Early 1940s
The British try to build a massive ship out of wood pulp and ice. They call it Project Habakkuk ; the plan was stopped.
The British try to build a massive ship out of wood pulp and ice. They call it Project Habakkuk ; the plan was stopped.
John Isaacs suggested "capturing an eight-billion-ton iceberg, 20 miles long, 3000 feet wide, and 1000 feet deep in the Antarctic and towing it up to San Clemente Island off San Diego in 200 days." The way Isaacs saw it, the energy required to guide the berg up two continents was a mere fraction of the energy required to desalinate it, which was itself a popular idea for the third quarter of the 20th century.
Oil companies developed a successful iceberg towing technology to keep the ice away from their oil rigs in the Labrador Sea between Canada and Greenland. "It was found that a floating bridle around the berg, attached to several tugs, was feasible and safe."
The RAND Corporation was most comprehensive scheme iceberg project to date, J.L. Hult and N.C. Ostrander created an actual paper model of how an "iceberg train" could work. This is classic RAND work with lots of math and appendices.
Filling the Emptry Quarter book was published by engineer Abdulla Alshehhi; the book outlined many ways to harvest & save water one of which was considering the icebergs as a new water resource for the world.
The Project Concept was presented during ”Filling the Empty Quarter lecture” at The Ministry of Infrastructure Development in the UAE.
The project was presented to Abu Dhabi Economic Department during “Filling The Empty Quarter “ lecture
The Project Concept was presented to The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in the UAE.
