaminated water imbued with raw sewage was released along the California coast in 2023, the most on record since at least 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. The issue of sewage water flowing into U.S. waters is largely attributed to outdated wastewater infrastructure across the southern border, local media outlets reported this month, with Mexico reportedly in the midst of addressing its infrastructure to curb the leaks of sewage water. The Tijuana River has for decades been plagued by sewage and waste that has affected its beaches and neighboring San Diego. In February, the Department of Defense's inspector general released a report finding that the Naval Special Warfare Center reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses among SEAL candidates between January 2019 and May 2023 alone. "Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water occurred because (Naval Special Warfare Command) did not follow San Diego County's Beach and Bay Water Quality Program's beach closure postings," the inspector general report found. "As a result of Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water during training, candidates are presented with increased health risks and NAVSPECWARCOM's training mission could be impacted." It was when Monroe, who is well-versed with veteran health through VetComm, was working with SEALs who were retiring that she realized the severity of the San Diego water pollution of the past few years. She observed an increase in health claims related to intestinal issues and "weird cancers," which was a departure from typical claims related to PTSD or orthopedic ailments. "I started creating relationships with the SEAL teams, the people that were exiting the SEALs, you know, at 14 years, 20 years, nearing their retirement," Monroe told Fox News Digital. "And the claims that we were making for these guys were surprising to me because a lot of them, they have combat PTSD, a lot of orthopedic issues. But we were having guys coming to us with, like, IBS, GERD, skin issues, weird cancers, and they were all attributing it to their time spent in San Diego training to be a SEAL in that water here that we have in San Diego." Swimming and spending time in water contaminated with feces can lead to a host of illnesses, including bacterial, viral and parasitic infections that leave people nauseous, vomiting and rushing to the bathroom. Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum was only days from entering the SEAL's aptly named Hell Week – the fourth week of basic conditioning for SEAL candidates – when nausea hit him, and he was trapped in a cycle of drinking water and vomiting when he realized a serious illness had its grips on him. Gum is a retired SEAL who served from 2007 to 2017 and was exposed to the contaminated water in 2008 during BUD/S training off the San Diego coast. "I couldn't stop," Gum recounted of how he couldn't keep water down without vomiting. "You never really want to go to medical because they can pull you out or make you get rolled to the next class, but I couldn't even drink water without throwing up. It's the only time in my whole life that this has happened." Gum's nausea overcame him on a Friday in 2008, with Hell Week kicking off that Sunday night. Hell Week is a more than five-day training that puts candidates through rigorous training, including cold-water immersion, "surf torture," buoy swims, mud runs, all while operating on minimal sleep. "The sun goes down, and the instructors come out with big machine guns, that kicks it off," Gum said of how Hell Week began. "We run out to the beach, right into the ocean. You spend the rest of the week soaking wet, covered in sand. And everywhere you go, you have a 200-pound boat on your head that you and your boat crew of six to seven guys will share the weight of, and you just run everywhere." "You're just in the water. There's no escaping it. It's part of what makes BUD/S BUD/S. And it's part of what makes the Navy SEALs America's premier maritime special operators. There's not getting around how comfortable we have to be in the water. Cold, wet, miserable, doesn't matter, we suck it up and we do it." Gum received IVs the weekend ahead of Hell Week and was able to keep food and water down by the time the intense training began, but he had been diagnosed with viral gastroenteritis (VGE), commonly known as the stomach flu and highly contagious, which then morphed into rhabdomyolysis due to exerting so much energy while dehydrated from VGE. Rhabdomyolysis is a serious illness that causes muscle to break down quickly and can lead to "muscle death" and the release of high levels of myoglobin in the blood that can injure a person's kidneys. Gum failed the first phase of BUD/S, but he was granted permission to return to training for a second time after senior leaders saw he had VGE. Gum again went through the first phase of BUD/S, but again he went to medical, where tests showed that his "blood came back toxic" from rhabdomyolysis. The SEAL was put on medical leave and able to fully recover in his home state of Pennsylvania before he "crushed" the hellish training on his third try. He served on SEAL Team Five, deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, and taught combatives and prisoner handling to SEAL trainees in San Diego from 2013 until his retirement in 2017. Sweetman told Fox Digital that "everyone who goes through training is going to get sick." "They're going to get infections, and it's terrible," Sweetman told Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview. "And some might argue that this is Navy SEAL training. You have to go through the toughest conditions to be able to survive and make it. I would say that it's gotten a little bit out of hand." The SEAL vet, who lives in the San Diego area, said the issue has gotten worse in recent years as Tijuana's population grows. "When I went through training, it was absolutely a thing that they'd shut down the Imperial Beach because the ocean water was so bad, because the waste coming from Tijuana had infected the water," Sweetman said. "You could always smell it. And oftentimes, even in the bay, we'd need to wash our wet suit after being out on a swim." "Now, some of the training causes us to be deeply immersed in the water, and infections and all types of things can come up from being in the water. But I'll say that it has gotten significantly worse as the population has doubled in Tijuana." Gum and Monroe both sounded the alarm that the water issue is a crisis, with Gum identifying it as a national security crisis that could cull well-suited candidates from the SEALs due to acute illnesses as well as sicken active SEALs. "This is a huge national crisis," he said. "Like half the SEAL teams are located in San Diego, the other half are in Virginia Beach. So when you've got half the SEAL teams who are getting exposed to this, then it's a major issue." Monroe called it the "next Camp Lejeune" crisis, which sickened Marines with contaminated drinking water at the North Carolina Marine Corps base camp for nearly three decades. The crisis has cost the U.S. billions of dollars, including legal costs and settlements to vets and their families. "This is going to be, in my opinion, the next Camp Lejeune water problem that cost our government $21 to $25 billion," she said. "That's just in the compensation directly, like the lawsuit portion of it. That doesn't cover all the compensation you have to pay these veterans tax-free for the rest of their lives. I would say that this issue here in San Diego, if you look at it over the time that people have been training here, you're looking at another $21 to $25 billion, plus all of the compensation that's going to come. It would be cheaper for our country to fix this than it would to allow it to continue." The three veterans who spoke to Fox Digital all responded with optimism that the Trump administration will tackle the crisis and end it. Fox Digital exclusively reported earlier this month that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is heading to San Diego to meet with SEALs and see the crisis firsthand on Tuesday as locals and veterans sound off about the issue. "The raw sewage flowing from Mexico into the Tijuana River is creating serious, detrimental issues for communities with affected waterways," Zeldin told Fox Digital ahead of the Tuesday trip. "Ensuring America's waters are clean is part of EPA's core mission, and I look forward to being on the ground in San Diego in a few days to assess the situation and hear directly from those affected," he said. "It is top-of-mind knowing that as this issue persists, more and more Navy SEALs remain at risk of sickness because of the contaminated waterways they train in. I strongly believe the time has come to finalize and implement an urgent strategy to end decades of raw sewage entering the U.S." A spokesperson for Naval Special Warfare added in a comment to Fox News Digital that SEALs and candidates' health are a top priority and that officials are monitoring water quality in areas where they train. "The Navy takes the health and safety of our personnel very seriously. Water quality at Navy training locations on the beach waterfront is closely monitored in coordination with local authorities. We are fully committed to ensuring warfighters at U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command train in a safe environment," the spokesperson said. Ahead of Zeldin's visit, the water flowing from Mexico into the U.S. is as "nasty" as ever, according to Sweetman. "What I see here is a tremendous amount of green, nasty water," Sweetman said while pointing at the murky water. "I mean, you can smell it. This is disgusting. As it pours through, it doesn't clear up. There's no clarity to it. It just turns into a foam. And the foam sits on top of the water where it's murky and it just continues to flow towards Imperial Beach and the ocean down here." "It's absolutely disgusting. I can't comment strongly enough about how bad it is to be here. I'm here specifically because I want people to see just how bad it is. The moment that I leave here, I'm going to go take a shower."
Gulf News
17-03-2025
- Science
- Gulf News
'Dark oxygen': A deep-sea discovery that has split scientists
Could lumpy metallic rocks in the deepest, darkest reaches of the ocean be making oxygen in the absence of sunlight? Some scientists think so, but others have challenged the claim that so-called "dark oxygen" is being produced in the lightless abyss of the seabed. The discovery - detailed last July in the journal Nature Geoscience - called into question long-held assumptions about the origins of life on Earth, and sparked intense scientific debate. The findings were also consequential for mining companies eager to extract the precious metals contained within these polymetallic nodules. Researchers said that potato-sized nodules could be producing enough electrical current to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as electrolysis. This cast doubt on the long-established view that life was made possible when organisms started producing oxygen via photosynthesis, which requires sunlight, about 2.7 billion years ago. "Deep-sea discovery calls into question the origins of life," the Scottish Association for Marine Science said in a press release to accompany the publication of the research. Environmentalists said the presence of dark oxygen showed just how little is known about life at these extreme depths, and supported their case that deep-sea mining posed unacceptable ecological risks. "Greenpeace has long campaigned to stop deep sea mining from beginning in the Pacific due to the damage it could do to delicate, deep sea ecosystems," the environmental organisation said. "This incredible discovery underlines the urgency of that call". The discovery was made in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a vast underwater region of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii of growing interest to mining companies. Scattered on the seafloor four kilometres (2.5 miles) beneath the surface, polymetallic nodules contain manganese, nickel and cobalt, metals used in electric car batteries and other low-carbon technologies. The research that gave rise to the dark oxygen discovery was partly funded by a Canadian deep-sea mining business, The Metals Company, that wanted to assess the ecological impact of such exploration. It has sharply criticised the study by marine ecologist Andrew Sweetman and his team as plagued by "methodological flaws". Michael Clarke, environmental manager at The Metals Company, told AFP that the findings "are more logically attributable to poor scientific technique and shoddy science than a never before observed phenomenon." Sweetman's findings proved explosive, with many in the scientific community expressing reservations or rejecting the conclusions. Since July, five academic research papers refuting Sweetman's findings have been submitted for review and publication. "He did not present clear proof for his observations and hypothesis," said Matthias Haeckel, a biogeochemist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany. "Many questions remain after the publication. So, now the scientific community needs to conduct similar experiments etc, and either prove or disprove it." Olivier Rouxel, a geochemistry researcher at Ifremer, the French national institute for ocean science and technology, told AFP there was "absolutely no consensus on these results". "Deep-sea sampling is always a challenge," he said, adding it was possible that the oxygen detected was "trapped air bubbles" in the measuring instruments. He was also sceptical about deep-sea nodules, some tens of millions of years old, still producing enough electrical current when "batteries run out quickly". "How is it possible to maintain the capacity to generate electrical current in a nodule that is itself extremely slow to form?" he asked. When contacted by AFP, Sweetman indicated that he was preparing a formal response. "These types of back and forth are very common with scientific articles and it moves the subject matter forward," he said. Sign up for the Daily Briefing Get the latest news and updates straight to your inbox
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Dark oxygen': a deep-sea discovery that has split scientists
Could lumpy metallic rocks in the deepest, darkest reaches of the ocean be making oxygen in the absence of sunlight? Some scientists think so, but others have challenged the claim that so-called "dark oxygen" is being produced in the lightless abyss of the seabed. The discovery -- detailed last July in the journal Nature Geoscience -- called into question long-held assumptions about the origins of life on Earth, and sparked intense scientific debate. The findings were also consequential for mining companies eager to extract the precious metals contained within these polymetallic nodules. Researchers said that potato-sized nodules could be producing enough electrical current to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as electrolysis. This cast doubt on the long-established view that life was made possible when organisms started producing oxygen via photosynthesis, which requires sunlight, about 2.7 billion years ago. "Deep-sea discovery calls into question the origins of life," the Scottish Association for Marine Science said in a press release to accompany the publication of the research. - Delicate ecosystem - Environmentalists said the presence of dark oxygen showed just how little is known about life at these extreme depths, and supported their case that deep-sea mining posed unacceptable ecological risks. "Greenpeace has long campaigned to stop deep sea mining from beginning in the Pacific due to the damage it could do to delicate, deep sea ecosystems," the environmental organisation said. "This incredible discovery underlines the urgency of that call". The discovery was made in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a vast underwater region of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii of growing interest to mining companies. Scattered on the seafloor four kilometres (2.5 miles) beneath the surface, polymetallic nodules contain manganese, nickel and cobalt, metals used in electric car batteries and other low-carbon technologies. The research that gave rise to the dark oxygen discovery was partly funded by a Canadian deep-sea mining business, The Metals Company, that wanted to assess the ecological impact of such exploration. It has sharply criticised the study by marine ecologist Andrew Sweetman and his team as plagued by "methodological flaws". Michael Clarke, environmental manager at The Metals Company, told AFP that the findings "are more logically attributable to poor scientific technique and shoddy science than a never before observed phenomenon." - Scientific doubts - Sweetman's findings proved explosive, with many in the scientific community expressing reservations or rejecting the conclusions. Since July, five academic research papers refuting Sweetman's findings have been submitted for review and publication. "He did not present clear proof for his observations and hypothesis," said Matthias Haeckel, a biogeochemist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany. "Many questions remain after the publication. So, now the scientific community needs to conduct similar experiments etc, and either prove or disprove it." Olivier Rouxel, a geochemistry researcher at Ifremer, the French national institute for ocean science and technology, told AFP there was "absolutely no consensus on these results". "Deep-sea sampling is always a challenge," he said, adding it was possible that the oxygen detected was "trapped air bubbles" in the measuring instruments. He was also sceptical about deep-sea nodules, some tens of millions of years old, still producing enough electrical current when "batteries run out quickly". "How is it possible to maintain the capacity to generate electrical current in a nodule that is itself extremely slow to form?" he asked. When contacted by AFP, Sweetman indicated that he was preparing a formal response. "These types of back and forth are very common with scientific articles and it moves the subject matter forward," he said. aag/np/fg/pjm
