ANTARCTIC expeditioners rescued by an Australian icebreaker have apologised for an operation that could cost taxpayers up to $2.4 million.
Fifty-two passengers rescued from a Russian ship trapped in sea ice have arrived in Hobart aboard the Australian Antarctic vessel Aurora Australis, nearly three weeks after the emergency began.
…
“We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who’s come out to help us,” leader of the privately funded expedition, Professor Chris Turney, told a media conference in Hobart.
“We are terribly sorry for any impact that it might have had on fellow colleagues whose work has been delayed.
“Any experienced Antarctic scientist knows that’s an inherent risk.”
Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) director Dr Tony Fleming said costs were still being determined but could range from $1.8 million to $2.4 million.
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Costs associated with delays to scientific programs, including a major study of ocean acidification scheduled for next year, were harder to pin down, Dr Fleming said.
“The government will be pursuing all avenues to recover costs and minimise the burden to the Australian taxpayer,” he said.
More at The Australian here
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Meanwhile Steve McIntyre points out that it is getting harder and harder for them to wiggle out of culpability:
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the University of New South Wales is a signatory to the sub-charter of the Akademik Shokalskiy.
…
I don’t know how liability for rescue costs is allocated. However, the fact that the University of New South Wales is a party to the sub-charter places its potential liability in a new light. However, in most legal proceedings, plaintiffs look for the party with the deepest pockets, which, in this case, would be the University of New South Wales.
In another story, New Details on the Ship of Fools Steve writes:
The precise chronology of the Ship of Fools on December 23 has been a topic of interest on skeptic blogs, including my recent post demonstrating the falsity of Turney’s excuses. However, up to today, this chronology had received zero media coverage, despite several reporters from major media on the Ship of Fools.
Today, there are two stories (BBC and Sydney Morning Herald , both of which contain damning information (especially the latter.) Note embedded link in latter article h/t Bob Koss, with important details not reported in the main article.
…
Turney’s defenders have attempted to transfer blame from the expedition to the Russian captain. However, Mortimer (though not Turney) squarely acknowledged that the delays were the “responsibility of the expedition team, not Captain Kiselev.”
It looks as if the press is starting to ask questions:
Antarctic cruise routes face scrutiny
Antarctic authorities want more say over where private expeditions venture after revealing a rescue mission this summer could cost Australian taxpayers $2.4 million.
Permits for a group whose chartered Russian ship became trapped in sea ice last month were issued without considering its proposed course.
More: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/20931702/rescued-antarctic-passengers-arrive-home/
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SkyNews has video here: http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=944004&vId=4312511&cId=Top%20Stories
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UPDATE: This SMH story pretty well nails it. Excerpt:
“Everyone on board was keen to make the journey across the fast ice to the Hodgeman Islands,” said one passenger.
A weather forecast predicted 25-35 knot winds reaching 40 knots late in the day.
“Despite the wind and extreme cold, the scenery on the journey was spectacular – it seemed unreal, as though we were on a movie set,” said the same passenger.
About 2.30pm the weather deteriorated. At the same time Captain Kiselev saw slabs of sea ice moving into the open water channel from which the ship had entered the area. He called for everyone to return.
A passenger standing near Professor Turney overheard the voyage leader, Greg Mortimer, telling him over the radio to bring passengers back to the ship so it can leave.
But minutes later, Professor Turney drove six more passengers into the field.
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What’s a couple of million between friends. It’s all in a good cause after all.
Divide the cost by the number of adults rescued and send them the bill.
Needless to say, Alok Jha’s article in the Guardian on the ship’s arrival and explanations by Turney is NOT open for comments!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/22/antarctic-rescue-passengers-akademik-shokalskiy-dry-land
So the allegation is now that Mortimer, who was in charge of the logistical operations of the voyage, ordered everyone off the ice and yet Prof Turney still decided to go off in the Argo with a load of passengers.
That is quite a strong allegation against the judgement of Prof Turney and the organisation of the tour.
Someone competent should have been in charge.
And everyone should have known who that personwas.
Anthony: Thanks for moving the Recent Posts list upward so it’s much closer to the top of the page. This new location makes site navigation easier.
A good quote to remember in cases like this, generally attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte:
Loving it…shove that up your travel section, warmist Fairfax media.
And Janet Rice, Greens MP and “climate change” science assistant on the Ship of Fools, always finding new ways to Greek-style the Australian economy, even when on holidays.
Still, her information, albeit unwitting, has proven useful in the hunt for the Christmas Turkey.
Phil’s Dad says:
January 22, 2014 at 3:13 am
What you propose may possibly be both unfair and illegal.
Depending upon the terms of the charter, individual passengers, who were possibly only present as fee-paying tourists and not as charterers may not be jointly and severally liable for any additional expenses incurred due to irresponsible behaviour by other passengers, whether tourist or scientist.
It may be that if those passengers, who heeded the instructions of the captain of the ship and returned to the ship, promptly can verify that they returned, when instructed, then they can reasonably claim that they were not to blame for the requirement that a rescue effort be undertaken and that the blame for this rests entirely with those who irresponsibly chose to ignore the orders of the captain and unnecessarily delay the ship’s intended departure from the hazardous area.
Perhaps the costs for the rescue effort and any additional expenses resulting from the ship’s delayed departure may be the sole liability of those irresponsible passengers, who disobeyed the orders of the ship’s captain, and their official sponsors.
Additionally, if any children were aboard and ignored the orders of the ship’s captain and thereby contributed to the requirement that a rescue mission be performed, then that is the sole responsibility of the parents of the children, not other passengers.
Natural justice requires that those who are guilty should be punished, but not those who are innocent of any wrong-doing or irresponsibility.
Since the gross domestic product of Australia is 1/10th that of America, this amounts to a $24M fiasco. But wait, why would taxpayers owe even a single dime instead of earn money by billing them at a reasonable rate?
Read this – dear oh dear, someone really messed up.
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2040209/stuck-in-the-ice/?cs=300
*I Heard dr Fleming on ABC radio…the written word does NOT express what his voice did..
a rather angry man, polite, soft spoken but angry!
Back on the dry land said jubilant BBC:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CoolAntarctica.htm
Only two mill?
This just in from our reporter, Heidi T. D’Cline, at the Ship of Fools enquiry:
Question One. Professor (sic) Turney – what gave you the slightest prospect of conducting a successful expedition when official records, available throughout your planning, show Antarctic sea ice extent has been, and is, more than 2 standard deviations higher than the 1981 – 2010 average?
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2013/12/
Travel insurance doesn’t cover personal decisions of any type. Read the fine print on page 89.2, sub paragraph k-something, of any policy.
If you willingly go anywhere on a conveyance, it’s a personal decision to take a risk, and the insurance companies can wriggle their way out, as easy as pie.
Getting sick, likewise, if you eat something. Eating something is your choice.
These people are going to have trouble with their travel insurance.
Hmm, I thought his pride was too big for him to swallow.
“Any experienced Antarctic scientist knows that’s an inherent risk.”
That’s more like it.
I don’t recall him talking about risk before or early in the trip. Perhaps he wasn’t experienced then.
Turney’s Exhibition might be the last hurrah for CAGW:
21 Jan: BBC: Matt McGrath: ‘Burnt out’ EU likely to curb climate goals
Binding national targets on renewable energy are expected to be dropped from new EU proposals due to be unveiled on Wednesday.
The UK has lobbied hard to have the mandatory 2030 target watered down, saying it would drive up energy bills…
But green groups said the proposals lacked ambition and were the acts of a “burnt out” Commission…
With huge government subsidies, installations of renewables soared…
“It makes no sense to impose artificial constraints on how individual countries meet emissions targets,” said a spokesman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
“We are determined to keep people’s energy bills as low as possible and that means having the flexibility to cut emissions in the most cost effective way”…
“We are moving from an ambitious targets and timetables approach to a classical muddling through approach,” said Dr Oliver Geden from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
“It is a changed world, it is not just about the financial crisis, it is also the result of changes in international climate policy.
“There is not the ‘we can change the world’ optimism, they are retreating a little.”…
With European elections due this Spring and a new set of Commissioners to be selected in the Autumn, there is a sense among some critics that the incumbents are very keen to agree a new set of proposals.
Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has been singled out by some green groups for making too many compromises to achieve agreement.
“That’s a burned out commissioner, she’s achieved practically nothing over the past four years,” said Brook Riley from Friends of the Earth.
“She wants a political win in the last few months in office, she’s almost desperate, that’s not the frame of mind you want to try and steer through something as important as this dossier.”…
The price of carbon has collapsed over the past year due to an excess of carbon permits…
The Commission’s proposals will go forward for consideration at heads of government meetings in March and June this year.
Some critics believe that the climate and energy plan may be watered down even further at these meetings.
“There is this huge rift within the EU on energy and climate policy. Since 2010, they haven been able to decide on anything substantial,” said Dr Geden.
“The member states don’t like what they have to do now and the less ambitious states are in a better position.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25828181
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A global warming PR stunt that went bad and backfired. The world is left with thousands of images of climate scientists [surrounded by curious penguins!] stuck in sea ice that extends from horizon to horizon [in the middle of summer!]. Now we learn that gross negligence of the scientist in charge led to the life threatening situation.
hilarious how bbc’s report makes it seem like Andrew Luck-Baker just happened to be on the Shokalskiy & the Guardian’s report states it’s by “Alok Jha, science correspondent, in Hobart”, when they were actually EMBEDDED with the Expedition!
BBC Media Centre: Discovery: Return To Mawson’s Antarctica
Over four weeks in December and January, BBC World Service’s Discovery will be embedded with a team of Antarctic researchers on board an ice-breaker retracing the route of the first Australasian Expedition to Antarctica.
The 2013 Australasian Antarctic Expedition aims to repeat many of Mawson’s investigations around Commonwealth Bay and Cape Denison in East Antarctica where the original team set up their base. This remote area hasn’t been studied systematically for 100 years, so the expedition will reveal any changes that have taken place as a result of climate change.
The BBC’s Andrew Luck-Baker and Science journalist Alok Jha join the 26-strong scientific team led by Professor Chris Turney of the University of New South Wales. They study penguins, record the underwater songs of seals and deploy a robot submarine to sample the rich sea life under the ice…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2013/51/ws-antarctic-1.html
Russel Klier: that image you’ve highlighted of ‘climate scientists [surrounded by curious penguins!] stuck in sea ice that extends from horizon to horizon [in the middle of summer!]’ is the perfect symbolic antidote to the faux image of a polar bear on dwindling ice floes.
That $2.4 million does not advance their cause one bit – or feed the poor. It is pure incompetent waste – which appears to be the trademark of the movement.
Dr. Flemming said “The government will be pursuing all avenues to recover costs and minimise the burden to the Australian taxpayer.”
Then Steve McIntyre said: “I don’t know how liability for rescue costs is allocated. However, the fact that the University of New South Wales is a party to the sub-charter places its potential liability in a new light. However, in most legal proceedings, plaintiffs look for the party with the deepest pockets, which, in this case, would be the University of New South Wales.”
Given that the University of New South Wales is a public institution, the Australian taxpayer will be on the hook either way.
@ur momisugly John (January 22, 2014 at 3:38 am)
Of course I accept all you say – I had assumed they were all in the same boat.
OK pun intended; what I mean is that I assumed every one who went on this jaunt, media, “scientist” and wealthy hanger-on alike, had the same access as all of us to the knowledge that ice was increasing in the south. That they decided to go anyway makes them at least partially responsible when it all went “pear-shaped”. It was a know risk; if you take the risk anyway the outcome is your responsibility.
What I can’t understand is why those who disobeyed the Captain (leaders or followers) are not now behind bars.
Phil’s Dad says: January 22, 2014 at 3:13 am “Divide the cost by the number of adults rescued and send them the bill.”
Aye, therein lies the rub. As the numerator approaches zero the value of the ratio approaches infinity. There may not have been any adults rescued, modus ponens “adult.”
Australian taxpayers pay this woman’s (Leigh Sales) wages!
(VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT)22 Jan: ABC: Leigh Sales: Ice-bound ship ‘inherent risk’ says expedition’s leader
The leader of the Antarctic expedition whose ship got stuck in ice says that was one of the risks of that kind of work, and he disputes that the incident is evidence against climate change.
CHRIS TURNEY, EXPEDITION LEADER: Well, hello and lovely to be back in Australia. The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was a multi-disciplinary program of research going into an area of enormous environmental and global climate change, using the latest information – the satellite data, the weather observations and forecasts. The final part of a research program suggested we were working in clear area. We’d been hugely productive up to that time. We were heading back out north and unfortunately got caught by this massive breakout of sea ice. Now, unfortunately that has had an enormous knock-on effect to some teams, apparently. We’re terribly sorry about that and we’re hugely grateful to the large international effort, including the Australians, primarily, and the Chinese, who helped get the team home safely…
LEIGH SALES: Who paid for the scientific expedition and then who ultimately is responsible for the rescue costs?
CHRIS TURNEY: So, we had a variety of different corporations that supported and basically we sold berths to the public, much like Scott and Mawson and others had done 100 years ago, to actually get those team members onboard and embed them in the science team. With regards to paying for the actual recovery, for the help and the return of the team back to Australia, the expedition vessel and individuals were all fully sponsored and that’s being worked through with insurance now.
LEIGH SALES: Your mission has been subject to ridicule in some quarters…This editorial from (Murdoch’s) The Australian pretty well sums up the tenor of it…
CHRIS TURNEY: That’s quite interesting. Well, we’ve been living in a bubble for the last couple of months and just talking to people. I had heard there was an editorial. I haven’t read it…
Ultimately, I think this actually is a reflection of how as a scientific community we need to engage perhaps more explaining the science method rather than just the results. It sounds a bit like the wonderful quote from Carl Sagan where he said, “If we don’t communicate the science method, how is the public meant to know the difference between pseudo-science and science?”…
LEIGH SALES: Were you able to gather much research data before the boat became stuck and so was the trip worth it in that regard?
CHRIS TURNEY: Oh, look, it was hugely productive. In the six weeks or five weeks that we were operating, we’ve got a wealth of information from the sub-Antarctic islands, crossing the Antarctic convergence, we’ve left drones and floats in the ocean which are broadcasting their position and the temperature and saltiness over time and will continue to do so for many years. We got into Cape Denison, we pioneered a new route into the old Mawson hut, travelling across 65 kilometres of sea ice. We got into that location, delivered the conservators to the Mawson hut, collected data on the impact of changing sea ice on the penguins, collected evidence, or samples – 80 kilos of samples, actually – to show the former extent of the ice sheet. The only constraints we’ve got for over 2,500 kilometres.
LEIGH SALES: Chris Turney, thank you so much for your time tonight.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-22/ice-bound-ship-inherent-risk-says-expeditions/5213910
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