Possibly-crazy rich guy Clive Palmer is spending his hard-earned fortune on building a replica of the Titanic. A pretty exact replica, which, on its maiden voyage, will try to finish the journey the original Titanic started, through the icy Atlantic.
But don’t worry about that, Palmer told reporters:
One of the benefits of global warming has been that there isn’t so many icebergs in the North Atlantic these days.
Which would make us feel better … if it were anywhere close to true. But as National Geographic reported in April, there actually could be more icebergs on that route now than in the late 19th century:
As more ice melts under glaciers and ice sheets — particularly in Greenland and Antarctica — the water lubricates the ice masses, sending them to sea, and eventual breakup, at a faster rate.
“It’s like spraying WD-40 in there,” [the Nature Conservancy’s Frank] Lowenstein said. “More icebergs can form, because each glacier is bringing hundreds to thousands of extra tons of ice per year to the ocean.”
Sooooo … we’re not exactly hopeful that this story is going to end differently this time around. To all the future Jacks and Roses out there, all we can say is: Remember that you can both fit on the raft.
