UPDATE: kayakers already “stuck” in ice at 80.52397 degrees N
I had this post up for all of an hour before this news rolled in from PolarDefense. Hat tips to Tom Nelson, who’s report is presented below, and to Brian Koochel in comments. – Anthony
“We’re stuck”
I have slept poorly. The floating ice, while thin, is so prevalent that, throughout the night, it grinds noisily against the side of the boat in a slightly alarming fashion – imagine someone scraping their nails across an old-fashioned blackboard.The then begins earlier than normal and, unusually, I am not woken by Robbie bounding into my room. Instead the ship’s engine roars to life earlier than normal – at around 5.30 – and the MV ‘Havsel’ begins to judder ominously. I clamber out of bed and scramble up to the bridge – all the ship’s crew are there, and they look serious. I look outside and I can see why. The sea is almost entirely congested with ice floes – I would estimate 80% plus of the sea is covered by them. There is a real risk that we could get stuck up here. We have drifted in the night into a much icier area than where we stopped last night. I wake up the team, and everyone groggily makes their way to the bridge. There’s a mixed reaction in the team to the prospect of getting stuck up here.
See the location on Google Maps, 80.52397, 12.21224
After awaking to find their vessel frozen in ice the team are steaming around looking for a path that’s navigable by kayak.
No paddling today.
At about 69 miles per degree of latitude, it would seem that they’re still 600+ miles from the North Pole.
My original post follows:
Place your bets now folks. If only Robert Peary could have had CNN tag along. – Anthony
Entries from Sam Branson’s Arctic diary – In the mirror.co.uk
My split feelings about this news remind me of another paradox of my expedition up here – the fact that I am spending my days paddling in ice-cold water, with a frozen, painful backside, trying to bring to the attention of the world and its leaders the necessity of stopping the world heating up.
[Sept 1:] Travel this morning was tough. The temperature has dropped dramatically and each time the guys get in the water in is a notch harder. We are starting to see larger chunks of ice, which instead of weaving through, they have to paddle around. The occasional chunk hits the bow of the ship sending small pieces out to the side into the route of travel for our paddlers. One nearly knocked Lewis of his kayak. The water is now below zero and a spill could be quite painful. The moving water by the feet of the guys has started to freeze and this could take a toll on their much needed warmth. I know that Robbie has been struggling with his toes.
…
[Aug 31:] The ship is noticeably colder and we are all wearing an extra layer. I have been on deck loading the kayaks and boats back onto the ship. The water soaked ropes seep moisture into your gloves and it saps the heat from my hands fast. I can only imagine what it is like for Lewis and Robbie holding on to a cold paddle with waves crashing over them. The first thing Lewis said when he got back in was ‘I can’t feel my backside!’
…
[Aug 28:] Some may know this place from the book ‘The northern lights’ by Phillip Pullman, where he calls it, ‘The land of the ice bears’. From what I’ve heard, this name could not be closer to the truth. The boat we are on has just returned from a trip in the ice and along the way they encountered eighty eight bears.
Gosh, that’s a lot of bears.
Just in case you might be thinking the two kayakers are doing this all alone, on a shoe-string budget, with only strength and determination….
Here is the support vessel: 300-ton fossil-fueled MV Havsel
Polar Defense writes: The support boat we loaded our kit onto is not the QE2. She is an old fishing boat called MV ‘Havsel’ – this means ‘ocean seal’ in Norwegian. She is a tough, grubby, working boat with a strengthened hull and a big engine for a boat of her size – she will perform very well up in the pack ice.
Thanks to Tom Nelson for references in this story
I am curious as to what his reaction will be when he returns without reaching the N.P. Will he begin to doubt or will he look for excuses? I noticed he’s downloaded into the “thin” ice argument so realism still has a lot of denial shell to penetrate. What does he have riding on it? A book? Does he have a contract with a publishing company? As I know a guy who tried to be the first one to circumnavigate the world on bike and boat only, I would say the internal drive was much more strongly related to publishing value than to “save the planet”. (We’ll ignore how he had to transport his boat by truck to Alaska before being able to row across the Bering Sea).
I would strongly suggest Mr. Branson turn his stern south and start paddling hard.
Hey Anthony!
My husband just tossed me Investor’s Business Daily because he knew I’d be interested in an article titled ‘There Goes The Sun”.
Congrats! They quote you and reference wattsupwiththat.com.
Cool.
REPLY: I had no idea. Thanks, Anthony
I wonder if they’re smart enough eventually to realize that practical experience will resolve this ‘paradox’ for them.
Another myth to debunk.
The Amazon is not “the lungs of the world”.
Plant life in the oceans (cellular and multicellular) are responsible for some 2/3rds of the planets oxygen. Of the portion due to land, the Amazon is responsible for less than a third, and even if every try in that land were cut down, the grasslands that replaced it would continue to produce almost as much oxygen.
Did this expedition buy the carbon offsets required by the green community?
While we’re at it, who is going to present the government of Russia with a bill for the carbon offsets for their invasion of Georgia?
If these idiots had checked out Cryosphere Today before they left, they would have noticed a huge ice sheet was blocking their path to the North Pole almost as soon as they got started. This is quite possibly the most poorly planned expedition ever.
My sense is that when we look back in a few years, 2007 will be seen as the low turning point.
I believe the correct term in climate science is “Tipping Point”!!!
“Here I am , protecting the arctic…”
I can’t even think of the words to say to this person, but they are not good words…
I wager that those fools are going to have to be rescued by the navy and this is as far North as they make it. Funny though, its almost like they did this intentionally to mock global warming believers.
In 1922, it was possible to sail to 81N in ice free water.
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-11-0589a.pdf
He never had a chance to get within 500 miles of the North Pole. What a joke.
Cathy Wilson (10:02:52) :
“Hey Anthony!
My husband just tossed me Investor’s Business Daily because he knew I’d be interested in an article titled ‘There Goes The Sun”.
Congrats! They quote you and reference wattsupwiththat.com.
Cool.”
I’ll second that.
Here’s the link to the IBD Editorial online
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=305247809293479
On this date in 1980, the ice edge was in the same place where they are stuck now.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/ARCHIVE/19800903.png
simon (09:32:06) :
Anyone opened a book on when they give up?
REPLY: I give it less than a week – Anthony
I’ll take the under
Well, BBC has news for us
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7595441.stm
“Major ice-shelf loss for Canada
The ice shelves in Canada’s High Arctic have lost a colossal area this year, scientists report.
The floating tongues of ice attached to Ellesmere Island, which have lasted for thousands of years, have seen almost a quarter of their cover break away.
One of them, the 50 sq km (20 sq miles) Markham shelf, has completely broken off to become floating sea-ice. ”
You win some, you lose some.
what a peculiar expedition! It’s hard to figure out what message they’re trying to convey, other than shooting themselves into their (frozen) feet.
Or, is this simply a manifestation of a politicized version of the British sporting spirit? Obviously, it now requires heavy support with large vessels complete with camera crews, cooks, etc. – I’d recommend comparing this to Matty McNair’s account of leading a female expedition to the Pole (March to May 1997). Since then, Matty has carried out many unsupported Polar expeditions, North and South.
http://www.northwinds-arctic.com/matty.html
In a larger context, I believe that in 2009 we’ll see a pronounced sea ice rebound from the 2007 minimum. It may all be quite simple: Arctic ice cover changes lag behind atmospheric temperature adjustments because of the different circulation and heat-capacity constraints of sea water.
anna v:
“The floating tongues of ice attached to Ellesmere Island, which have lasted for thousands of years…”
Which means that the climate was warmer thousands of years ago. Or maybe colder, since the planet was emerging from the last Ice Age. Or maybe we’re right in the middle of the climate’s completely natural and normal cyclical variation.
As Goldilocks would say, “…it’s not too hot, it’s not too cold, it’s ju-u-u-u-st right.
Anthony,
A minor correction. They are dieseling around not steaming around. Sure both spew GHGs but don’t give them a free pass on their carbon footprint.
Despite what looks to be abysmal failure of the expedition, I doubt that he’ll change his rhetoric much, if any. Here’s what he says in his first paragraph of his “Message to world leaders”: “Global warming is, I believe, a significantly greater threat to us, to our economies and to our way of life than any or all of recent issues that have headed national agendas: the credit crunch, global terrorism, the price of oil, healthcare, ageing populations etc. World leaders need to attack this threat head-on. This response will need to be as aggressive, and as global, as the world’s response to fascism and Nazism in the mid-twentieth century. And I think the best way to approach this problem is as though a war is being fought, a war whose outcome will determine the fate of all of us.”
The spin will be something like, sure, I didn’t make it this year, but the ice is much thinner, blah-blah, and will be even more susceptible to melting in the future, and I’ll be back again next year, because “From what I have seen over the past week it is not a question of ‘whether’ but simply ‘when’ the Arctic will be free of summer sea ice.”
Go to
http://www.lewispugh.com/
Scroll to the bottom and check it out
AL GORE – 29 November 2007
Tomorrow I am the warm up act for Al Gore. He will be addressing a group of property financers in London. I will give a personal account of the climate change I have witnessed in the Arctic.
Well, BBC has news for us
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7595441.stm
“Major ice-shelf loss for Canada
The ice shelves in Canada’s High Arctic have lost a colossal area this year, scientists report.
The floating tongues of ice attached to Ellesmere Island, which have lasted for thousands of years, have seen almost a quarter of their cover break away.
One of them, the 50 sq km (20 sq miles) Markham shelf, has completely broken off to become floating sea-ice. ”
You win some, you lose some.
almost 5 million sq km of ice up there and they report on 50 of it.
Anna V,
“The floating tongues of ice attached to Ellesmere Island, which have lasted for thousands of years, have seen almost a quarter of their cover break away.”
Since we’ve only had reliable monitoring of Arctic ice extent since 1979, when the satellites went up, what exactly do they base this claim on?
It appears that that area was ice free as recently as 1922, as described in the NOAA achieved article that claims the Arctic was ‘ice free’ beyond 81N — farther north than these ‘gentlemen’ have been able to get.
Anna,
I ‘borrowed’ this link from JunkScience. It is relevant to the nature article.
http://www.fcpp.org/pdf/FB64%20Arctic%20Sea%20Ice.pdf
Personally I think it takes a damn naive fool to think one can simply paddle on up there like its a hospitable region.
The guy deserves the Moron-of-the-Year award.
Well let’s look at the bright side. If they get stuck in the ice they can provide a tasty meal for the 88 starving polar bears they passed thus single handedly saving an endangered species, and it looks like the bears won’t even have to swim 100 miles for lunch. At least the expedition won’t be a total bust.
Poor Lewis Pugh just got to the very beginning of the Arctic ice, 1000 km left. See the current Arctic ice map and many other things here:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2008/09/agw-activists-stuck-in-arctic-ice.html
A link to this blog is included.