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Svalbard island going on tour?
British artist seeks to tow land long hidden by glaciers to 2012 Olympics for cultural exhibit

Alex Hartley, left, stands atop a hill on Nowhere Island, a football field-size landmass long hidden by glaciers until he discovered it in 2004. The British artist plans to break up and tow the island on a barge to his homeland as part of a cultural exhibit for the 2012 Olympics before returning the land to its original location. Photo courtesy of nowhereisland.org.

It's not like anybody knew about the island until the ice camouflaging it melted, so surely borrowing it to spread the word about climate change isn't a problem.

Or so hopes Alex Hartley, a British artist planning to tow the tiny Svalbard landmass he discovered in 2004 to his homeland as part of a cultural exhibit during the 2012 Olympics. He would break up the terrain and transport it by barge to various ports en route to Southwest England, bringing it back after the Games.

"It's an absurd thing to do, I admit that," he told the BBC in an interview.

Hartley claims to be the first to stand on the island, a rocky outcrop roughly the size of a football field that was long hidden from view by glaciers and didn't appear on any maps or charts.

He is seeking nation status for what he's named Nowhere Island and recruiting people to sign up for citizenship, claiming 400 have done so to date. Bu they won't be able to settle in their new homeland – Hartley plans to be the only dweller while the island is "on tour."

Hartley said he hopes the tour will spark debate about "how owned the whole world is...issues of climate change, land grabs and the legal status of nationhood." Any environmental damage caused by breaking up the island and shipping it thousands of miles will be offset by the publicity he will generate on the issue of global warming, he said.

The British government has awarded Hartley £500,000 for the project, one of 12 in the exhibition. But, despite implications the move is a done deal, he's facing criticism at home and some hurdles to overcome with officials in Svalbard.

The funding announcement announcement was made a day after British Olympic Association chiefs warned the size of the 2012 British team may have to be cut due to a £4 million shortfall, according to the BBC.

"Most people in sport would say this is ridiculous," Densign White, chairman of the British Judo Association, told the news agency. "The priority should be making our team the best it can be before the Games."

Hartley's application also needs to be processed by Knut Fossum, nature conservation advisor for the Svalbard governor's office, according to Svalbardposten. He told the newspaper "I understand that if he gets a 'no' here on Svalbard he will try a different location in the Arctic."

"This is one of the more unusual requests I've had," Fossum said.

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