Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    The Week

    The man who stole a glacier... to make cocktails?

    By The Week's Editorial Staff | The Week – Mon, Feb 6, 2012

    Chilean police say they have busted a ring of thieves who swiped ice from a remote Patagonian glacier to sell to trendy restaurants

    Finally, a case where environmentalists and climate change skeptics can agree that human activity is to blame for retreating glaciers. Chilean authorities have charged a man with transporting 11,453 pounds of ice stolen from a glacier in the country's Bernardo O'Higgins National Park. The chunks of ancient ice were allegedly bound for sale in the capital city, Santiago. Here, a brief guide to this chilling caper:

    Why would people want ice from a glacier?
    The man was allegedly part of a group planning to sell the ice to trendy bars and restaurants hoping to offer their customers cocktails chilled with designer ice cubes straight from the Chilean Patagonia region's Jorge Montt glacier. Apparently, glacier ice in drinks is considered a luxury, says Sara Miller Llana in The Christian Science Monitor, although our Santiago correspondent has never seen it marketed in bars. "Apart from being illegal, it would likely be as shunned, at least among the environmental set, as fur coats."

    SEE ALSO: The Amazon's head hunters and body shrinkers

     

    Is it really that taboo?
    Yes. The Jorge Montt is among the world's fastest shrinking glaciers, receding half a mile every year, and some of its ice is thousands of years old.

    How did the glacier thief get caught?
    The glacier is in such rugged, remote terrain that it doesn't get many tourists. It's only easily accessible by boat or helicopter. So, in the small, nearby Patagonian town of Cochrane, the suspect apparently was easy to spot behind the wheel of a big refrigerated truck. Investigators say he was just one of several people involved in collecting the ice and sending it to the capital.

    SEE ALSO: The Costa Concordia: Should captains always go down with the ship?

     

    What happens now?
    The ice's estimated value is only $6,000, but the driver might face charges more serious than ordinary theft, such as robbing part of Chile's cultural heritage, according to a local prosecutor.

    Sources: Christian Science Monitor, El Mercurio, Go Chile, Guardian

    View this article on TheWeek.com Get 4 Free Issues of The Week

    Other stories from this section:

    Like on Facebook - Follow on Twitter - Sign-up for Daily Newsletter

     

    48 comments

    • MJ
      MJ  •  3 mths ago
      Wow, a truck of ice taken from a glaciar... the thing has receded 1/2 mile a year for years they say. A truck load of ice is virtually NOTHING!!! How is this world wide news??? If you wanna an eco-article, why not cover the retreating rain forest in Brazil that the farmers keep buring for agriculture land???
      • Jon Soto
        Jon Soto 3 mths ago
        Because everyone gets a laugh from dumb criminals.
      • oilfieldworker
        oilfieldworker 3 mths ago
        The tree-huggers, er, I mean glacier huggers are behind it. If everybody in the world was using a bucket full every night, it may cause a problem. But what I want to know...is it better to watch it just go poof in the night like a fart, or have a drink with the ice. It all melts the same. It would be gone in short order anyway. Might as well make some cash off it before it turns into ordinary water...nope, that doesn't make any sense.
    • aberration
      aberration  •  3 mths ago
      Apparently he didnt know the formula for making ice....
    • geo
      geo  •  Laredo, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      It probably has all sorts of impurities like an ancient man's remains.
    • Juan
      Juan  •  St Louis, Missouri  •  3 mths ago
      I have some rare yellow ice I can sell to all you trendy cocktail drinkers out there
    • Joseph
      Joseph  •  Colorado Springs, Colorado  •  3 mths ago
      A better question is why to steal it from a national park when you can get it legally in international waters?
    • wakajawaka
      wakajawaka  •  Boise, Idaho  •  3 mths ago
      Make him sit on the ice until he gets polaroids!
    • Mr. RD
      Mr. RD  •  3 mths ago
      And what about bottled water??? Isnt this related....even alittle??
      • Jessie
        Jessie 3 mths ago
        Not really. Most bottled water comes straight from the tap in the first place.
    • steveLL
      steveLL  •  Washington, District of Columbia  •  3 mths ago
      I'll have mine shaken - not stirred.
    • Great divide
      Great divide  •  Chicago, Illinois  •  3 mths ago
      It's only water....
    • LOST IN LOUISIANA
      LOST IN LOUISIANA  •  Las Vegas, Nevada  •  3 mths ago
      Makes me think of the old Frank Zappa song Yellow Snow Yek!
    • j
      j  •  3 mths ago
      Make him surrender the truck then videotape him watching his profits melt away........
    • Jon Soto
      Jon Soto  •  Encino, California  •  3 mths ago
      This is the most ridiculous crime I've ever heard of.
    • Betsy
      Betsy  •  3 mths ago
      yuk. stale ice. leave where it is.
    • Ant
      Ant  •  3 mths ago
      Its melting anyways.. thats just stupid to put him in jail... what are conservationists going to scream about next? We cant breath cause the oxygen content is plummeting?
      • Nick
        Nick 3 mths ago
        The whole point is to help us survive and saving the environment is good for humans. Conservations is the most selfish thing you can do for yourself. That is what we are trying to teach you. Doing otherwise isn't selfish, it's shortsighted because waste actually harms you in the long run. We are trying to save you from your own short sightedness.
    • Tang L
      Tang L  •  3 mths ago
      It's flippin ice!
      • Joseph
        Joseph 3 mths ago
        LOL, yeah. I don't get why you'd take _that specific_ glacier's ice but...
      • steveLL
        steveLL 3 mths ago
        Yeah, it's not like it's rare or something. The ice shelf in Antarctica is growing. But I guess it's okay do tear up the earth to remove the limited supply of gems, gold and other metals!
    • Jd Jones
      Jd Jones  •  Houston, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      There are a number of businesses that specialize in collecting ice from icebergs. Probably the only water that has not been contaminated by modern chemicals.
    • ButlerReport
      ButlerReport  •  Miami, Florida  •  3 mths ago
      Let him take it. Its melting...duh
    • harvey
      harvey  •  3 mths ago
      The glacier is melting fast, it is turning to water, why should someone not make a profit from salvaging some ice to sell.
    • Dragon1
      Dragon1  •  Las Vegas, Nevada  •  3 mths ago
      As usual,if the government don't get there cut,then its illegal.Thank God they don't want sea water in drinks.Would not want to run out.Its evaporating every day..
    • SMIBs Rule
      SMIBs Rule  •  3 mths ago
      This is off the charts ridiculous. People talking about ancient ice like that means something. Its water. Water constantly freezes into ice and then melts into water and then freezes back into ice and round and round. When the earth runs through its cyles rest assured all the melted ice will return as frozen ice just as thick as 1000 years ago. Then fast forward several thousands years into future and the ice turns back into water. We have dead zones in our oceans that are speeding up a naturally occuring 3 million year cycle to happen in the next 30 years. When that happens we will be extinct. The oceans die off and the air will change into poisionous gas. 3 million years later there will be another life form on earth. Lets hope it gets along better with the earth. Any follow up on the dozens of 1 mile diameter gas spouts / funnels out in the ocean down by antartica?
     Post a comment

    News For You

    Loading...