An Abyss of Uncertainty: A New Essay in Artica Writings series: Beneath the Surface – Deep-Sea Mining & the Arctic
We are pleased to announce the publication of the next essay in our series, Artica Writings: Beneath the Surface – Deep-Sea Mining and the Arctic. The new essay, titled An Abyss of Uncertainty, is written by Espen Dyrnes Stabell, Associate Professor of Ethics at HVL Business School, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
In this essay, Stabell examines the growing momentum toward seabed mining in Norwegian waters and the implications of opening vast areas of the ocean floor to exploration, including regions near the Svalbard archipelago. Rather than focusing on extraction as a technical or economic challenge, the essay foregrounds uncertainty itself — scientific, ecological, political, and ethical — as the defining condition shaping current decision-making.
Stabell reflects on the limits of existing knowledge about deep-sea ecosystems and the risks of acting in advance of understanding. As pressure mounts to secure access to critical minerals for the green transition, the essay asks what it means to make irreversible choices in environments that remain largely unmapped, unseen, and poorly understood. What responsibilities follow when uncertainty is not a temporary gap, but a structural feature of the deep ocean?
Positioning the seabed as both a frontier and an abyss, the essay invites readers to consider how narratives of progress, urgency, and technological optimism can obscure the long-term consequences of intervention. In the Arctic context, where environmental change is already accelerating, Stabell argues for a more cautious engagement with the unknown — one that recognises uncertainty not as an obstacle to overcome, but as a condition that demands restraint, reflection, and accountability.
Read the full essay here
About the Author
Espen Stabell is an Associate Professor of ethics at the HVL Business School, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and an affiliated Associate Professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He was previously a researcher at NTNU's Pilot Program on Deep Sea Mining. His doctoral dissertation explored philosophical and ethical challenges in decision making under different forms of uncertainty, especially as they pertain to new technologies such as deep-sea mining.
About Artica Writings 2025: Beneath the Surface –
Deep-Sea Mining and the Arctic
Artica Writings is Artica Svalbard’s annual essay series, bringing together writers, researchers, and thinkers to explore urgent questions shaping the Arctic. The 2025 edition examines the emerging deep-sea mining industry and its implications for Arctic environments, governance, and global ocean futures. Essays will be published periodically in both Norwegian and English.