Status ice: It’s had a pretty big moment over the last few years, from intricate “ice art” taking off on Instagram, to all those bougie TikTok trends freezing fruit or tasteless flowers in your ice cube trays at home. Of course, humanity couldn’t just stop there. Now there’s a company sending 100,000-year-old ice from Greenland’s glaciers to Dubai’s most exclusive bars.
Advertisement
Sourced from the fjords around Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, Arctic Ice claims its ice is the “cleanest H20 on Earth”, untouched by soil and humans over millennia. Co-founder Malik V Rasmussen says the ice is completely without bubbles and melts more slowly than regular ice, reports the Guardian. Harvested from icebergs already naturally detached from the glacier (apparently), they’re carefully selected and inspected to find a specific type of ice which hasn’t been in contact with either the bottom or the top of the glacier – locally called “black ice”, known as the purest.A TikTok promo video, in collaboration with a local influencer, has already reached 2.5 million views. It shows footage of the ice being hacked off and put in a refrigerated container to be exported to Dubai. “Are they speeding up climate change? No, they are not,” says the influencer Qupanuk Olsen, boldly.Arctic Ice says their method of harvesting the ice “does not harm glaciers” and, in fact, “prevents the ice from contributing to rising sea levels” – meaning it’ll eventually have a genuinely “positive impact”. But many people on the internet have questions, ranging from the true climate change impact to taste. “Isn’t it salty?” ask some. “What about the ancient bacterias?” say others. The first batch of 20 metric tonnes arrived in Dubai on the 16th of January, according to Dubai-based Khaleej Times, so I guess we’ll soon find out.
Advertisement
Apart from being wildly unnecessary, what are the actual consequences of carving ice from the Arctic? Will it speed up climate change? Will it set off the next pandemic by infecting Dubai's elite with that recently found ancient virus? We spoke to climate scientist and sea ice expert Dr Dirk Notz, professor of oceanography studies at the University of Hamburg, to find out.VICE: Hey Dirk! Can it be true that Arctic Ice’s glacier ice is the “cleanest H20 on Earth”?
Dirk Notz: It depends on where this ice comes from. Generally, the ice in Greenland is nothing but very old snow. In polar regions like this, the snow doesn’t always melt when it falls on land, then the next year’s snow falls on top of the old one. This goes on for hundreds of thousands of years until this snow becomes so tall and heavy that it naturally gets pushed together into ice. Sometimes the ice in Greenland is over three kilometres thick, so the ice that comes from the depths of the country is very clean and has not been polluted by human activities, as there weren’t any humans around when this ice was formed. But for any given piece of ice, we don’t know how old it is. It could be formed only 50 years ago, or there might’ve been a volcanic eruption around the time, so you might have debris mixed in. A large amount of the ice is very clean because it’s old, though.
Dirk Notz: It depends on where this ice comes from. Generally, the ice in Greenland is nothing but very old snow. In polar regions like this, the snow doesn’t always melt when it falls on land, then the next year’s snow falls on top of the old one. This goes on for hundreds of thousands of years until this snow becomes so tall and heavy that it naturally gets pushed together into ice. Sometimes the ice in Greenland is over three kilometres thick, so the ice that comes from the depths of the country is very clean and has not been polluted by human activities, as there weren’t any humans around when this ice was formed. But for any given piece of ice, we don’t know how old it is. It could be formed only 50 years ago, or there might’ve been a volcanic eruption around the time, so you might have debris mixed in. A large amount of the ice is very clean because it’s old, though.
Advertisement
Do you think having glacier ice in your drink would be a noticeably different experience, compared to tap or bottled water ice?
Not really. You will hear interesting sounds when you put it in and that’s because the ice is formed from snow, so there’s still a bit of air in it. When you put the ice cube in a drink, these air bubbles will cause the ice to crack, so you’ll hear the typical ice cracking sound. In terms of the taste, unlike bottled and tap water sourced from groundwater, there are very few minerals in Arctic ice, meaning it shouldn’t have any taste once it melts in your drink. That’s interesting, because Arctic Ice actually claims there are zero bubbles…
I’d be surprised if this was the case. It’s precisely because of the bubbles in ice, formed from trapped air, that climate scientists are able to study the atmospheric composition of ice. If this ice from the ice sheet doesn’t have any bubbles in it, it must be relatively special – most ice from the ice sheet has bubbles in it.So it isn’t true that glacier ice melts slower, like Arctic Ice claims?I don’t see why it should melt slower. I mean, physically ice is ice. All freshwater ice melts at zero degrees, so I don’t see any reason why this ice should melt in a different way to tap water ice. To turn ice into water, you need a certain amount of energy that’s a standard property of water – it doesn’t change from one block of ice to the other. I don’t really understand where this claim is coming from.
Not really. You will hear interesting sounds when you put it in and that’s because the ice is formed from snow, so there’s still a bit of air in it. When you put the ice cube in a drink, these air bubbles will cause the ice to crack, so you’ll hear the typical ice cracking sound. In terms of the taste, unlike bottled and tap water sourced from groundwater, there are very few minerals in Arctic ice, meaning it shouldn’t have any taste once it melts in your drink. That’s interesting, because Arctic Ice actually claims there are zero bubbles…
I’d be surprised if this was the case. It’s precisely because of the bubbles in ice, formed from trapped air, that climate scientists are able to study the atmospheric composition of ice. If this ice from the ice sheet doesn’t have any bubbles in it, it must be relatively special – most ice from the ice sheet has bubbles in it.So it isn’t true that glacier ice melts slower, like Arctic Ice claims?I don’t see why it should melt slower. I mean, physically ice is ice. All freshwater ice melts at zero degrees, so I don’t see any reason why this ice should melt in a different way to tap water ice. To turn ice into water, you need a certain amount of energy that’s a standard property of water – it doesn’t change from one block of ice to the other. I don’t really understand where this claim is coming from.
Advertisement
Is it possible for the ice to be contaminated en route to Dubai?
It depends on how it’s transported. Of course, there might be some microplastics attached to the ice but the company will cut off the outer 5cm to access the pure ice in the middle. But, again, in terms of the larger context of how much microplastics we consume every day, there’s nothing really to worry about. Recently, there have been reports of scientists reviving an ancient virus in the Arctic permafrost. What are the chances of one spreading to a consumer in Dubai through the ice?
I’m not an expert on that, but I find it hard to believe there would be viruses in the ice – in snow, there’s no organic matter for the virus to survive. Permafrost is soil or underwater sediment which remains below freezing for two years or more.
Arctic Ice say lab tests will certify the ice is safe to consume, but how accurate are the tests? Can they check for viruses we’ve never encountered before?
There are all sorts of tests. You can check if there are any contaminants in the water, or whether there are any modern pesticides, viruses or bacteria. With modern testing methods, you can find anything that you want. All these tests are incredibly sensitive, especially food security tests.
It depends on how it’s transported. Of course, there might be some microplastics attached to the ice but the company will cut off the outer 5cm to access the pure ice in the middle. But, again, in terms of the larger context of how much microplastics we consume every day, there’s nothing really to worry about. Recently, there have been reports of scientists reviving an ancient virus in the Arctic permafrost. What are the chances of one spreading to a consumer in Dubai through the ice?
I’m not an expert on that, but I find it hard to believe there would be viruses in the ice – in snow, there’s no organic matter for the virus to survive. Permafrost is soil or underwater sediment which remains below freezing for two years or more.
Arctic Ice say lab tests will certify the ice is safe to consume, but how accurate are the tests? Can they check for viruses we’ve never encountered before?
There are all sorts of tests. You can check if there are any contaminants in the water, or whether there are any modern pesticides, viruses or bacteria. With modern testing methods, you can find anything that you want. All these tests are incredibly sensitive, especially food security tests.
Advertisement
Apparently, they're only collecting “black icebergs” that’ve detached naturally already, so they’re “not destroying the natural wonders” – is this possible? Does it still harm the environment there?
It’s possible, but the point isn’t about people taking the ice. Scientists are really worried about the scale of ice loss that we’re currently observing in Greenland. As far as I remember, we lose around 250 gigatonnes of ice [the equivalent of 2.5 million fully loaded U.S. aircraft carriers) from Greenland every year because of global warming. The rapidly rising sea level is much more concerning than these people taking a bit of ice. The CO2 released from the shipping of this ice does contribute to global warming, but at insignificant levels compared to what we do in our everyday lives. Does this mean that Arctic Ice are actually preventing ice from adding to rising sea levels then, like they say?
[Laughs] That’s technically correct because if you put an ice cube in a drink, the drink level will rise. But the impact of taking out the ice from Greenland to put it in glasses in Dubai is so unbelievably small.Does this process endanger any of the Arctic wildlife there?
No. Again, to put things in perspective, there’s much more danger to wildlife from global warming as a whole. In fact, there are so many tourist ships going to Greenland that this one ship does not make a difference. How does this procedure contribute to the climate crisis?
It contributes to the climate crisis in the same way as drinking a bottle of water from France in Germany. It’s important to put what they’re doing in perspective with what each of us are doing every day. Arctic Ice argues its first stage of shipping, from Greenland to Denmark, is of low carbon intensity as most refrigerated shipping containers leaving Greenland are empty. Does it have much of a positive impact?
The ship is going anyway, and the additional fuel that is used in putting the extra weight of ice is incredibly small. In this regard, I fully agree with it.Could this set a dangerous new precedent for the future commercialisation of natural elements?
I’m not sure how big a mark this will be. If you look at the number of ships that go around in the world in a day, transporting goods that aren’t necessities, that’s so much worse than what this one shipping company is doing. Still, it just sounds completely insane to transport ice cubes across the globe.
It’s possible, but the point isn’t about people taking the ice. Scientists are really worried about the scale of ice loss that we’re currently observing in Greenland. As far as I remember, we lose around 250 gigatonnes of ice [the equivalent of 2.5 million fully loaded U.S. aircraft carriers) from Greenland every year because of global warming. The rapidly rising sea level is much more concerning than these people taking a bit of ice. The CO2 released from the shipping of this ice does contribute to global warming, but at insignificant levels compared to what we do in our everyday lives. Does this mean that Arctic Ice are actually preventing ice from adding to rising sea levels then, like they say?
[Laughs] That’s technically correct because if you put an ice cube in a drink, the drink level will rise. But the impact of taking out the ice from Greenland to put it in glasses in Dubai is so unbelievably small.Does this process endanger any of the Arctic wildlife there?
No. Again, to put things in perspective, there’s much more danger to wildlife from global warming as a whole. In fact, there are so many tourist ships going to Greenland that this one ship does not make a difference. How does this procedure contribute to the climate crisis?
It contributes to the climate crisis in the same way as drinking a bottle of water from France in Germany. It’s important to put what they’re doing in perspective with what each of us are doing every day. Arctic Ice argues its first stage of shipping, from Greenland to Denmark, is of low carbon intensity as most refrigerated shipping containers leaving Greenland are empty. Does it have much of a positive impact?
The ship is going anyway, and the additional fuel that is used in putting the extra weight of ice is incredibly small. In this regard, I fully agree with it.Could this set a dangerous new precedent for the future commercialisation of natural elements?
I’m not sure how big a mark this will be. If you look at the number of ships that go around in the world in a day, transporting goods that aren’t necessities, that’s so much worse than what this one shipping company is doing. Still, it just sounds completely insane to transport ice cubes across the globe.