Greenland ice cream served in Dubai cocktail bars: this company's initiative is controversial

Le réchauffement climatique entraîne la fonte rapide des glaciers MAXPPP – Michael S. Nolan/SpecialistStock/TCS

In Greenland, the company Arctic Ice fishes ice from a fjord and transports it to the United Arab Emirates, to Dubai, for be served in cocktails in bars and restaurants. 

The Greenlandic start-up founded in 2022 by Malik V. Rasmussen offers to transport ice from the Nuup Kangerlua fjord. Tuesday January 9, the first blocks of ice left for Dubai. C

This ice is sold as being made from the “cleanest” water on Earth, according to the company that sells it. As the latter states on its website, these thousand-year-old pieces of ice have not been contaminated by pollutants produced by human activities.< /p>

A maligned model

On social networks, Malik V. Rasmussen's company is strongly criticized. Users accuse it of contributing to global warming and degrading the environment. In fact, the ice cubes will travel 16,000 kilometers before arriving in the customer's glass. 

The founder of Artic ice spoke at the microphone of the Guardian, justifying his action as a means of making his country which according to him depends too much on Denmark: "In Greenland, we earn all our money from fish and tourism,” he explains. 

The company claims that it fishes for blocks of ice by crane boat and does not extract them from the ice cap. As a reminder, the glacier has already lost 4,700 billion tonnes of water in 20 years due to global warming indicates TF1. 

In response to criticism, Malik V. Rasmussen promises that he will offset his greenhouse gas emissions in the future.