Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf breaks | Hacker News Reader

Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf breaks

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

78 pointsgeox16 comments

"The breaking (calving) of icebergs from ice shelves is part of a natural, cyclical process of growth and decay at the limits of Earth’s ice sheets"

So apparently not a reason for alarm?

Now we just have to drag it to one of our harbors and we can solve America’s water crisis

Perhaps you kid, but this would be an astounding achievement and I struggle to see the actual downsides other than perhaps prohibitive cost.

I mean I imagine if you towed this burg to LA you would kill the plants in the animals near by with the cold temps?

It was contemplated by Australia (which is both drier and closer to Antarctica) and found to be uneconomical compared to seawater desalination.

The video below is quite fascinating

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqhUP7gfFNk

As far as the US goes, it seems like a lot of places with water shortages are very wasteful when factoring in agricultural usage, which needs to be addressed on a political level (water rights and such). Having a one-off surplus of water would let them punt this issue even longer...to when the drought in the American southwest is probably more dire.

We have that, and we have the whole phenomena for golf courses in the desert (and backyard pools).

American has plenty of water overall. We can be quite wasteful with how we use it, and putting agriculture in dry areas has negative consequences.

That region is claimed by Argentina and UK.

You'd still have to invest absurd amounts of energy into melting the water and even more in cross-continental water pipelines.

If you could somehow capture the water as it naturally melts in the warm weather, that would address the energy concerns of melting it. Course, capturing the melt water of something so large is a new set of engineering challenges...

Every crisis is an opportunity. At least in the short term.

America has a water crisis?

America's Southwest region does have a risk of water shortage. California, Arizona, Nevada, etc.

Other regions/cities have some water access issues, but those are generally infrastructure related. Think leaded or leaking pipes.

Thus solving the problem once and for all.

Put a number of large kites/parasails on the thing and it'll make its way to where you want it without the need for dragging. A lot of it will melt but who cares, there's more where it came from.

Scary as…

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