5 ms·

If we took a fleet of tug-boats and towed this ice to the Middle East, I wonder how long the fresh water would last?

walrus01 10y ago
An interesting theoretical thought exercise. The money and fuel bill for tugboats sufficient to move that would probably be better spent on massive fields of photovoltaics and electricity-intensive seawater desalination equipment...
- jonknee 10y ago
  What about nuclear powered boats? Russia has a fleet of nuclear powered ice breakers.
  - ricardobeat 10y ago
    6000 square kilometers of ice.
    - jonknee 10y ago
      Take smaller chunks of it.
      - mfx 10y ago
        How small to become profitable? You'll see, this ends in a no win situation fast. Sadly enough.
- tn13 10y ago
  What if this frozen ice contains disease vectors still dormant and if we don't have immunity to them they might wipe out all life on earth.
- lxmorj 10y ago
  Build giant sails!
Florin_Andrei 10y ago
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/the-many-failures-and-few-successes-of-zany-iceberg-towing-schemes/243364/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/the-ma...
- flukus 10y ago
  Missed this one: http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_sydney_iceberg/ http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_sydney_iceberg/
duskwuff 10y ago
Or -- while we're thinking geoengineering -- could we limit how much ice breaks off by deliberately making a cut (or a series of breaks in the ice) from the current end of the crack straight out to sea?
- Retra 10y ago
  If that would work, then there wouldn't be a crack there in the first place.
  - euyyn 10y ago
    Why?
    - Retra 10y ago
      Because the crack isn't the fundamental problem. The problem is that the ice sheet is too small to resist temperature changes. Purposefully making the ice sheet smaller yet only exacerbates the problem. The only reason anyone cares that there is a crack is because it implies that the ice is shrinking.
      - euyyn 10y ago
        Why does a bigger span of ice make it more resistant to temperature changes?
        Retra 10y ago
        Lower surface area and higher albedo.
        euyyn 10y ago
        Why does albedo increase the larger the shell is? I would have thought it'd only depend on whether the surface was in the form of snow or ice. And wouldn't a larger shell expose a bigger surface area?
idlewords 10y ago
There are not enough boats in the world to move this object. It's gonna go where it wants.
anfroid555 10y ago
Can someone say "trading spaces" qoute
bootload 10y ago
"If we took a fleet of tug-boats and towed this ice to the Middle East," Not easy. This was a problem my high school math tutor, a glaciologist [0],[1] discussed with me one evening doing some applied math. From memory, using a tug to pull an iceberg from Antartica to the Australian mainland would be difficult because of the forces involved. As the tug would try to pull the iceberg, the iceberg itself is acted on by other forces (gravity, currents). The tug pulling the iceberg, connected by a cable would be acted on by the forces applied by the iceberg resulting in the berg and tug rotating in circles around each other. [2] Adding another tug has similar problems. The idea isn't stupid, it's just the physics get in the way of achieving a result. [0] 1970 - 2003 http://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2003/antarctic-ice-man-and-air-transport-designer-retires http://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2003/antarctic-ice-man-and... [1] 2003 - 2016 https://rmdb.research.utas.edu.au/public/rmdb/q/indiv_detail_warp_trans/5073 https://rmdb.research.utas.edu.au/public/rmdb/q/indiv_detail... [2] If memory serves me, Jo used 'moments of inertia' to describe this problem ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_moments_of_inertia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_moments_of_inertia

An interesting theoretical thought exercise. The money and fuel bill for tugboats sufficient to move that would probably be better spent on massive fields of photovoltaics and electricity-intensive seawater desalination equipment...

jonknee 10y ago
What about nuclear powered boats? Russia has a fleet of nuclear powered ice breakers.
- ricardobeat 10y ago
  6000 square kilometers of ice.
  - jonknee 10y ago
    Take smaller chunks of it.
    - mfx 10y ago
      How small to become profitable? You'll see, this ends in a no win situation fast. Sadly enough.
tn13 10y ago
What if this frozen ice contains disease vectors still dormant and if we don't have immunity to them they might wipe out all life on earth.
lxmorj 10y ago
Build giant sails!

Florin_Andrei 10y ago

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/the-many-failures-and-few-successes-of-zany-iceberg-towing-schemes/243364/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/the-ma...

flukus 10y ago
Missed this one: http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_sydney_iceberg/ http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_sydney_iceberg/

duskwuff 10y ago

Or -- while we're thinking geoengineering -- could we limit how much ice breaks off by deliberately making a cut (or a series of breaks in the ice) from the current end of the crack straight out to sea?

Retra 10y ago
If that would work, then there wouldn't be a crack there in the first place.
- euyyn 10y ago
  Why?
  - Retra 10y ago
    Because the crack isn't the fundamental problem. The problem is that the ice sheet is too small to resist temperature changes. Purposefully making the ice sheet smaller yet only exacerbates the problem. The only reason anyone cares that there is a crack is because it implies that the ice is shrinking.
    - euyyn 10y ago
      Why does a bigger span of ice make it more resistant to temperature changes?
      - Retra 10y ago
        Lower surface area and higher albedo.
        euyyn 10y ago
        Why does albedo increase the larger the shell is? I would have thought it'd only depend on whether the surface was in the form of snow or ice. And wouldn't a larger shell expose a bigger surface area?

idlewords 10y ago

There are not enough boats in the world to move this object. It's gonna go where it wants.

anfroid555 10y ago

Can someone say "trading spaces" qoute

bootload 10y ago

"If we took a fleet of tug-boats and towed this ice to the Middle East," Not easy. This was a problem my high school math tutor, a glaciologist [0],[1] discussed with me one evening doing some applied math. From memory, using a tug to pull an iceberg from Antartica to the Australian mainland would be difficult because of the forces involved. As the tug would try to pull the iceberg, the iceberg itself is acted on by other forces (gravity, currents). The tug pulling the iceberg, connected by a cable would be acted on by the forces applied by the iceberg resulting in the berg and tug rotating in circles around each other. [2] Adding another tug has similar problems. The idea isn't stupid, it's just the physics get in the way of achieving a result. [0] 1970 - 2003 http://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2003/antarctic-ice-man-and-air-transport-designer-retires http://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2003/antarctic-ice-man-and... [1] 2003 - 2016 https://rmdb.research.utas.edu.au/public/rmdb/q/indiv_detail_warp_trans/5073 https://rmdb.research.utas.edu.au/public/rmdb/q/indiv_detail... [2] If memory serves me, Jo used 'moments of inertia' to describe this problem ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_moments_of_inertia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_moments_of_inertia