'Dark oxygen': a deep-sea discovery that has split scientists

Deep-sea Mining, Ecosystems, and Risk

• Many commenters argue deep-sea mining is reckless given poor understanding of deep-ocean ecosystems, ongoing mass extinction, and ocean dependence for planetary stability.
• Others counter that humanity never has full understanding before acting; the real question is how much caution and what level of quantified risk is needed.
• There is pushback on “unknown consequences → ban it” arguments, but also on “benefits everyone” claims for mining, which some see as classic rent-seeking and a Tragedy of the Commons case.

How Important Are Polymetallic Nodules?

• One detailed comment cites: rich animal life where nodules exist, long recovery times where nodules were removed, nodules forming over millions of years, and lab evidence of electrochemical oxygen production as reasons mining would be “a crime against the planet.”
• Others assert there is “very little life” at the abyssal seafloor and that disturbance is local and reversible over decades, analogous to land development.
• This is challenged with reminders that only a small fraction of the deep ocean has been directly explored and that life is often found where once thought impossible.

Scientific Validity of “Dark Oxygen”

• Several commenters are highly skeptical of the paper:
  • Question where the long-term energy source for electrolysis would come from, given nodules’ age.
  • Suggest microbial activity is a simpler explanation and was dismissed too quickly.
  • Note that even the authors admit key mechanistic unknowns (energy source, stability, conditions).
• A marine geophysicist criticizes the journal’s track record and suspects weak peer review, though acknowledges such speculative work can still be valuable.

Media Framing and Origins-of-Life

• Multiple comments attack the article’s claim that life was “made possible” by photosynthetic oxygen, calling it logically circular and scientifically wrong or oversimplified.
• The consensus in the thread: at most this touches aerobic/complex life, not the origin of life itself, and the press-release-style framing is misleading.