Many nations are starting to compete for vast undersea mineral wealth.
China is building fake islands near underground fields and valleys loaded with substantial mineral deposits.
North African countries like Libya and Morocco are getting into complex strategic alliances, over maritime rights, that will eventually lead to wars.
Indonesia is a vast series of islands with limited development and minimal awareness of ecology and conservation issues.
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A simple path that would eliminate many future wars and stabilize a few hot zones would be to 'globalize' undersea wealth, and let an international org like the U.N. administer it, to create a universal basic income across all countries, for individuals who want to participate in that.
The money could be distributed based on biometrics, like fingerprints, and would quickly solve extreme poverty in many regions if administered well.
Most heavy elements, including platinum group metals and rare earths, are more abundant on the seafloor, and those elements are also essential to the development of many new technologies like space travel. The alternative, a free for all among miners and nations in the oceans, would have a devastating effect on the seabed and lead to instability and corruption in many regions, something already associated with mining.
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Some basic observations.
1) If the minerals were mined sensibly, they would probably produce an income somewhere between $100 and $1,000 per person on the planet, per year. Not enough to impact the lives of most people in developed countries, but a fortune in the poorest countries.
If some of the elements, like gold and strategic metals are given status as 'backing' major currencies like the dollar, the amount could be much higher. In fact if those elements were used widely to back fiat currencies after the next global recession their value could absorb the massive amount of fiat that has been issued in 'quantitative easing' type projects. In that case the UBI payments could be quite high.
2) The funds would have to be protected from scavenging by governments, especially by repressive regimes. This could be partially done by requiring any country that participates to have a free media where corruption discussions are not criminalized.
3) The history and payments should be on a public ledger, so that if there are questions about corruption, any information is available to any individual who may have an interest.
4) The payments should not be tied to anything. If a person does not collect for a few years for whatever reason, the accrued balance should be available. Prisoners and others in coercive environments should be protected from predation by government employees, something that would have to be adapted to local situations.
5) Mining of ocean minerals should be allowed also by individuals, using simple equipment like hookah with a small dredge, but any other corporate, government or private mining in the ocean should be eliminated using coast guards, militaries etc. If large random operations are allowed they will tear up the seabed and cause other problems.
6) Poverty has been a mild limiter on global population growth through mortality, but adequate wealth may have an even stronger population reducing effect, it would be something for sociologists to figure out.
At any rate, adequate supplies of certain elements would encourage faster development of space travel, opening up new real estate. Many of the elements that are most resistant to high temperature, like iridium, are extremely rare on land and are more abundant in the ocean depths. An adequate supply of these elements would let engineers have much more leeway in designing spacecraft.
7) The most important factor in this kind of program would be its independence from any government influence. All governments are run by power mad people, and each government would have some silliness that they would feel the need to inject into a global UBI program. The basic rule should be zero input and interference by any political types. If a government disagrees with some aspect of the program, they should opt out. In that case their ocean mining ventures should be targeted by whichever militaries are defending the project.
~In Progress
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/20000-feet-under-the-sea/603040/