In a scenario that appears to be the worst nightmare for Greta Thunberg, a startup is extracting ice that is 100,000 years old from Arctic glaciers...
This ice, much purer and slower to melt, is transported in refrigerated containers 15,000 kilometers away to be used in decadent cocktail bars in Dubai. A rose by any other name would still smell sweet, but cocktails in the luxury bars of Dubai wouldn't be as spectacular without glacier ice from Greenland. In a move that elevated the art of mixology and raised the eyebrows of curious visitors, startup company from Greenland, Arctic Ice, decided to transport ice that is 100,000 years old from Arctic glaciers to luxury bars in this city. Although confusing and seemingly unnecessary, in defense of this move, glacier ice has been compressed over thousands of years and melts slower than regular ice.
This makes it the perfect companion for expensive cocktails in upscale bars, where drinks are not diluted, and alcohol and flavor levels remain high, resulting in a much more luxurious experience. The company promotes its product as the 'purest ice in the world, exceptionally sourced from pristine glaciers in Greenland.' Arctic Ice is directly sourced from natural glaciers in the Arctic, which have been in a frozen state for over 100,000 years, according to the company. 'These ice sheet parts have not been in contact with any soils or contaminated by pollutants produced by human activities. This makes Arctic Ice the purest H2O on Earth.'
Malik V Rasmussen, co-founder of Arctic Ice, is a proud founder of a new source of income for Greenland. 'In Greenland, all the money we earn comes from fishing and tourism,' Rasmussen told The Guardian. 'I've long wanted to find something else from which we can profit.' The entrepreneur claims that his ice is environmentally friendly and socially valuable. It is extracted from rich fjords around Greenland using a specialized crane-equipped ship. The ice is then stored in a blue plastic box until the ship is full.
The ice travels 15,000 kilometers in a refrigerated container from Greenland to sunny Dubai. The refrigerated container transports it to Denmark via the Icelandic shipping company Eimskip, and then it is loaded onto another ship that takes it further to Dubai, where it is greeted by the local distributor, Natural Ice, who sells it to luxury bars and restaurants.
All this is done so that the drink is not diluted – many will say that a much simpler solution is to not hold the drink in hand, as the temperature of our body helps ice melt faster, to use whiskey stones or regular ice, and we realistically have no argument to justify this decadence, especially considering scientists' claims that the Earth could lose up to 80% of its glaciers by 2100 due to climate change.
The numbers are already there, and as NASA claims, Greenland is losing 270 billion tons of ice every year. The company has faced criticism for the commercialization of natural resources and received negative feedback.
Well, if people can sell bottled air from Mount Everest for $455,700, fresh bottled coastal air for $100, or British air in bottles for $30, then a Greenlander can sell ice to those who want it.
