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In 2010, Mougin enlisted a French computer-aided design (CAD) company, Dassault Systèmes, to use the latest satellite tracking and computer modelling to test the idea of a trans-Atlantic tow: a 3D-scan of a real seven-million-tonne iceberg, and the previous year’s weather data and sea currents, produced a computer model of a theoretical tow from Newfoundland to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. The Saudi project failed on both counts, and the project was shelved in the early 1980s, says Wadhams, “but we continued to think about it and work on it, without significant funding.” The tow needed to be done within a reasonably narrow latitude and in relatively cold waters. “Prince Faisal then cottoned onto this idea, and asked ‘can we tow icebergs to Saudi Arabia?’ Of course, the obvious answer is ‘no’ because you’ve got to get them across the equator and they melt, but nobody told him that because he had a lot of money to put in, and he funded a lot of research.” Two Saudi-funded conferences later – at Ames, Iowa, and the Scott Polar Research Institute, featuring plans by Wadhams, Mougin and Orheim – convinced a lot of people that it could be done. Peter Wadhams first became aware of Isaac’s 1940s proposal while working at Scripps at the start of his career. They include some of the biggest names in glaciology: Professor Peter Wadhams, director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, from 1987-92 Dr Olav Orheim, director of the Norwegian Polar Institute from 1993 to 2005 and Georges Mougin, the original French engineer behind Prince Al-Faisal’s scheme.
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But this is no bunch crackpots or chancers. The potential bounty – a several million-tonne diamond of ice – is just too big for them to resist.
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Most of the plans since the 1970s have involved the same names who, now in their 70s and 80s, are coming back for ‘one last job’. The latest iceberg proposals read like a heist movie. Meanwhile in the UAE, one of the world’s most arid states, the energy minister has declared water consumption a "huge concern" for the country, adding, “we are trying to find alternative solutions”.
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When the rains finally came, Day Zero was averted, but perhaps only for another year. Personal use of water was limited to 50 litres per day. In the spring of 2018, Cape Town came ominously near to ‘Day Zero’ – the day the reservoirs dried up and a city of four million people would run out of water. The latest iceberg-towing schemes to emerge have come from Cape Town and the United Arab Emirates – two regions suffering from extreme and persistent water shortages.