Those of who who like this sort of thing know that the world’s smallest country, so to speak, is Sealand, an old AA platform in the North Sea that’s been calling itself a country for 35 years or so now.
I am the sort who would love to have his own country, and I note with some interest that recently a number of giant icebergs have broken loose from the Antarctic glaciers. It occurred to me that it might conceivably be possible to construct buildings and such on one of these giant icebergs and declare it a country. I could make money by building some casinos there.
Iceberg B-22 has a surface area well in excess if 2,000 square miles, which is bigger than any city I know of. Several other icebergs are into hundreds and even thousands of square kilometers. Iceberg B-15 is even bigger.
Now, others have come up with this idea before, but for the most part it’s people issuing passports and stamps from “The Republic of Fadeland” and bragging about their nonexistent countries and such. I, on the other hand, actually want to start a COUNTRY. I want to get private investors and capitalization to build services and resorts on a big honkin’ iceberg, make a pile of money in gambling and stuff, and buy weapons to defend my iceberg. I will build a University of Rickjay to specialize in the study of antarctic fauna and such. I will pay people to come run the resorts and the businesses that will attract tourists, and they can live in houses built on the iceberg. I’ll have passports and stamps, sure, but only when I need them for my citizenry. I want to have a permanent population and real businesses, a real COUNTRY. So here are my GQs:
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How long will one of these super-humongous icebergs last? B-15 isn’t a good example because it apparently crashed into C-16 and might break up, but there are other candidates; if I can find a biggie that will drift alone for awhile, how long do I have?
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Is it reasonably possible to construct buildings on an iceberg? As you can see from this picture, these icebergs are pretty flat, but what would have to be done to prevent buildings from just melting through? And can you even build a big building on ice?
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Is it possible to slow the melting process, e.g. by covering the iceberg in something that will insulate it, or something?