Chilean police put glacier theft scheme on ice

SANTIAGO, Chile - Chilean police say they've cracked a scheme to steal ice from a disappearing glacier.

The driver of a refrigerator truck was stopped cold in far southern Patagonia, carrying five tons of ice they say was carved from icebergs from the Jorge Montt glacier.

His plan was to deliver the ice to Santiago, nearly 1,400 miles to the north, where a company apparently hoped to sell it as ice cubes to upscale bars and restaurants. Now he's under arrest for robbery. The ice block was worth about $6165, according to the Guardian.

Regional Forestry Director Juan Eduardo Barrientos wouldn't identify any of the suspects on Friday, but said the company had been calling various public officials in hopes of liberating the ice.

Instead, Barrientos said, it's been put in tanks for use as irrigation on farms suffering from drought.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

This has a long rise to go before getting to stupid ...... how in the world does someone get prosecuted taking ice from a glacier? Wouldn't it be easier if we just made life illegal, so we could just dump the entire planet into jail and be done with it?

Ever wonder what your great-grandfather would say about something like this. What do you do if you find someone taking ice off the ground and putting it in a truck? Well, throw the scoundral in jail, of course!

[JET_Pepper]

I totally agree that governments are too big, too intrusive, and generally too inept or corrupt to not keep a constant eye on. Citizens must be Watchers.

However, on the topic, I disagree that this act is 'ok', or should be legal. Patagonia is a national park first of all. Can you imagine clandestinely going to your nearest national, or state park and cutting trees down for firewood? Even in areas where we have zoned for resource extraction (definitely NOT parks!), you have to either own the land, or get a permit and pay for these resources.

On public land, you and I have every bit of ownership of that ice, or any other resource, as the owners of the bar who arranged for it to be delivered to them. Yet they stand to profit from this scheme, and the public (who pays taxes to the State to manage these things) gets nothing. This is clearly wrong.

In fact, let's flip the coin that you tossed out:

Under "governemnt",add to the list of things we have to keep a constant Watch on, the "capatilist". They have, as all humans do, the same problems. When they think no one is looking, they will act to exploit others for their own gain. They exist to profit (I should just say "live" to profit, since the inept/corrupt governemnt has seen fit to give them full "person" legal status, with largely unlimited money as their democratic political currency (instead of our single votes).

The Empire building days are over. There are no more "free lands" to expand into and exploit before civilization arrives with people to Watch. (actually, there wasn't "free land" before either, it was always taken from the murder victims of near genocidal, violent Colonialist aggression - in both N. and S. America by various European countries, just to name one instance)

We, the People, must put an end to this mindset from our past. It is a Human issue, beyond all National border or Government, regardless of silly idealistic labels like Capitalist, Communist, Democrat or Republican. The land belongs to all of us, not just a few elite who claim such extraordinary rights either by blood, or by economic/political power.

We must stop stealing, or trying to steal resources from "other" people. There is no "other", there is just "Ourselves".