Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California - io9 Comments

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

banana989 — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:03:39 PDT

Reminds me of how Futurama dealt with global warming :)

banana989

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:44:50 PDT

@PhilipFry: @twalker920: Sorry, I got my poles mixed up b/c I thought these idiots would be bringing it 1/4 down the Earth, not 3/4 up the Earth.

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Mike_Jonze — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:44:20 PDT

"How about people quit trying to turn the deserts into habitable places and living there. I'm looking at you Southern California, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Texas, ect"

^ this

The issue isn't that we're somehow running out of a resource that LITERALLY falls from the sky. The issue is that people choose to live in deserts.

Mike_Jonze

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Sihanouk-s-Poodle — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:25:43 PDT

@misteral: Because folks in California can afford to pay for it.

@AmishJohn: OTEC would not work well in the polar seas.

Sihanouk-s-Poodle

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Chris Wren — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:11:47 PDT

Back in the early 70's, possibly late 60's, George Pal was developing "Voyage of the Berg" about an iceberg being towed to Saudi Arabia. I don't think it ever got past the concept painting stage.

Chris Wren

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Jeff-Minor — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:55:53 PDT

Oh, just call the Grey Area in and have it tractor up a few giga tonnes and drop it where we need it. I'm thinking that Death Valley would be a nice place to start.

Jeff-Minor

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Gopherit — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:20:48 PDT

@Jeff-Minor: I was thinking more of scaling it up a few dozen times and sending ice via sabot rounds with a nice icy center in to suborbital trajectories to the continental US. Sure, the landings would be messy. It's a work in progress.

Desalinization probably is the best way to go.

Gopherit

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

PhilipFry — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:16:11 PDT

@Git Em SteveDave: Er, how do you figure that California, whose southernmost point is probably more than 10,000km from any part of Antarctica, is close than Africa, whose southernmost point is perhaps 5,000km from the Antarctic coast?

PhilipFry

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

CmdrHunt — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:01:16 PDT

@Skeller: Perhaps a scene taken from Ice Pirates?

@Git Em SteveDave: Those space herpes are the kind you don't want crawlin' in your bed sheets while you're sleeping!

CmdrHunt

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

unplugandrun — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:44:38 PDT

@Skeller:
HUZZAH!
yarg it be chillier than wench penguin's false eye, yarg

unplugandrun

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Jeff-Minor — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:11:02 PDT

First we use the railgun to blast some icebergs apart, just for fun. Then we build huge desal stations run by solar power all around the coast of Australia, pumping water into lowland deserts to create fresh water seas. If we want terraform something we can start here with something really basic, like simply moving liquid water through pipes. All it takes is money, or self-replication nanotech. We could fill the Sahara with a see, fill the Great Salt lake, top off the Dead Sea...And that would just require salt water right out of the ocean. We have lots of room for water if we start pumping it where we need it, now.

Jeff-Minor

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

codydog — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:58:59 PDT

@Jeff-Minor: might as well use those nuclear carriers for something. They are not a whole lot of good in an anti-terrorist role. And you know, they are angsting out about new nuclear power plants, and yet the navy builds a few more every year. Probably have hundreds on hand.

I grew up a few miles from the first prototype Nautilus Type reactor, at Combustion Engineering. They used it to power their plant, never felt the need to shut off the parking lot lights.

And i know they could use those ships to power civil needs, they powered one of the Hawaiian Islands with a sub years ago when they had an oil shortage.

codydog

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

z3rks — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:58:13 PDT

I know its not very sci-fi, but this popped-up in the Richard Pryor movie Brewster's Millions, about 20 years ago.

z3rks

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Gopherit — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:51:29 PDT

@Jeff-Minor: That's what the new navy rail gun is for...

Gopherit

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Ed Grabianowski — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:45:41 PDT

@sirtimbly: 200 meters is a worst-case scenario number. That would require the total melting of all Earth's polar ice. Obviously the predicted melting numbers are vastly lower, but it gives an idea of just how much water is locked up in those glaciers!

Ed Grabianowski

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

EBone — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:39:52 PDT

Andy Griffith here...

I already tried this. Didn't work.

EBone

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

sirtimbly — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:38:40 PDT

"The total meltdown of the world's glaciers would raise sea level worldwide 200 meters."

You might want to check your numbers, what I've seen predicted has been more like a 200 MILImeter increase in sea level over the next 100 years from glacial melt.

sirtimbly

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

AmishJohn — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:29:13 PDT

@Jeff-Minor: Use OTECs to power electric motors. Add cylindrical sails for supplemental thrust.

AmishJohn

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Wesman — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:26:27 PDT

We just need enough strong swimmers to stick their tongues to it and head for a sunny climate.

Wesman

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Jeff-Minor — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:54:56 PDT

The amount of fuel needed to pull that much mass through the ocean up to CA would be environmentally unfriendly. We would be best off using a nuclear powered aircraft carrier to haul it up. "It nev-er rains is south-ern Cal-if-ornia..."

Jeff-Minor

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

JoshJasper — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:50:28 PDT

They figured out that if someone could harvest just ten percent of Antarctica's total annual iceberg yield, it would provide water for 500 million people and make $10 billion each year

Great. Did they also figure out how much money we'd save if we had cheap cold fusion?

JoshJasper

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

dead_red_eyes — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:32:01 PDT

How about people quit trying to turn the deserts into habitable places and living there. I'm looking at you Southern California, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Texas, ect .....

dead_red_eyes

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

codydog — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:26:39 PDT

They have been thinking about this for decades. There was a plan to make aircraft carriers out of ice in the Arctic during WWII. They found that mixing sawdust with water and freezing it worked as an outside layer to slow melting. That might work if they ever tried to move one of these, but mylar might be cheaper.

codydog

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

SeanOHara — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:26:03 PDT

Actually the good news is (A) this ice sheet won't affect water levels because it's already floating on the ocean, and (B) ozone is a greenhouse gas, so the hole above the south pole is actually keeping temperatures lower than they would be.

Now, if only we had nuclear winter to do that for the rest of the world.

SeanOHara

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Ed Grabianowski — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:25:29 PDT

@twalker920: The word "annual" was missing. It's 10% of the icebergs that calve from Antarctic glaciers in a single year.

Ed Grabianowski

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Siggichurchill — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:18:49 PDT

Wasn't this an episode of Salvage 1? And instead of towing, didn't they use rockets? And instead of providing drinking water for 500 million people, didn't it result in an action-packed two-part episode and the eventual destruction of the iceberg by exploding rocket?

Siggichurchill

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

twalker920 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:13:31 PDT

@Git Em SteveDave: How exactly do you get from Antarctica to California without crossing the equator?

Also, if "just 10% will provide water to 500 million" (doesn't say for how long), that means 5/6ths of the world's population could completely use up the Antarctic ice. Doesn't sound like a very long term resource to me.

twalker920

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:10:17 PDT

@Skeller: Great, now I have to worry about Space Herpes.

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:09:49 PDT

@misteral: California is closer, and doesn't require crossing large tracts of warm equatorial water? Just a thought.

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

92BuickLeSabre — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:59:11 PDT

@Skeller: Nice.

They better move quickly so it doesn't melt on the way there!

92BuickLeSabre

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

misteral — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:55:29 PDT

No offense to the good people of southern California, but why not tow it to somewhere like Africa or India where they can use some nice clean drinking water?

misteral

Let's Tow the Wilkins Ice Shelf to California

Skeller — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:50:22 PDT

Ice Pirates! Why does that pic look like a cheap model?

Skeller