This is a subject that will likely hinge on politics and commodity markets, but the science is very clear as is occam's razor
1. There is a lot of animal life in the deep ocean where these modules are present and absent where they are not
2. Those organisms depend on oxygen to function
3. Polymetallic nodules taken from the deep ocean have been shown in lab conditions to create enough of an electric charge to split H2O into H2 and O2
4. Areas where polymetallic nodules have been removed decades ago haven't recovered even on a microorganism level
5. These nodules individually take *millions* of years to form
From these conclusions we can safely assume that removing them would decimate these ecosystems on a timescale that's longer than evolution of the genus Homo. Put another way it would be as if we cut down a forest knowing it would take millions of years for individual trees to regrow. It is a crime against the planet to remove these nodules
1. There is a lot of animal life in the deep ocean where these modules are present and absent where they are not
2. Those organisms depend on oxygen to function
3. Polymetallic nodules taken from the deep ocean have been shown in lab conditions to create enough of an electric charge to split H2O into H2 and O2
4. Areas where polymetallic nodules have been removed decades ago haven't recovered even on a microorganism level
5. These nodules individually take *millions* of years to form
From these conclusions we can safely assume that removing them would decimate these ecosystems on a timescale that's longer than evolution of the genus Homo. Put another way it would be as if we cut down a forest knowing it would take millions of years for individual trees to regrow. It is a crime against the planet to remove these nodules