A COMPANY in Greenland has started shipping ice from the Arctic 9,000miles to UAE for influencers to enjoy in their Instagram cocktails.
According to the Arctic Ice company’s co-founder, Malik V Rasmussen, the rare ice has been compressed over thousands of years, is entirely free of bubbles and has a slower melting rate compared to regular ice. It also boasts a higher level of purity compared to the frozen mineral water typically used in Dubai’s ice cubes.
The company’s website states: “Arctic Ice is sourced directly from the natural glaciers in the Arctic which have been in a frozen state for more than 100,000 years. These parts of the ice sheets have not been in contact with any soils or contaminated by pollutants produced by human activities. This makes Arctic Ice the cleanest H20 on Earth.”
The start-up, which shipped its first 20 metric tonnes of ice recently, has immediately hit the rocks with social media users slamming the idea as bad for the environment.
“Shouldn’t you be worrying about the effects of global warming rather than selling glacier water?” barked one social media commentator
According to The Guardian Rasmussen has even received communication that “verged on death threats”
However Artic Ice has hit back, citing their environmental credentials and the positive social value the company is hoping to bring.
The fjords around Greenland are reportedly losing 30m tonnes of ice an hour that separates from its glaciers. Arctic Ice operates a special boat equipped with a crane, navigating the Nuup Kangerlua, the fjord near Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, in search of a specific type of ice untouched by both the glacier’s bottom and top.
This unique ice, known locally as ‘black ice’ due to its complete transparency, is the most pure but it proves a challenge to spot in the water. Once spotted they use the crane to lift it and place it in a blue plastic crate before it is shipped to Denmark and then transferred to another ship bound for Dubai.
Arctic Ice argues that the initial leg of the shipping journey, from Greenland to Denmark, is very low carbon because the vast majority of refrigerated shipping containers departing Greenland would typically be empty, given that the country imports more frozen goods than it exports.
As well as delivering premium cocktails to the desert, Rasmussen’s aim was to foster new business and revenue streams for Greenland, a country which relies heavily on subsidies from Denmark.
“Helping Greenland in its green transition is actually what I believe I was brought into this world to do,” Rasmussen said. “We do have that agenda running through the company, but we may not have communicated it well enough yet.
“In Greenland, we make all our money from fish and from tourism. For a long time, I have wanted to find something else that we can profit from.”
We’ll drink to that…
