Sometimes you just have to wonder! Let’s freeze the Arctic to make up for all the ice those nasty farmers in New Zealand have melted with their farting cows.
A team of designers led by Faris Rajak Kotahatuhaha proposes re-freezing sea water in the Arctic to create miniature modular icebergs using a submarine-like vessel, in a bid to combat climate change.
The Indonesian designer worked on the prototype with collaborators Denny Lesmana Budi and Fiera Alifa for an international competition organised by the Association of Siamese Architects. […]
“The main goal of this idea is to restore the polar ecosystem, which has a direct effect on the balance of the global climate,” said the designer, adding that in this scenario “it is better to prevent than cure“. […]
The submarine-like vessel would submerge to collect sea water in a central hexagonal tank. Turbines would then be used to blast the tank with cold air and accelerate the freezing process.
During this process, the vessel would return to the surface of the sea and the tank would be covered to protect it from sunlight. A system of reverse osmosis would be used to filter some of the salt from the water in order to speed up the process.
Once the water is frozen, the vessel would submerge again, leaving behind an “ice baby” with a volume of 2,027 cubic-metres. These miniature icebergs would then cluster together in a honeycomb pattern to form a larger ice floe.
Dezeen
Ever felt the heat rising from the rear of your refrigerator? To freeze something, even cold arctic water, takes energy. The word “turbines” is used. These will run on “fossil” fuels no doubt. They will generate heat as well.
Everything in this stupid idea, refrigeration, reverse osmosis, pumping heat, takes a lot of work. The latent heat of fusion extracted from the water to turn it into ice and the waste heat from all the processes above will have to go somewhere. If they release the waste heat into the Arctic ocean, or the air, it will most likely melt the ice their submarine just finished freezing.
Muppets!
Watch it all and be amazed.
