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Drilling for minerals deep in the ocean could have immense consequences for the tiny animals at the core of the vast marine food web and ultimately affect fisheries and the food we find on our plates, according to a new study.Deep-sea mining means drilling the seafloor for “polymetallic nodules” loaded with critical minerals including copper, iron, zinc and more. While not yet commercialized, nations are pursuing deep-sea operations amid rising demand for these minerals in electric vehicles and other parts of the energy transition, as well as for technology and military use.The researchers examined water and waste gathered from a deep-sea mining trial in 2022. What the study discovered University of Hawaii researchers studied an area of the Pacific Ocean called the “twilight zone,” about 650-5,000 feet (200-1,500 meters) below sea level. Their peer-reviewed findings, published Thursday in the Nature Communications scientific journal, say mining waste could affect anything from tiny shrimp smaller than .08 inches (2 millimeters) long to fish 2 inches (5 centimeters) long.That’s because, after mining companies bring the mineral-rich nodules up to the surface, they have to release excess sea water, ocean floor dirt and sediment back into the ocean. That creates a murky plume of particles about the same size as the naturally occurring food particles normally eaten by the zooplankton that swim at that depth.That’s a little more than half of the zooplankton in the ocean. If those organisms eat the waste particles what senior study author Brian Popp called “junk food” then that affects 60% of micronekton that eat the zooplankton.And that undernourishment is a problem because these tiny organisms are the food source up the chain ultimately affecting commercially important fish such as mahi mahi or tuna.“Surface fish can dive down deep into the water, they feed on organisms down at depth,” said Michael Dowd, study lead author and oceanography graduate student. “If these organisms down at depth are no longer present because their food web has collapsed, then that can impact higher food webs and more commercial interests.” Impact on the water and alternative sources While other research has highlighted the negative environmental impacts from deep-sea mining of nodules, the focus is often the seafloor. This study looks at mid-water.The researchers said more work needs to be done to assess the appropriate quality and depth at which dirty water and sediment from sea mining could be returned to the ocean. But they said returning the excess directly to the ocean floor or at other depths could be just as environmentally disruptive as in the “twilight zone,” only in different ways.Popp said digging up the deep sea might not be necessary, and instead noted alternative sources of metals, including recycling batteries and electronics, or sifting through mining waste and tailings.“If only a single company is mining in one single spot, it’s not going to affect a huge fishery. It’s not going to affect a huge amount of water. But if many companies are mining for many years and outputting a lot of material, this is going to spread across the region,” Dowd said. “And the more mining occurs, the more a problem it could be.” Where deep-sea mining stands It might not be viable to simply halt ocean mining. The International Seabed Authority that governs mineral activity beyond national jurisdiction has already granted several contracts for exploration.In the U.S., President Donald Trump has expressed interest in deep-sea mining operations amid tense trade negotiations with China that have limited U.S. access to China’s wide swath of critical minerals. In April, Trump signed an executive order directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to expedite the permitting process for companies to mine the ocean floor, and in May, the administration said it would consider selling leases to extract minerals off the South Pacific island of American Samoa. Last month, NOAA sent a draft rule to the White House to streamline operations.Environmental groups have advocated against deep-sea mining, citing not only the direct harm to wildlife and parts of the sea, but also the disturbance of planet-warming carbon dioxide that is currently sequestered in the ocean and on its floor.“It was well laid out in the study that the impacts wouldn’t necessarily be just the depth that the plume is released,” said Sheryl Murdock, a deep-sea postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University who was not involved in the study. “The question being: Is it worth a few minerals to potentially destroy the way that the oceans function?”Diva Amon, a marine biologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, praised the research for examining potential consequences.“All of this could lead to species illness, species movement, species death. And depending on the scale of this, that could have graver repercussions, like species extinctions,” said Amon, who wasn’t involved in the study but has previously worked with some of the researchers.“There’s a lot more research that needs to be done to be able to make an informed decision about how to manage this industry, if it does start, in a way that will prevent, essentially, serious harm to the ocean and ocean ecosystem.” Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org. Read more of AP’s climate coverage. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Alexa St. John, Associated Press
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Over the last two years, the value of content has collapsed. Thanks to the LLM revolution, the internet is drowning in an avalanche of indistinguishable output: an endless parade of fast-food writing, recycled reports, and SEO-bait fluff optimized for algorithms instead of people. Thats why the only competitive moat left is the human story. For business leaders, this creates an urgent mandate: Storytelling is no longer a marketing tactic. Its a strategic business imperativethe only reliable engine for changing minds and shifting behaviors. If your brands narrative isnt uniquely human and demonstrably ownable, it will vanish in the churn. Heres how to find the stories only your company can tell, and why theyre your last true moat. RECOGNIZE THE NEW DISCOVERY REALITY Its tempting to see generative AI as a shortcut to content volume. But when every competitor can churn out a thousand posts, the value of each piece approaches zero. Audiences know this, and theyre tuning out. Trust in the media is near-historic lows. Our Brand Expectations Index shows that 81% of the general public and 84% of knowledge workers trust direct communication from companies, whether in podcasts, videos, or in-depth articles, nearly as much as they trust local news. Even the best SEO playbooks or algorithm hacks are no longer enough. The only thing that cuts through is a story that sparks a gut-level connection. Your mandate: Stop publishing for the algorithm. Start crafting narratives so bold, so human, that your audience chooses to pay attention. EMBRACE THE WHITE SPACE MANDATE This isnt creativity for creativitys sake. Its about strategic differentiation. The first step is proving your story has true, ownable value. Thats the white space mandate: Use data and rigorous analysis to find the strategic gaps your competitors havent filled. Technology for insight, not content. Audit the media and competitor landscape. Map where theyre over-indexing and identify the questions audiences are still asking but not getting answered. Thats the white spacethe open territory where a new conversation can take root. The power of the pivot. This process often forces a shift. The narrative your CEO thinks is critical may be saturated. White space analysis reveals the sharper angle, the uncomfortable, or the unexpected perspective thats necessary to stand out. Ive seen companies discover that the message they were clinging to was indistinguishable from five rivals, while the story that truly set them apart was hiding in plain sight. FIND THE UN-GENERATABLE NARRATIVE Once youve identified white space, the real work begins: filling it with something AI cannot generate. Thats the un-generatable narrativea story born of lived experience, not scraped data. You uncover it through what I call story-mining, deliberate conversations with leaders, employees, and stakeholders to unearth personal conviction, anecdotes, and hidden ambition. The anecdote as anchor. AI can summarize your mission statement; it cannot recreate the founders pivotal failure or the late-night insight that led to a breakthrough. These details are specific, emotional, and unforgettable. They create a narrative that is impossible for a machine to fabricate. Conviction is contagious. When a story is proven to be unique through data and delivered with authentic conviction, it stops being mere communication. It becomes a persuasive argument capable of moving markets and shifting behaviors. THE ONLY FOUNDATION FOR TRUST In an era of content saturation, brands can no longer compete in volume. They must compete with meaning. The stories that will power your business forward arent the ones easily generated. Theyre the ones painstakingly discovered, strategically proven, and deeply human. Because in a world of infinite content, meaning is your only engine for trust. Tyler Perry is the co CEO of Mission North.
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Tech is shifting faster than the models we built our impact on. And that means even thriving nonprofits face a choice: Keep optimizing what worksor rebuild for what’s coming. Back in June, our leadership team made a decision that felt both risky and obvious: Change a strategy that was still working to accommodate an AI future. Wed been writing and speaking for years about the need for the social sector to stop talking and start doingand we realized it was time to take our own advice. For the last five years, our organization has helped nonprofits worldwide build tech solutions in partnership with leading tech companies. It worked. It made a difference. But by 2025, it became clear: What brought us to this point won’t take us to where we want to go. We could keep matching tech needs with builders. Or we could bet on something biggerteach nonprofits how to prepare for an AI-native future, so they can be capable of building and scaling impact themselves. We chose the latter. A BET ON THE FUTURE In recent weeks, four major reports were released: The Philanthropic Reset, AI for Humanity, Accelerate Whats Possible, and AI With Purpose. Four different sources, same message: Nonprofits are ready for AIbut the systems around them are not. The data is clear: 84% of AI-powered nonprofits lack funding to further develop and scale AI solutions. 87% of funders admit they don’t understand their grantees’ tech capacity. 90% of nonprofits don’t fund AI literacy or infrastructure. And yet, the organizations seeing the biggest results are those that fine-tune AI with their own data, test quickly, and integrate community feedback. The takeaway is simple but uncomfortable: The real bottleneck isn’t technologyit’s capacity. That realization pushed us to rebuild not just our programs, but our mental model of what “tech for good” means in an AI-native world. FROM ONE-OFFS TO ECOSYSTEM For years, the social sector has measured success by the number of pilots launched. But in the AI era, pilots don’t scale. Systems do. So, we’ve started building what we call an AI enablement ecosystema space where nonprofits can build, learn, and scale responsibly, together. That includes initiatives that help organizations prototype their first AI tools and build internal capacity, support proven social solutions so they can scale through responsible AI use, and a venture-style lab that develops shared infrastructure for nonprofits. But this isn’t about our model. It’s about a broader shiftfrom delivering solutions to building systems that deliver. WHAT “AI-NATIVE” REALLY MEANS Being AI-native doesn’t mean asking ChatGPT to write your next grant report. It means processes, interventions or even full organizations that make the most out of the promise and benefits of AI. Imagine a three-person nonprofit running a program that today would require a staff of 30. AI handles logistics, data analysis, and reporting, while humans focus on relationships, trust and connection. That’s not that far away. It’s already happening. And it forces usleaders, funders, and buildersto rethink what kind of infrastructure we’re really financing. Are we funding innovation, or the capacity that makes innovation possible? Our bet is simple: In the next two to three years, it will be exponentially easier for nonprofits to build and scale with AI. But for that to be safe and responsible, we’ll need a shared layer of infrastructurecapacity, governance, and collaboration that helps changemakers build with confidence. Weve spent years telling the sector to stop talking and start doing. This is why were doing it ourselves. Because in the end, doing the right thing isnt about keeping what works. Its about having the courage to rebuild while things still work. And thats exactly what the moment demands and the technology enables. Jacek Siadkowski is the founder and CEO of Tech to the Rescue.
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