Image - Svalbardi
What might seem like a joke in bad taste is a reality that many may not like, not in vain, Arctic glaciers are not exactly in their prime due to global warming. But that doesn't seem to have mattered to Jamal Qureshi, a Wall Street finance professional.
This man, on a trip to the Svalbard archipelago (Norway), brought ice from an iceberg to his home, where his wife made a tea with that water. They liked the taste so much that They have begun to exploit the icebergs of the archipelago to create their business: Arctic bottled water.
If we consider that melting ice is one of the biggest problems we face, we might think that taking ice from the Arctic to melt it would only make the situation worse. But for this the company founded by Qureshi, Svalbard, you have two answers. The first is that a percentage of the cost of the bottle, which costs 94 euros, is donated to Global Seed Vault, which is a center that keeps seeds of a great variety of species to avoid their extinction; and the second is that is certified as a carbon-free company, and that they use only icebergs that have been detached and that float in the sea.
What is worrying about the case is that, according to Qureshi, they are using icebergs that were created 4 thousand years ago from snow and that the contamination has not been able to intoxicate them, but does not mention any scientific study back up your words.
Svalbard Thaw. Image - NASA
The company plans to sell between 25 and 35 thousand bottles a year, made with about 30 tons of ice, something that for Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, in the long term it will not be sustainable as it could accelerate thaw.