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UAE To Drag Iceberg From Antarctica To Solve Water Shortage Set To Last 25 Years (express.co.uk)
schwit1 quotes a report from Daily Express: The UAE, which is among the top 10 water-scarce countries in the world, hopes to help ease the stress of a drinking water shortage by towing an iceberg from the freezing Antarctica in order to create more drinking water. The National Advisor Bureau Limited's (NABL) managing Director Abdullah Mohammad Sulaiman Al Shehi says an average iceberg contains "more than 20 billion gallons of water" which would be enough for one million people over five years. Up to four-fifths of an iceberg's mass is underwater, and due to their vast density, they would theoretically not melt in the boiling climate of the Middle Eastern coastal line. Mr Al Shehi says it could take up to a year to drag the huge body of ice up to the UAE, and the project is set to begin in 2018.
".. and due to their vast density, they..."
Uhhhh, Icebergs are *less* dense that's why they float. I think the author means mass.
Dialectician. Archology.
Desalinization plant.
Vast density is what the guy who wrote that craptastic article has.
Or, are we trying to solve the polar ice melting by drinking it? Get rid of the evidence! Flushing ice cubes down the toilet.
The water shortage is expected to last 25 years, and the average iceberg contains enough water for 5 years (for 1 million people). According to Google, the UAE population is currently ~9.16Million, meaning if all of the water were recovered, it would last about half a year if all water came from the iceberg. And they're planning on starting this project next year. They'd have to tow two average icebergs a year to supply everyone from it. Ok, maybe only like 10% of water will come from the iceberg, but it has to go through a water-treatment plant before it'll be used, presumably displacing capacity for processing other water that'd be run through it instead.
Source looks like a tabloid, by the way.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
I didn't know it was that easy to steal a world resource.
Normally that hunk of ice would be frozen in place in Antarctica, but thanks to the miracle of global warming those thirsty rich Arabs will have plenty of water.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Australia proposed exactly this suggestion about 25 years ago.
Then they started looking for ships powerful enough to move such a drag
Project died.
Surprise.
Do we need to expand UK or USA every time? No. So same shit here.
In that case an iceberg would sink. Its density is close to that of salt water, that's why it floats! Idiot!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Sorry, but what do you mean by 'WTF'?
You know that more food creates more people. Then more people need more food.
a ) Emergence of New Tech(tm) to solve the problem!
b) The managing director expects to tire of playing golf in the desert within 25 years, and will reluctantly relinquish the water.
c) After 20 years of delays in the construction of desalination plants due to graft, the corrupt ministers will retire, thus leaving only a new generation of completely honest ministers, and the plants will be finished up within 5 years.
d) Everyone will have left the UAE due to other countries moving away from ICEs, regional strife, etc.
e) Mandatory 25-year water shortage. Sorry, they'd LOVE to fit it into their schedule next century, but darn, it's just too FULL.
f) Aliens. Somehow.
g) The Rapture will happen in 25 years so it'll be moot.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
How fucking retardedly stupid are you? You're from redneck america, aren't you?
Funny how someone might become aggressive and full of contempt when faced with a simple mistake - I'm used to the acronym in another language since, like you, I'm not American.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
A country isn't some niche errata. You've also had nearly a half century to catch up. Not to mention that it's either older than you, or its birth represents news you obviously were not paying attention to.
No. Only a small part of an iceberg is generated by freezing of seawater; most of the water arrives in the form of snow. Even the freezing of seawater is a natural salt-removal process involving the behavior of crystal lattices.
Nope. You're thinking of sea ice, which forms in salt water. Icebergs are formed by glacial calving or ice sheets that originate on land.
But even sea ice is less saline than seawater, because the freezing process expels brine. But because sea ice is flat like a pancake it has a larger surface area to volume ratio.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
It was one of the ideas pitched to Montgomery Brewster (Richard Pryor) in the movie Brewster's Millions, execpt the guy wanted to tow it from the Arctic.
Someone must have watched Brewster's Millions -- where this was treated as a crackpot idea.
Where do they propose to "hold" this five year supply of water? Seems like they'd need to build a really big holding tank, about a 3 billion square foot tank (there are 7.48 gallons of water in one square foot)... By my back-of-envelope, sure to be proven wrong, calculation that would mean a 7,745 foot square box, fifty feet tall to contain the 20 billion gallons.
Ken
the guy wanted to tow it from the Arctic.
Bad idea. Arctic glaciers hive off from land glaciers and are irregular in shape. As they move through warm water and melt, they can become unstable, and roll over. Antarctic glaciers tend to be flat and stable. They also tend to be much bigger. Of course the route to the Persian Gulf is much more direct as well.