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A Dubai firm's dream of towing icebergs from the Antarctic to the Arabian Peninsula could face some titanic obstacles.
Where many see the crumbling polar ice caps as a distressing sign of global warming, the National Advisor Bureau Limited sees it as a source of profit, and a way of offsetting the effects of climate change in the increasingly sweltering Gulf.
The firm has drawn up plans to harvest icebergs in the southern Indian Ocean and tow them 9,200 kilometers (5,700 miles) away to the Gulf, where they could be melted down for freshwater and marketed as a tourist attraction.
"The icebergs are just floating in the Indian Ocean. They are up for grabs to whoever can take them," managing director Abdullah al-Shehi told The Associated Press in his Dubai office. He hopes to begin harvesting them by 2019.
[...] The firm would send ships down to Heard Island, an Australian nature reserve in the southern Indian Ocean, where they would steer between massive icebergs the size of cities in search of truck-sized chunks known as growlers. Workers would then secure them to the boats with nets and embark on a yearlong cruise to the United Arab Emirates.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday May 18 2017, @01:17AM (1 child)
" ... in search of truck-sized chunks known as growlers. Workers would then secure them to the boats with nets and embark on a yearlong cruise to the United Arab Emirates."
"truck sized?, how boring. The headline make it sound like they were going to go after the city sized ones.
I find it hard to believe that the cost of this, given fuel, crew, boats, insurance, etc.,etc. would be at all practical for the amount of water they will get from a "truck-sized" berg.
They could probably get a much better ROI from building a OTEC [wikipedia.org] system. For the TL,dr crowd: OTEC uses temp difference between warm surface and cold deep water to generate electricity and pure fresh water. Clean, zero carbon emissions. Really neat.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Thursday May 18 2017, @10:02AM
"truck sized?, how boring. The headline make it sound like they were going to go after the city sized ones.
City-sized in the Southern Ocean, truck-sized when they reach the Persian Gulf?