Stuck in the arctic ice that doesn’t exist. (file photo: EcoPhotoExplorers)
Last year as arctic sea ice melted to record levels, panic set in for many. But then, as the sea ice rebounded and froze again quickly in the 2007/2008 winter, making up for that record loss and reaching heights not seen for several years, many exclaimed that even though the ice areal extent had recovered, this new ice was “thin” and would likely melt again quickly. There were also many news stories about how the Northwest Passage was ice free for the first time “ever”. For example, Backpacker Magazine ran a story saying “The ice is so low that the photos clearly show a viable northwest passage sea route along the coasts of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska.”
Cashing in on the panic that has set in with the help of some climate alarmists, tour operators like Quark Expeditions of Norwalk Connecticut are offering polar expeditions catering to that “see it before it’s gone” travel worry. One of them is in fact a trip though the Northwest Passage on a former Soviet Icebreaker called the Kapitan Khlebnikov which is a massive 24,000 horsepower Polar Class icebreaker capable of carrying 108 passengers in relative luxury through the arctic wilderness. Here is some background on this icebreaker:
Kapitan Khlebnikov – The Kapitan Khlebnikov was built in Finland in 1981 and is one of three vessels of this class. Not simply an ice-reinforced ship, the Kapitan Khlebnikov is a powerful polar class icebreaker, which has sailed to extremely remote corners of the globe with adventurous travelers since 1992. It was the first ship ever to circumnavigate Antarctica with passengers in 1996-97. See more on this vessel at Wikipedia
According to Quark Expeditions, they’ve even fitted this icebreaker with a heated indoor swimming pool, exercise room and sauna, and a theater-style auditorium for “Expedition Team presentations” ( presumably so you can watch Gore’s AIT polar bear tears while in situ ). It is quite a difference from the travel conditions that Robert Peary experienced just 99 years ago when he reached the North Pole.
One of my alert readers, Walt from Canada, pointed out this story in the Globe and Mail on may 24th in the travel section. It seems the irony of a polar expedition to see such things as record sea ice loss being stopped cold by the very ice that doesn’t exist was not lost on the editors.
From the Globe and Mail article:
I am on the bridge of the massive Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, and the tension is palpable. We have hit ice – thick ice.
The ice master studies the mountains of white packed around the ship while the 24,000-horsepower diesel engines work at full throttle to open a path. The ship rises slowly onto the barrier of ice, crushes it and tosses aside blocks the size of small cars as if they were ice cubes in a glass. It creeps ahead a few metres, then comes to a halt, its bow firmly wedged in the ice. After doing this for two days, the ship can go no farther.
The ice master confers with the captain, who makes a call to the engine room. The engines are shut down. He turns to those of us watching the drama unfold, and we are shocked by his words: “Now, only nature can help this ship.” We are doomed to drift.
What irony. I am a passenger on one of the most powerful icebreakers in the world, travelling through the Northwest Passage – which is supposed to become almost ice-free in a time of global warming, the next shipping route across the top of the world – and here we are, stuck in the ice, engines shut down, bridge deserted. Only time and tide can free us.
What irony indeed.
They eventually had nature on their side, and on the seventh day of being trapped in the ice, winds and tide moved the ice pack enough that they could continue. But, I have to wonder, will the pampered eco-tourists on this trip see the irony that we do?
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
This entry has me wondering if anyone is reviewing and auditing the global ice measurements from Cryosphere Today? Given their stand on teh issue (just read the front page), I worry that they will, ahhh…..”adjust” the ice levels to fix “errors,” with the “adjustments” always in their favor.
BTW, look for another record year in Antarctica. It’s 1 million km^2 above last year. Also, look for it to be completely ignored….
Many thanks for the responses from people with knowledge and understanding of processes and hard data.
Black Iceberg?
Here you go.
Antarctic though. This has nothing to do with soot.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/122/371503417_f5b92668c9_o.jpg
[…] one that is making the rounds via Watts Up With That? (Globe and Mail) I am on the bridge of the massive Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, and the […]
Good question and most likely becuase they don’t want to belive they exsist. You would figure it would prove what they are saying but nope.
The three graphs presented by Bob Tisdale in his comment (25 May 2008, 02:11:21) essentially present the same thing.
The value of the blue graph is about 1.1 degrees in the first and the second graphs and the mean of the third graph (which represents data collected at a higher rate) is also around 1.1 . Same is the case with the red one.
The first graph starts from the year 1982 and not 1975. If you look closely, you’ll observe that graph1 is nothing but a magnified (zoomed in) version of graph two in the period 1982 to 2008.
The second graph is basically an averaged version of the third one so that observation of long term trends is not affected by high frequency short term changes.
[…] “Watts Up With That?”… “Last year as arctic sea ice melted to record levels, panic set in for many. […]
If you’re right about soot, leebert, and also if we are entering the Eddy Minimum, then we may have global cooling and an open Arctic Sea in the summer. Soot is an addressable problem, and a pushback against the egregious polluters.
===================================
“The “Greenie’s and “Enviromentalists” are a greater threat to this country and our way of life than the “Islamic” terrorists. We now have “two loony enemies” bent on destroying us. “God Help Us”. May sanity “PREVAIL”.”
Totally agree. Rush had a great diatribe about how dangerous this new liberal movement is, and it is the most dangerous threat to our way of life than ANYTHING we face in the world presently.
Just wanted to let everyone know that we just had freaking frost here in Cleveland overnight. It’s almost June and I saw a guy scraping his windshield off this morning! It made me want to cry, then move someplace warmer. Maybe global warming is actually happening somewhere else.
Why the enviros refuse to mention black icebergs … it’s anybody’s guess.
No need to guess. It’s because they don’t actually care about the environment. That is all a big ruse on their part. Their agenda is political. That is why they have no qualms about lying, bullying, and using whatever means necessary to keep the AGW psuedoscientific, quasi-religious machine rolling along. To them, the ends justify the means.
Two comments:
1. How can I get a ticket on this boat?
2. Whatever we do, whether you believe in global warming or not…Mother Earth will renew herself and continue on long after we are gone.
What is wonderfully ironic about all the hysteria-(AGW warming panic and Skeptics horror at a liberal being awarded the Nobel) is that, in the end, gas prices (as mandated by the holy grail of capitalism) will require that all of the AGW countermeasures be put into place just so the middle class can survive (and I don’t mean the survival iof the middle class-it;s gone, I mean the survival of the individuals in the middle class). Now wouldn’t we be in a better state if THE GREAT CIOMMUNICATOR had forwarded alternative fuels all those years ago instead of staying STUCK with oil? Good Lord-we inventerd the internal combustion engine 100 years ago and we have not moved beyond!!!
Also-all the skeptics ridicule about biofuels impacting the avaialbility and price of food is missing a vital point-it didn’t take much to cause a global food shortage / pricing unavailabilty now did it?. you might want to ask WATTs up with that (nothing to do with overpopulation I bet)
By the by-ice breakers getting stuck is a garbage measure of anything.
If we do have a big solar minimum (now there’s an oxymoron), it may not cool off as much, as the world will just burn more coal, oil, gas, to stay warm. More soot. The previous Little Ice Age took out about 1/3 of Europe’s population. Not this time.
$1000/bbl oil? (should put an end to eco-tourism…)
That is classic! Nothing does my soul better then to see enviros with egg on their faces.
[…] is just hilariously ironic that a tour of the Arctic Ice melt, due to Global Warming, is now caught in and ice pack not seen in four years: From the Globe and Mail article: I am on the bridge of the massive Russian […]
Kim, WRT: “…if we are entering the Eddy Minimum, then we may have global cooling and an open Arctic Sea in the summer.”
I agree with your nomenclature. Eddy deserves the recognition for the next grand solar minimum.
[…] Cold Irony: Arctic Sea Ice Traps Climate Tour Icebreaker […]
…Skeptics horror at a liberal being awarded the Nobel)
You’re confusing skepticism, or more correctly scientific realism with politics. Our disgust with Gore isn’t that he’s a Liberal. I myself voted for Gore in 2000 (though I certainly never would now). I have been voting a straight Democratic ticket for a long time. About a year and a half ago, though, I wanted to arm myself with the facts about AGW in order to refute anti-AGW letters to the editor I would see occasionally. I “knew” that AGW was true, I was just looking for the proof to use against the anti-AGW crowd, whom I considered to be either idiots or simply politically motivated (which was probably the case many times). I not only didn’t find it, but I saw huge problems with the whole AGW argument. The more I looked, the more skeptical I became. I know that there are many others who have followed the same path, and indeed, more and more scientists as well are discovering they’ve been duped.
The Democrats, or Liberals, have shot themselves in the foot on this one. When you lie to people, and the lie is discovered, the backlash can be something fierce.
Arctic sea ice extent anomaly is lower than it was at this time last year.
REPLY: Assuming you trust the data, yes
RE: Gibsho (06:48:26) :
Oh yeah, mister “wearing a sweater during a speech to address the people” did really well with synfuels. (/sarc)
Just about as well as he did with Iran.
Synfuels failed of their own accord, just like ethanol will.
The more I read, the more I’m convinced that GW is an unsubstantiated theory. In fact it could be quite the opposite, according to reports the inland glaciers are growing in many parts of the world. However it doesn’t stop scientists from trying to “save” us. I posted a very interesting article this morning about “ecohackers” that is really astounding as to the lengths they will go to.
This World Is Crazy Read This
@John Ryan,
Like I wrote earlier: “They were stupid and should have known better”.
Obviously global warming is no where as advanced as the idiots on this boat believe it is.
Sod,
I thought about the discrepancy between the north and south pole sea ice.
I’d have to say it’s probably due to the adjacent oceans. The north Atlantic is warmer than normal, and the North Pacific is shifting now to a cool PDO mode. The AMO is projected to turn cool, and so maybe we’ll get a growing sea ice trend in the Arctic soon. I’m speculating.
The South pole seems to be surrounded by water at a normal temperature, or even a little below. Unless that changes, look for the south to get icier.
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/climo&hot.html
Maybe other readers can throw what they think?
Wasn’t meant to be a measure of anything but delicious irony.