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The Chilean General Prosecutor's Office displays bags of ice allegedly stolen from the Jorge Montt Glacier, more than 1,200 miles south of Santiago, Chile.
Thieves have stolen 11,000 pounds of ancient ice from a Chilean glacier to make designer cubes for cocktails in bars in the nation's capital, Santiago, authorities have told local media.
Prosecutor Jose Moris Ferrando said this week that a driver of a refrigerated truck was arrested Friday in Cochrane with the equivalent of $6,200 worth of ice, according to El Mercurio newspaper.
A company is extracting the ice from the Jorge Montt sector glaciers in the Southern Ice Field near Caleta Tortel in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park in southern Chile, Moris said. He did not name the company.
The crime is classified as a simple theft for now, he said. However, suspects may later be charged with crimes against national heritage or with environmental crimes, he said.
The Guardian of London noted that Jorge Montt is retreating by half a mile a year, making it one of the word's fastest-shrinking glaciers.
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I didn't even know you could steal a glacier. Why would you even want ancient ice water for your cocktail anyway?
Glacer ice. Light milky blue. All the air in snow compressed into microscopic bubbles in the ice gives it that color.
Just don't consume the yellow cubes.....
For the same sick reason some people would eat an endangered species I would imagine scuba.
For what it's worth, I hope the criminals involved get "put on ice" and cool their heels in prison! :D
This is such a chilling story....
What's sad is that what looks to be 60-70 gallons of water [albeit really OLD, FROZEN water], is valued at $6200??? GMAFB!!! Seriously???
lmao....theyve stolen everything from all they could now thier stealing glaciers ....lmfao!!!!Definately a hispanic thing.
Idiot and bigot combo. Well done rusted.
I have a friend from Chile - his heritage is Italian.
His Spanish is much different from my friends from Mexico.
Prejudice is ignorance.
I really don't understand why people have to be so shallow.
Because some people have a pathological need to have someone else to look down on.
"A walk through the ocean of most people's souls would scarcely get your feet wet."
Since my both my parents are from Chile, I'll extend a hardy f*ck you. A**hole.
Where can a person hide a glacier?
Evidently , in their cocktail drinks now.......
Unless you like imbibing mountain climber pee, never drink a cocktail served with glacial ice from Mt Rainier National Park.
Well THIS explains where all the glacial ice has been going! Global warming my ass.
you beat me to it....damn!!
Hey ....where did the glacier go....???
Those drunks over there drank it......
This is the kind of crappe that gets people upset...south of the border....
Do something quick before it melts....
How is chopping ice off a glacier any different than filling a barrel full of salt water from the ocean to use in your aquarium or filling your pickup with some dirt you dug up out in the country somewhere? The kicker is the glacier is melting anyway. Why not use the ice for something profitable? How much can these "thieves" haul away? Is Chile running out of water? Stupid is as stupid does.
It is more like harvesting rhino horns or elephant tusks to be made into impotence drugs. The arrogance of man is what will be the downfall of human civilization. It is this arrogance that allows people to have a feeling of such importance that they have no reservations about defacing the planet for personal amusement or social status. "I can have my 30 year old scotch cooled with glacial ice...I feel like a God! muhaa ha ha!" (hopefully spoken 2 minutes before the tsunami hits and wipes them away like a grain of sand on a beach).
Will the age of enlightenment please wipe away this arrogance once and for all and replace it with humility! Hurry 12-21-2012, we need you here fast!
You can look at it two ways:
1. The ice is ancient and has scientific value. These people were stealing the heritage of the entire nation so it could be put into expensive cocktails.
2. The glacial melt is what feeds the few streams and rivers the people living in the desert rely on. Water rights in the SW US have spawned numerous feuds and turf wars and just about everywhere water is scarce. Think of it as someone damming and diverting a river you depend on to irrigate your farm.
If something is scarce, the value goes up, and the scarcer it is, the higher the value. Much of Chile is a desert, so yeah - the water and ice has a lot of value.
kountryking,
In the US, if you're caught bailing water from a protected marine sanctuary or if you're caught gouging dirt from a protected terrestrial enclave, you'll be in trouble. The concept of protected natural environments isn't so difficult to grasp.
Lune
Brisaber -
Your points are well taken. But only the northern part of Chile is a dessert. The southern part of the country is more like the Pacific Northwest - wet and cold.
One day, you'll find answer...
They should have turned the refrigeration off in the truck and told them: "Ice? We don't got no stinking Ice"!
So what you're saying is all I have to do is make ice with blue food coloring and Chileans are stupid enough to give me thousands of dollars for it? PT Barnum was RIGHT !!!