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Parliamentary initiatives
57
Environmental Policy and Law, 10 (1983)
Parliamentary Initiatives Parliamentarians from 98 countries attended the 69th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Rome, from 16-22 September 1982. Four resolutions concerning the environment were introduced by Yuvraj Digvijay Sinh. which were subsequently passed in the plenary session of the Conference. These resolutions I) call upon Parliaments and Governments to constitute ministries, departments, agencies, authorities, commissions or bureaux in accordance with the administrative system of each country, to deal specifically with the environment; 2) call on Parliaments to ft.rm Fora comprising of interested Members of Parliament and Legislatures for promoting the cause of the environment; 3) call for instituting a system of mobilization of international fund-
A New Ocean Treasure? In the late 1970s and early 1980s, scientists found chimneys containing compounds of iron, copper, zinc, silver and lead beneath the Pacific. This newly discovered mineral treasure may make the new UN Law of the Sea treaty a much more important document and threaten the economies of many mining nations. In 1981, Dr Alexander Malahoff of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) put the value of a copper deposit in the Galapagos Rift off Ecuador at $2 billion. The deposit seems to be 11% copper, whereas land-based mines often contain only up to 0.5% ,copper. Other deposits o f so-called "polymetallic sulphides" have been found in the East Pacific Rise (assay values of up to 50% zinc, 6% copper, 0.05%
Yuvraj Digvijay Sinh, India, speaking at the Conference. The Prince, an ICEL member, has recently been appointed his country's Deputy Minister of the Environment. An interview is planned for a coming issue of the journal.
ing for implementing specific environmental projects in the developing countries; 4) recommend holding an Inter-Parliamentary Conference for the Environment in coordination with the UNEP in 1984. []
silver) off Mexico and in the Juan de Fuca Rift (30-54% zinc, 8-22% iron, some copper, lead and silver), off the US state of Oregon. The United Nations Law of the Sea
(LOS) Convention deals only with the "nodules" - potato-sized lumps of manganese, cobalt, nickel and copper to be found in deep water, mostly in the mid-Pacific, mostly outside any nation's 200-mile exclusive economic zone. It was the LOS Convention's nodule mining rules giving an International Seabed Authority power to license private mining companies which caused the US to refuse to adopt the treaty in April. The Authority affronts President Reagan's belief in free market economics. But the sulphides could make the nodules look paltry. Where the nodules are spread across the seafloor, the sulphides appear to be concentrated in chinmeys. More important, a nodule is created over millions of years, while chimneys in the Galapagos Rift are growing 30 cm (one foot) every two years. According to the UN, this makes the sulphides "the first known renewable mineral resource". Some sulphide zones are also either within or near the economic zones of many developing nations, so laws on seabed mining may have to be rewritten. If cost-effective methods are developed to recover the sulphides over the next 20 years this could spell disaster for existing land-based mining industries. (Information supplied courtesy Earthscan.) []
Polymetallic sulphides have been found near mid-ocean ridges where ocean floors spread apart. There are some 40,000 km (24,800 miles) of these ridges under the oceans, which are outlined above. The three main areas where sulphides have been discovered are the Galapagos Ridge, the East Pacific Rise and the Juan de Fuca Ridge shown on the map. courtesy: Earthscan
0378-777X/83/$3.00 © 1983 North-Holland
Environmental Policy and Law, 10 (1983)
Parliamentary Initiatives Parliamentarians from 98 countries attended the 69th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Rome, from 16-22 September 1982. Four resolutions concerning the environment were introduced by Yuvraj Digvijay Sinh. which were subsequently passed in the plenary session of the Conference. These resolutions I) call upon Parliaments and Governments to constitute ministries, departments, agencies, authorities, commissions or bureaux in accordance with the administrative system of each country, to deal specifically with the environment; 2) call on Parliaments to ft.rm Fora comprising of interested Members of Parliament and Legislatures for promoting the cause of the environment; 3) call for instituting a system of mobilization of international fund-
A New Ocean Treasure? In the late 1970s and early 1980s, scientists found chimneys containing compounds of iron, copper, zinc, silver and lead beneath the Pacific. This newly discovered mineral treasure may make the new UN Law of the Sea treaty a much more important document and threaten the economies of many mining nations. In 1981, Dr Alexander Malahoff of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) put the value of a copper deposit in the Galapagos Rift off Ecuador at $2 billion. The deposit seems to be 11% copper, whereas land-based mines often contain only up to 0.5% ,copper. Other deposits o f so-called "polymetallic sulphides" have been found in the East Pacific Rise (assay values of up to 50% zinc, 6% copper, 0.05%
Yuvraj Digvijay Sinh, India, speaking at the Conference. The Prince, an ICEL member, has recently been appointed his country's Deputy Minister of the Environment. An interview is planned for a coming issue of the journal.
ing for implementing specific environmental projects in the developing countries; 4) recommend holding an Inter-Parliamentary Conference for the Environment in coordination with the UNEP in 1984. []
silver) off Mexico and in the Juan de Fuca Rift (30-54% zinc, 8-22% iron, some copper, lead and silver), off the US state of Oregon. The United Nations Law of the Sea
(LOS) Convention deals only with the "nodules" - potato-sized lumps of manganese, cobalt, nickel and copper to be found in deep water, mostly in the mid-Pacific, mostly outside any nation's 200-mile exclusive economic zone. It was the LOS Convention's nodule mining rules giving an International Seabed Authority power to license private mining companies which caused the US to refuse to adopt the treaty in April. The Authority affronts President Reagan's belief in free market economics. But the sulphides could make the nodules look paltry. Where the nodules are spread across the seafloor, the sulphides appear to be concentrated in chinmeys. More important, a nodule is created over millions of years, while chimneys in the Galapagos Rift are growing 30 cm (one foot) every two years. According to the UN, this makes the sulphides "the first known renewable mineral resource". Some sulphide zones are also either within or near the economic zones of many developing nations, so laws on seabed mining may have to be rewritten. If cost-effective methods are developed to recover the sulphides over the next 20 years this could spell disaster for existing land-based mining industries. (Information supplied courtesy Earthscan.) []
Polymetallic sulphides have been found near mid-ocean ridges where ocean floors spread apart. There are some 40,000 km (24,800 miles) of these ridges under the oceans, which are outlined above. The three main areas where sulphides have been discovered are the Galapagos Ridge, the East Pacific Rise and the Juan de Fuca Ridge shown on the map. courtesy: Earthscan
0378-777X/83/$3.00 © 1983 North-Holland