Chasing Icebergs
How Frozen Freshwater Can Save the Planet
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- US$18.99
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- US$18.99
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A deeply intelligent and engrossing narrative that will transform our relationship with water and how we view climate change.
The global water crisis is upon us. 1 in 3 people do not have access to safe drinking water; nearly 1 million people die each year as a result. Even in places with adequate freshwater, pollution and poor infrastructure have left residents without basic water security. Luckily, there is a solution to this crisis where we least expect it. Icebergs—frozen mountains of freshwater—are more than a symbol of climate change. In his spellbinding Chasing Icebergs, Matthew Birkhold argues the glistening leviathans of the ocean may very well hold the key to saving the planet.
Harvesting icebergs for drinking water is not a new idea. But for the first time in human history, doing so on a massive global scale is both increasingly feasible and necessary for our survival. Chasing Icebergs delivers a kaleidoscopic history of humans’ relationship with icebergs, and offers an urgent assessment of the technological, cultural, and legal obstacles we must overcome to harness this freshwater resource.
Birkhold takes readers around the globe, introducing them to a colorful cast of characters with wildly different ideas about how (and if) humans should use icebergs. Sturdy bureaucrats committed to avoiding another Titanic square off against “iceberg cowboys” who wrangle the frozen beasts for profit. Entrepreneurs selling luxury iceberg water for an eye-popping price clash with fearless humanitarians trying to tow icebergs across the globe to eradicate water shortages.
Along the way, we meet some of the world’s most renowned scientists to determine how industrial-scale iceberg harvesting could affect the oceans and the poles. And we see firsthand the looming conflict between Indigenous peoples like the Greenlandic Inuit with claims to icebergs and the private corporations that stand to reap massive profits.
As Birkhold shepherds readers from Connecticut to South Africa, from Newfoundland to Norway, to Greenland and beyond, he unfurls a visionary argument for cooperation over conflict. It’s not too late for icebergs to save humanity. But we must act fast to form a coalition of scientists, visionaries, engineers, lawyers and diplomats to ensure that the “Cold Rush” doesn’t become a free-for-all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This entertaining report by Birkhold (Characters Before Copyright), an Ohio State University humanities professor, dives into the contentious battle over harvesting icebergs. Water shortages driven by climate change could lead to a "Cold Rush" for icebergs, Birkhold contends, anticipating the legal, political, and cultural considerations that might accompany efforts to source fresh water from icebergs. The author details entrepreneurs' techniques for harvesting icebergs, which include using a barge-mounted crane to scoop up ice, rounding up small chunks of ice in motorboats, or encircling an iceberg with high-strength rope ("lassoing") for towing. Colorful profiles introduce the characters involved; there's Ed Kean, one of the "cowboys" who wrangles icebergs along Canada's "Iceberg Alley," and Kistaaraq Abelsen, an Indigenous Greenlander who is bemused yet wary of the growing efforts to commodify and export the ice that the country's residents treat as a public resource. Spirited explorations of the conflicting interests of entrepreneurs, glaciologists, engineers, and Indigenous people of the subarctic regions provide a far-ranging view of the challenges and possibilities involved in harvesting icebergs. This is a thought-provoking take on the hard decisions that will have to be faced in a climate-ravaged future.
