JQPublic1
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- Aug 10, 2012
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Water from Icebergs
Water from IcebergsThe planets greatest stores of freshwater lie far away from the arid, heavily populated regions that need it the most. Nearly 70% of all fresh water is locked in the polar ice caps. Just the new icebergs that form every year around Antarctica hold enough water to meet the needs of every person on Earth for several months. Longstanding proposals to tow icebergs to lower latitudes where their valuable water can be harvested have been met with both skepticism and interest. To date, no successful attempts have been made.
Towing icebergs to tropical zones is unworkable, IMHO. There are myriad hazards and environmental calamities that might result. Perhaps, onsite ice mining would be more feasible at either Antarctica or in the Arctic Zone. Icebergs from the Arctic could be towed a short distance to staging areas ( Alaska) where a process to convert them into liquid H2O could be initiated. Oil tankers could be converted to water tankers for transport.
Since the ice of Antarctica is formed over a land mass, geothermal energy could one day be tapped to form a lake that would never freeze. Although it sounds like science fiction, an array of satellites fitted with lasers could not only help to melt ice, such technology could be the means for tapping into the land underneath Antarctica for geothermal applications.
Hey, does that idea cost very much? Seems to me the cost would be measured in trillions of dollars. Where we gonna get that money?
And it is back to the future again. Before freezers, ice was towed to ports where it would be blocked off for the use of the citizenry for food storage. That's what we need. Except people will be buying blocks of ice for their drinking water. It will be real cool.
Whatever the price, mining the polar caps for water may be better than the alternative of NOT doing so. Perhaps the UN woud be the best source of revenue to finance such a project since the whole world would greatly benefit from it Talk about JOB CREATION?
Since the USA is still the place where most new technologies originate, such an endeavor could only be exceptionally good for us.
Of course, the conversion of sea water to fresh water may be cheaper. A comparitive financial analysis of the two ideas would have to be worked out