Abstract

We usually hear about icebergs as majestic scenery or climate change icons—not as enemies that should be bombed, towed, smothered, covered, melted, and tracked under high-tech surveillance in the ocean. But this is the story of icebergs in the North Atlantic. Oil companies have been towing icebergs for 50 years, and the International Ice Patrol spent previous decades literally bombing bergs. Meanwhile, the media has offered narratives and storylines that glorify heroic men armed with the newest technologies, battling against enemy icebergs. It’s all part of a longstanding quest to physically and discursively control ice in the ocean, which has similarities (and differences) from the classic quest to study, understand, and control unpredictable ‘frontier’ spaces. While offering a new view of icebergs and trying to give the ocean some nuanced spatial and temporal dimensions, this talk on the quest to control icebergs grapples with the blue humanities, STS , marine environmental history, GeoHumanities, and climate justice.