The pause that refreshes

The BBC tells us that a thief stole a bottle of melted Antarctic ice from an art exhibit in south Devon. Estimated value: £42,500.

Its value was worked out by the artist from the damage worldwide of the entire ice sheet melting - he estimates between £6 trillion and £9 trillion - and the relative amount of damage from two litres of water.

Let's see: the ice sheet has about 30 million cubic kilometers of ice, which would be about 3 E20 liters, or 1.5E20 2-liter bottles worth. Call it 1.4 E20, and be generous about the air bubbles and density change on melting. I dunno if he's using the American trillion (1E12) or the British (1E18). I'll be conservative and assume he means £9 E18. Divide that by the number of 2-liter bottles worth of water, and I get £0.06, which is considerably cheaper than most bottled water. If he means the American trillion, it looks a lot cheaper than tap water.

So I figure the thief owes the 5 cent deposit on the bottle (or whatever the British equivalent is). And maybe somebody should have a close look at the artist to see if he's indulging in a little insurance fraud.