The Latest Solution To Global Drought Means Wrangling Icebergs Themselves
In a startling sign of just how challenging it has become to secure drinking water amid increasing drought, new ventures are launching with the goal of wrangling one of the largest and most inaccessible sources on earth.
“For decades, there has been talk of towing icebergs from the poles to warmer climes to slake the thirst of increasingly parched communities around the world,” NewScientist reported. “Now, there are at least three outfits with plans to make it happen.”
Wrangling icebergs at a smaller scale has actually been done by so-called “arctic cowboys” for decades. The process involves identifying icebergs using satellite maps, securing them with a crane or net and feeding large chunks into a grinder and hacking them into smaller pieces that can be transported.
But as new ventures now seek to tow full-sized icebergs to parts of the world that are facing existential water scarcity issues, it’s not clear what consequences could emerge.
“Relocating icebergs would … short-circuit the ability of icebergs to sequester carbon dioxide and require considerable amounts of energy,” according to NewScientist. “And it would have an impact on the warmer waters into which any berg were towed.”
But for all the potential challenges, global drought has reached the point where innovative, even outlandish, solutions are called for. In South Africa, for instance, drinking water is so desperately needed that at least one company is trying to figure out a way to drag in an iceberg even though Antarctica is more than 2,000 miles away.
Such an undertaking would require an operation to not just wrangle an iceberg, but pull it an astounding distance and keep it from melting en route. Regardless, there are some ambitious cowboys who believe it is possible.
“Icebergs can be unfathomably big and humankind possesses massive power,” per Big Think. “Skeptics of long-distance iceberg towing may just need to dream bigger.”
To read more about how water systems around the world are working to overcome drought, visit Water Online’s Water Scarcity Solutions Center.