People forget it's not just the shipping itself. First of all, ships just like every other vehicle need more energy to move the heavier they are. Secondly the ice needs to be cooled for most of the trip and portable coolers are real energy guzzlers. So without doing the maths transporting ice from Greenland to Dubai is much more harmful than ships with empty containers on the same way.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 0 points 9 months ago

The first point doesn't hold though. it is always better to have a ship run with cargo than without, in terms of efficiency. Afterall the point of the ship moving is to transport cargo.

For the cooling i am also sceptical. It was common all over Europe to trade with ice cut out of glaciers and frozen lakes until the invention of the cooling pump made electrical fridges a thing. If you store the ice in somewhat well insulated containers, it will cool itself quite decently for long travels. Icecellars were common to hold Ice that was collected in winter and lasted for cooling all throughout the year even in the mediteranian areas.

I also find this business obscene, but i do not see, that it would be more harmful, than sending empty ships around the world.