Taiwan, Europe, and the Abyss

The coming war for seabed minerals

Your smartphone, a sleek digital oracle, whispers promises of a green revolution—yet its lithium veins and cobalt arteries trace a path straight to the abyssal plains. The EU’s climate ambitions, Taiwan’s tech ascendancy, and the world’s hunger for rare minerals converge on one existential question: Will we plunder the ocean’s last frontier, or will we finally learn to say “enough”?

The Siren Song of the Abyss

Let’s not pretend the deep sea is a blank slate, waiting for the next colonial flag. It is a mythic underworld, a chthonic realm where life persists against all odds. Yet, the “blue economy” now dangles a shimmering promise: trillions in metals, conveniently out of sight and, for most, out of mind (Greenmatch, 2024). The logic is seductive — if terrestrial mines poison rivers and displace communities, why not dig where no one can see the damage?

Here’s the rub: the deep sea is not a landfill for our ethical dilemmas. It is a cathedral of biodiversity, a carbon vault, and a living chronicle of evolutionary history (IUCN, 2025). To treat it as a mere resource is to mistake the Sistine Chapel for a quarry.

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Europe and Taiwan: Partners or Enablers?

The EU, a self-appointed custodian of sustainability, faces a Faustian bargain. Its Critical Raw Materials Act trumpets “de-risking” and “diversification,” but these are euphemisms for a new mineral scramble (EASAC, 2025). Taiwan, the semiconductor alchemist, transforms minerals into the sinews of modernity. Their alliance could set a global standard for responsible extraction—or grease the skids for a planetary tragedy.