You may recall Lewis Pugh and his laughable “expedition” in Kayaks last summer to plant flags of nations on the ice. I came a little more respect for this group, since at least they are attempting some science. But given the media coverage and the problems they face in getting any meaningful data, I have my doubts about this project as well. – Anthony
“Occasionally it’s disheartening too when you’ve slogged for a day and then wake up the next morning having drifted back to where you started.” – Pen Hadow
A team of polar explorers has travelled to the Arctic in a bid to discover how quickly the sea-ice is melting and how long it might take for the ocean to become ice-free in summers.
Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley will be using a mobile radar unit to record an accurate measurement of ice thickness as they trek to the North Pole.
The trio will be sending in regular diary entries, videos and photographs to BBC News throughout their expedition.
The Catlin Arctic Survey team started its gruelling trek on 28 February.
From Pen Hadow’s online journal: Conditions have been hard.
We have been battered by wind, bitten by frost and bruised from falls on the ice.
Occasionally it’s disheartening too when you’ve slogged for a day and then wake up the next morning having drifted back to where you started.
The Arctic sea ice is constantly moving, breaking open and reforming into different shapes – which means we can end up moving several kilometres in any direction while we are asleep in our tents.
The wind chill today will slice us up – it’s taking the temperature down to below -50C, so we have decided to take a day’s rest to recharge our batteries and soothe the aches and pains.
We are resigned to several weeks of daily discomfort and general misery, safe in the knowledge that conditions, our progress and general well-being will improve over the coming months.
See a video and audio report from Hadow at the BBC website here
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
What happened to the guy who believed the North Pole would be ice free last summer and took off to go there in a canoe to raise awareness of global warming?
REPLY: That’s Lewis Pugh see link in first sentence. – Anthony
We have a modern saying here in the UK. Here come the Muppeteers.
When your funding comes from the Alarmists then expressing surprise at finding ice 925.63 Km in March only goes to confirm that global warming means global freezing too – doesn’t it?
So, so far Pen, how quickly is the Arctic Ice actually melting?
…Circumpolar drift….never heard of?? …Advantages being an arm-chair traveler…your computer is mostly still where you left it…He sounds
a little surprised it’s still winter up there…”Only mad dogs and Englismen go…”
Ah bless. Perhaps they should have borrowed the Toyota Hilux that the BBC ‘Top Gear’ boys used to blast across the ice to the North Pole last year…heh heh!
For our friends across the pond who know not of which I speak, Top Gear is a motoring (sort of) programme on the BBC (..I know…the BBC!) fronted by a splendidly robust and cynical chap called Jeremy Clarkson. They do lots of politically incorrect stuff. like driving aforementioned 4-WD monster truck to the pole.
Looks like the Arctic is warming…
Maybe the world will notice, bloody cold, lots of ice and AGW rhetoric. Hopefully they survive the experience moving from start to start.
Having had a look at the expedition’s webiste, it seems that they’ve already made their minds up as to what they expect to find ”out there” = loss of Ice and redcuction of Ice thickness.
and there I was thinking that ”scientists” were supposed to remain biased, by letting the data and findings speak for themself.
silly me !
Oops, I guess he should have read the recent arcticle in the National Geographic magazine about the voyage of the Fram intentionally stuck in arctic ice by Nansen to ride the circumpolar drift current…
If they had, they would know that the route they chose is against the current.
They should have started at Wrangel island. It would be a lot easier to reach the pole from there.
Here’s another good laugh (taken seriously by the Brit media again)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/mar/17/ravens-ait-island-london-eco-conference-centre-activists
A bunch of eco-activists have taken over an abandoned building and have turned it into a bong centre….I mean conference centre.
You just have to love the number of lights he turned on to show us the whiteboard and the phones ringing in the background.
Did he say free energy at one point?? How do create anything without cost?
Big up the Tesla? Ah, I can see hippies running to buy a $100,000 car now.
Running cars on coconut oil and vegetable oil? These are essential commodities for many poor people.
That shows the level of intelligent thought there.
Well, at least we are getting some temperature data.
PS…If you check Mr Hadow’s site, you might think from the small video rewinding
at the bottom of the page…well…I say no more…I do: Mr Pugh: “You ain’t
tough enough”
Its funny – reading the ‘endorsements’ on the Caitlin Arctic Survey website, its clear that this is another bit of scientific ‘research’ with a predestined outcome. Given that there is no chance of any ‘official findings’ other than that the pole is rapidly melting, maybe at an individual level they may learn some humility.
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/
RE:
mikef (07:00:32) :
**Ah bless. Perhaps they should have borrowed the Toyota Hilux that the BBC ‘Top Gear’ boys used to blast across the ice to the North Pole last year…heh heh!**
My son brought this up for me. They did not go to the geographic pole. They were going to the magnetic pole 400 miles or so NW of Resolute. I have no guarantee they actually got there. They were supposed to race a dog team. There is another bunch that wants to take a Hummer easteard through the Northwest Passage this spring.
But, regarding this group funded out of California – my concern is that they will go to conferences making conclusions based on on set of measurements with no history. Of course they have not made it yet. Global warming seems to be csausing some problems. To even have a semblance of science it has to be repeated for a number of years.
To be fair, I would expect most scientists have a general idea of the outcome when they set out on an experiment, expedition, etc. What separates the “good” and the “bad” scientists is what they do when the outcome does not match what they expected.
This pertains to the aforementioned article in the Guardian about the eco-activists who took over Raven’s Ait Island.
Turns out the Guardian is hiding a few too many facts from its readers:
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/whereilive/southwest/kingston/4200818.Raven_s_Ait_island_squatters_face_eviction/
They’re not just illegal squatters who have occupied other buildings, but they have also been branded river gypsies and have been asked to leave by local environmentalists who say that ‘They came into our town really to get a free place to live. We already have an environment centre half a mile away.’
If only this Warming wasn’t happening they could have rowed to the Pole in open-topped dingies and played amongst the daises and with the fairies and sprites that tend to occupy such fairy-tale lands.
Those poor guys, getting all frost-bitten and up-tight. Did nobody tell them that the North Pole is COLD, covered with ICE and extremely WINDY?
Next they’ll be reporting they can’t find Santa Claus – “SHOCK, Global Warming causes mysterious disapperance of Santa’s workshop” etc. etc.
The one day “rest break” is really a reassessment. Who says they’ll be less sore tomorrow, and they may be further from the pole than when they started.
Don’t be surprised if they quit. This thing is dangerous — Darwin Award dangerous.
I remember writing when this expedition was first reported that it would be a waste of money and was only a propaganda exercise. At the end of the walk they will report faster ice melt than expected irrespective of the actual data collected, as there is no prior data of the same sort with which to compare.
Additionally, every measurement taken is rendered moot within hours as the ice is constantly moving, melting-refreezing and changing. Find a spot with ice one foot thick and within a day the same GPS co-ordinate could be 2 meters thick!
All they are recording is a series of snapshots of a section of noise.
and refering to : “Aron (07:09:54) :
Here’s another good laugh (taken seriously by the Brit media again)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/mar/17/ravens-ait-island-london-eco-conference-centre-activists”
——————
Well the real shame is these people actually believe that the gurus of climate alarmism actually care about green or free-energy or Tesla? It was their elitist predecessors that finished Tesla and this political agenda has not changed at all.
The Gurus of green do NOT want cheap, free, clean, abundant, zero-point energy. They want most of us dead! That is not my opinion, but the only conclusion to draw from the meaning of their own words. The people leading the ecomentalist movement are in favour of MASSIVE depopulation, turning the planet into a wild nature reserve and game park. The last thing they want is for humanity to find a way to thrive without polluting the planet.
They are collecting important data about the polar drift. During the previous two years, there was a strong west-east drift which melted most of the multi-year ice in the North Atlantic. That isn’t happening this year, which is why it is unlikely that this year’s summer minimum ice extent will be as low as last year or the year before.
They could have gotten the same information more easily off this web site, from the comfort of their home or pub.
http://iabp.apl.washington.edu/maps_daily_track-map.html
I wonder how many more days before they give up?
It’s amazing the amount of CO2 the BBC pump out to try and prove all this malarky
More of these idiots should get away from their computers and experience the sheer POWER and SIZE of natural forces. Next maybe they should wander around the Sahara for a while. The very idea that man can change climate is absurd to those who live in rural areas.
Partly off subject. I had the radio on whilst working at the computer and at this very moment I am listening to a BBC Radio 4 science programme, Home Planet, and, believe it or not, I have heard a sceptical view, a really sceptical view from a scientist who was worried about the IPCC climate models not predicting current global temperatures etc. Excellent! However the official consensus line came out from another ‘scientist’ on the panel who said five thousand experts agreed with the AGW dogma. But the sceptic (I must find his name) would have none of this nonsense and pointed out that at the beginning of the last century 95% of scientists believed in eugenics. Whoever he is, he will not be allowed on the BBC again I bet. I must listen to the programme again.
It would be convenient if the team got flash frozen or eaten by polar bears.
On the other hand the alarmists would probably blame Global Warming for both events.
So maybe it is better if they struggle along for some time and cancel the operations with frozen limbs.
Such an experience could even turn them into skeptics!
Reality – it has a way of getting your attention.
The only problem is that you have a bit of intelligence to reconsider your premises when it confronts you.