Chasing Icebergs

Water scarcity is already a daily reality. Roughly one in three people lacks reliable access to safe drinking water, and close to a million die each year as a consequence. The problem is not limited to dry regions: many communities with plenty of freshwater still go without basic water security because of contamination and aging infrastructure. Matthew H. Birkhold proposes that a surprising source, the icebergs drifting through the oceans, could help. Because these vast blocks of ice are made of fresh water, he argues they may be part of the answer, and that harvesting them on a large scale has become both practical and urgent for the first time.

The book traces how people have related to icebergs across history, then examines the technological, cultural and legal barriers that stand in the way of using them. Birkhold travels widely to introduce a varied group of people who disagree about whether and how icebergs should be put to use. Government officials focused on making sure nothing like the Titanic disaster happens again stand opposed to independent operators who pursue icebergs for profit. Companies selling premium bottled iceberg water sit alongside idealistic humanitarians who want to tow ice to communities in need. Leading scientists weigh in on how industrial-scale harvesting could affect the oceans and the polar regions, and the author examines the rising tension between Indigenous peoples, such as the Greenlandic Inuit, who assert claims to icebergs, and corporations eager to profit from them.

The story moves from Connecticut and Newfoundland to Norway, Greenland and South Africa. Birkhold's central case is for cooperation rather than competition. He calls for scientists, inventors, engineers, lawyers and diplomats to join forces quickly so that the race to claim icebergs does not turn into an unregulated scramble.