You may be familiar with the much ballyhooed “Polar Defense Project” which aimed to get two kayakers into the arctic sea as far north as possible. While it’s difficult to find a succinct mission statement on their web page, this is about as close as one can get:
Lewis Gordon Pugh will kayak from the Island of Spitsbergen (in northern Europe) across the Arctic Ocean, into the Arctic ice pack, and as close to the North Pole as possible. The journey, across some of the most dangerous seas in the world, is scheduled to depart on the 30th of August. The expedition will highlight how thin the sea ice has become in recent years.
We are calling for world leaders to take a stand against the destruction of the Arctic.
Let me say that being the leader of my own volunteer project on climate (www.sufacestations.org) I understand the drive to want to do something you believe in. I don’t fault anyone for that, and have respect for anyone who puts out the effort. At the same time, this project doesn’t seem to have clearly defined goals other than “The expedition will highlight how thin the sea ice has become in recent years.”.
OK fair enough, but the expedition lasted just a few short days, and the kayakers had to give up the trek because they became “stuck” in sea ice. See my report from last week “Adventures in Arctic Kayaking: we’re stuck“. Basically they gave up, planted their 192 world flags, and went home. It seemed anticlimactic in view of what the leader, Lewis Gordon Pugh said to the London Times in a July 16th, 2008 interview:
“I’m going to try and get all the way to the North Pole to show the world what is happening,” the 38-year-old said after launching his Polar Defense Project expedition on the River Thames in London. (Link to story is still available in the India Times here )
So I was surprised then to read about this “success” in their follow up post:
“On this trip I am delighted with many things – the fact that we got as far north as we did, further north than anyone has ever kayaked before…”
It reminded me of a previous post I made about reported conditions in the arctic back in 1922. So last Friday, September 5th I posted this comment on their expedition blog:
“…the fact that we got as far north as we did, further north than anyone has ever kayaked before…”
Just wondering if that claim can be validated anywhere or if you are just making it up?
It stands to reason that Eskimos and other native people of the north may have made it further north in the past. For example in August 1922. See this report from the Norwegian Consul in the Monthly Weather Review:
Do you know for certain that natives of the area did not kayak further north then or in the past few hundred years?….in August 1922 the expedition made it to 81° 29′ north.
Your last position where you reported that you got “stuck” was 80.52397, 12.21224 which is 80° 31′ 26″, 12° 12′ 44″
Not that far from 1922…so given that it was possible to get about the same distance north then, it would stand to reason that:
1) Ice melt was similar back then in 1922
2) kayaking by native people may have matched or exceeded your feat in the past when conditions were similar
3) Since previous records show similar reports to what you’ve experienced today, melts today are not unique nor catastrophic events.
Here is a screencap image of that posting:
Yet as of today, 4 days later, still no answer. The comment has been skipped over and many other comments have been posted since then. I’ll have to assume it has been ignored and/or deleted.
Thus, it would seem that the Polar Defense Project won’t answer the tough questions, or even allow comments about them. The lack of basic planning and the inflated claims on this project are stunning, the lack of tolerance for anything that questions the project is also telling.
Sadly it appears that the expedition was nothing more than a poorly executed publicity stunt.
The goal set by Mr. Pugh in July’s Times interview was of course impossible, but apparently this fact was unknown to him, or he wouldn’t have allowed such a statement to be published worldwide. Surely with links to NSIDC and Cryosphere Today on his website, he must have been aware at some point, or maybe he was just going on the buzz of an “Ice Free North Pole” from earlier this year? With their splash screen for their website saying “The North Pole is Melting”, it seems plausible. Rumor has it that some folks “in the know” told him not to try this trip, but he went anyway.
But it seems that even the premise of this expedition was not well researched, as Bill Illis points out in comments on this blog:
Look at the compare images from Cryosphere for Sept. 5, 1979 versus Sept. 5 2008.
The expedition could have travelled at least 300 miles farther north 29 years ago.
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=09&fd=05&fy=1979&sm=09&sd=05&sy=2008
And another commenter, “dipole” adds this:
Full text of “Farthest North”, Nansen’s account of his 1893 attempt to reach the pole, is available online. See around p244 of volume 2 for kayaking N. of 82 degrees. Quite a story.
Nansen and Johansen in two kayaks turned into a catamaran.
Source: The Polarship FRAM
So much for Mr. Pugh’s claim of “…the fact that we got as far north as we did, further north than anyone has ever kayaked before…”.
Yes it seems that the Polar Defense Project didn’t do much research at all, and I suspect they operated mostly on emotion and adrenaline. Because if anyone had bothered to read some of the history, Pugh certainly wouldn’t have made the grand claim of “I’m going to try and get all the way to the North Pole to show the world what is happening,”
I suppose though this may be partly due to whom he rubs shoulders with, from his own web page: http://www.lewispugh.com/
AL GORE – 29 November 2007
Tomorrow I am the warm up act for Al Gore. He will be addressing a group of property financiers in London. I will give a personal account of the climate change I have witnessed in the Arctic.
Gore has a penchant for exaggeration when it comes to arctic sea ice and polar bears, so perhaps this has rubbed off on Mr. Pugh.
So next year, if this project goes asking for donations again, perhaps a few people or companies whom otherwise might throw their money away sponsoring such silly stunts will think twice before opening their pocketbooks.
They listened to Hansen,
But Pugh and Branson
Are no Nansen
and Johansen.
Do not assume for a moment that these people are naive or guilible. They know exactly what they are doing by opening up a fiat market for fake green carbon credits they all stand to make a bundle of money. What’s better is after employment figures drop, it will be much easier for them to be able to hire good help.
These people dispise the middle class, whither it be working middle class or upper middle class, they do not care, they hate you! Imagine how unique travel would be if you lousy middle class people were not allowed to participate. Authentic culture could be enjoyed by the elite without the nuisance of tourists, it would be wonderful to them.
Their goal is to not only destroy the vile middle class, limit their economic, social and physical mobility, but make a pile of money while doing it! Yeah! The good old days of feudalism will be here again, where we common serfs will serve out lord and masters by financing the carbon credit market while the elite will enjoy all of the benefit.
Unlike traditional industrialism and capitalism, these people are going to get rich by making us all poor, while the industrialist got rich by improving all of our lives by making things like factories, which greatly increased everyone’s material wealth. No, these people want us common folk to essentially pay taxes indirectly to the uber rich who are setting these deals up.
If something has to be “done” about Global Warming, the Government should use their power to tax so that the funds go directly to the public treasury, not these elitist bums setting up the carbon bourse.
It’s obvious they knew that they would reach ice, where else would they plant the flags that they brought?
There you go again, Rev. Snowing on their parade. Killjoy.
Doesn’t matter where these guys would have started from, they never would have got anywhere near the North Pole. Still, at least they could have made the claim of “kayaking further north” than anyone before more believable that way…
I have, over the last few weeks, sent 5 messages to Lewis Pugh and none of them was included in his forum. The final one [somewhat derogatory one] pointed out my view that Lewis Pugh’s ego was getting in the way of the fact that he failed miserably in his quest and he should try something other than climbing on the Greenie Hysteria, Global Warming, Carbon Offset Trading bandwagon. I suggested that whatever else happened we wouldn’t be hearing of his exploits at the South Pole any time soon. In fact maybe he should consider a totally new means of seeking funds to aid his self promotion. Leave the Al Gore’s of this world to their modern day version of Papal Indulgences, etc. I didn’t really expect that one to go unmoderated!
I think they did it for the chicks.
A few very minor points. While Nansen’s expedition started in 1893, his kayaking occured in 1895, and strictly speaking it started at 81 deg 45 min, not 82 degrees.
As for getting to 81 deg 29 min in 1922, the Swedish “Sofia” expedition actually got to 81 deg 42 min in the same area in 1868, right at the end of the little ice age.
I think they did it for the chicks.
Ding! Ding! Ding! I think we have a winner.
Mystery solved.
I, for one, will be sending Anthony’s article to every contact I have. If everyone who supports this blog did the same, it’s just possible that the MSM might decide to further disseminate the news. Newspapers like to rain on a parade, as we know. T’is worth a try.
Here is a part from an interview with a solo sailor (he sailed around the world many times and sailed many seas, including the northern seas).
In a response to the question if he’s anxious to sail around the North Pole now:
“Well, the situation isn’t as good as it sounds. Why is everybody talking about summer ice? Last year in the Bering Sea the ice was just as far south as it was 30 years ago.
“I checked with friends in Murmansk and Tisksi. They say we have to thank the strong southern winds for the open passage. They are the best icebreakers, but when the wind changes to the usual Northwest it will be closed in no time.
“When I look at the satellite images a lot of ice is gone, but not all. At Spitzbergen there is more ice now then there was in 2001, and on the Canadian site there is more ice now.
“On the Canadian site the islands give you a lot of shelter. If you wait for the right time, you can sail to Cambridge Bay almost EVERY year, and, with a good forecast, continue behind King Williams Island, and then 900km to ice-free water.
“The Russian Northeast Passage is much harder. It’s longer (5500km), so there is more ice variation, and there are no harbors except Tisksi. From experience I know there are more ice fields floating there than the satellites show, and the Russians never let a ship go through without the assistance of a icebreaker.”
I translated this from an interview in a Dutch newspaper. (Anthony, feel free to to correct the syntax, spelling and typo errors)
http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/wereld/article1845881.ece
[Reply – Happy to copy edit! ~ Evan]
BarryW (18:49:12) :
What I haven’t gotten an answer on is why they went the way they did. They were trying to go through a locked front door when the back of the house was wide open.
Well that is an easy one: There are regular flights to Longearbyen, Svalbard.
Email to Richard Black, BBC Environment Correspondent.
Dear Mr Black,
Further to my email of 7th September, here is Anthony Watt’s article about his efforts to gain the attention of Mr Pugh’s group who failed in their attempts to paddle to the North Pole.
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/polar-defense-project-deletes-the-tough-questions/
I doubt you will have the courtesy to acknowledge my efforts to inform you about the AGW scam, but that’s not a problem, as I am committed to the truth and shall not be discouraged by your marked reluctance to defend your position. Over the next few months, it will be interesting to watch you try and deal with the reality of cooling global temperatures. I think you are on a hiding to nothing, but time will tell. Of course, I shall do the decent thing and unreservedly apologise to you, if AGW turns out to be correct, but really, the science is on my side.
Yours truly,
Perry Debell
LOL… The credibility gap is widening as cognitive dissonance begins to resonate….. 🙂
Different thread – same result – nothing……
To Richard Black BBC – regarding Black trumpeting the Mann revised ‘Hockey Stick’
Richard,
You really must avoid printing anything to do with Michael Mann as though it were true!
When the Steve McIntyres [Climate Audit] of this world shoot Mann’s claims down using accurate scientific data will you print a retraction?
Somehow with the BBC bias towards AGW I doubt it.
Brian J
tty (23:29:22) says:
A few very minor points…
Thanks for the clarification about Nansen’s expedition. I hadn’t expected that post to get cited in a main story or I would have tried to be a bit less ambiguous. You are right they were returning from their attempt on the pole in 1895. On p244 they give their position as 82deg 19′ while preparing the kayaks. Then p250:
So then we set off across the blue waves on our first long voyage
Then on p256 they again give their position as 82deg 4.3′.
Cheers.
Don’t forget the one about the Britsh yachtsman who believed so much in AGW that he took a yacht to sail around the Artic in August ’07, getting stuck fairly quickly in ice that shouldn’t have been there! He then requested a Russian ice breaker be sent to resuce him, never made it to UK press as usual, qel surprise!
Correct me if I am wrong, but is current progess in the (non) AGW debate going from Global Warming, 1980’s-90’s, to the present Climate Change, 1990’s onwards, to the very recent terminaology that I suspect will soon loom large of Climate Chaos? This of course is so much more catastrophic than boring old mundane Climatge Change. I will wait & see what gestates! after all we in the UK have been having chaotic weather patterns this summer, so I dare say that new expression fits the bill nicely!
PS Sorry about the typos!
“I think they did it for the chicks.”
I didn’t know that “chicks” dug failing self-indulgent ego maniacs. I am putting some kind of huge failure (and promoting it beforehand) on my “To do” list for the next time I am looking for a date.
This episode reminds me of what my dear old grand Dad used to call Flem-flam artist. I think also it might be called bait and switch. They advertised one thing knowing that the outcome would be entirely different from what was indicated in the advertisement.
One day these shenanigans will come back to haunt these AGW folks. Credibility is hard won but easily lost.
Bill Derryberry
This “expedition” was adopted by ITN news in the UK and I e-mailed them twice pointing out the sheer ignorance of the claims being made. I got no reply so I reported them to Ofcom, (sauce for the goose and all that). I have had an acknowledgement but I’m not holding my breath.
This is what I sent:
“I wish to complain about the current item in ITN news where they are featuring an “explorer” who is purportedly demonstrating the reality of global warming by canoing in clear water in the Arctic. Their claim is that no-one has ever been able to traverse clear water here to this extent. Their canoist claims that he wishes to prove to World leaders that the Arctic is melting rapidly because he is able to canoe for some distance.
Whilst there are many claims by some scientists that the Arctic will be ice free in x number of years, (it varies with the scientist) there are many others who fiercely challenge this view. Regardless of the scientific conflict there is hard documentary evidence that clear water is not unique and is a natural feature of the Arctic Ocean. I have e-mailed ITN news twice and have given them links to evidence which shows their claims are unjustified and are wifully misleading the public. I have had no reply from the news editors although my messages have been acknowledged by their reception service.
The evidence presented to them against their claims included the following: http://www.john-daly.com/polar/arctic.htm: As well as as clear science it has many photos of open water at the North Pole over the last century. These images are US Navy images and totally valid.
The explorer Roald Amundsen negotiated the North West Passage in the early 1900’s: Amundsen: THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE – BEING THE RECORD OF A VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION OF THE SHIP “GJOA” 1903 – 1907 BY ROALD AMUNDSEN
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/IPY/ipy_009_pdf/G6501903A71908v1.pdf
These comments are from that record: Of large Polar ice we saw absolutely nothing. Between the ice and the land, on either side, there were large and perfectly clear channels, through which we passed easily and unimpeded.
The entire accumulation of ice was not very extensive. We were soon out again in open water. Outside the promontories, some pieces of ice had accumulated; otherwise the sea was free from ice.The water to the south was open, the impenetrable wall of ice was not there.
The ice of the Arctic Ocean is never at rest. Even in the coldest winters it is liable to displacement and pressure by the currents of air and water. The expansion and contraction, due to changes in temperature, also assist in this disturbance. At times the pack itself opens in leads, by which it may be penetrated for several miles.”
“On August 26, 1905 Amundsen and his 6-man crew encountered a ship bearing down on them from the west. They were through the Northwest Passage!” (http://www.athropolis.com/)
A few decades earlier: THERMAL PATHS TO THE POLE, THE CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN, BY SILAS BENT, SAINT LOUIS: 1872. This is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) archives
“Just as the work was completed upon these currents in the North Pacific, in 1855, the news was received in the United States that Dr. Hane had discovered an open sea near the Pole, and people began to ask how that could be possible, when it was well known that a belt or region of ice several hundred miles in width must lie to the south of that sea, and which was never dissolved.”
ITN constantly claim that the ice is melting rapidly, in fact ice levels recovered significantly this year. Current measurements only go back to 1978 when satellite monitoring began. Prior to that in the 1930’s there had been a similar situation in the Arctic as recorded here: Controlling the Planet’s Climate, J. 0. Fletcher (Rand corporation) From the book “Omega – Murder of the Eco-system and the Suicide of Man , Paul K Anderson, 1971
“For example, suppose that the warming of the Arctic, which by 1940 had greatly reduced the thickness of the pack ice, had continued? As the ice receded farther in summer and the thinner ice became more fractured in winter, evaporation would have increased, thus increasing the density of the surface waters both by increasing the salt concentration and by cooling; this would tend to decrease the vertical stability of the upper layers of the ocean.”
These extracts from a letter by the President of the Royal Society addressed to the British Admiralty, recommended they send a ship to the Arctic to investigate the dramatic changes in ice cover described thus: “2000 square leagues of ice with which the Greenland Seas between the latitudes of 74° and 80°N have been hitherto covered, has in the last two years entirely disappeared.” The letter was written in 1817.
The Danish Foreign Ministry has a History of Greenland which includes the following passage:
“Towards the end of the 10th century the climate became warmer, and the change affected all those living in the northern hemisphere. Much of the ice in the seas around the Canadian archipelago disappeared, and baleen whales moved into the area to search for food. Eskimo whalers from northern Alaska sailed east in their large, skin-covered boats and reached Greenland in the 12th century.”
This is a journey of a minimum 3000 miles as shown on this map of the Arctic Ocean. http://www.athropolis.com/map2.htm
The theme is continued on the ITV web site and one discovers just how woefully poor their knowledge of the Arctic really is:
“Adventurer Lewis Gordon Pugh plans to become the first person to kayak to the North Pole. His journey will show how cracks in the ice have made it possible to travel through what used to be permafrost.”
This statement is so bad it qualifies as a schoolboy howler. The term “permafrost” refers to frozen land and has no context for sea ice whatsoever. The cracks are leads which open naturally, as described by Amundsen. Deep within the ice pack, leads provide vital access to the ocean for seals and penguins, and breathing holes for whales.
The promulgation of this false information as factual news content from a major National broadcaster is totally irresponsible and not in the Public Interest. It is possible that members of the public convinced of their accuracy will lobby politicians for unnecessary draconian measures in the mistaken belief that we can control the amount of ice in the Arctic and that we should do so as a matter of urgency. This can only harm the economy and vulnerable sections of the population.
Having presented them with contrary evidence to their claims I believe they should have taken a step back and examined it. The fact that they have not done so shows they are not interested in veracity, only gimmicks to improve viewing figures.
I believe they should now stop further presentations of this falsity and redress the balance by stating the historical facts.”
Of course I didn’t have it checked out at RealClimate beforehand…
An adventure that is sufficiently audacious will always attract the ladies. They will never know how lame the attempt was.
Me too, I sent a question to their web site, basically asking why the reporting of their failure was so triumphalistically slanted as if they had succeeded beyond expections (perhaps those were rather low), or if instead their reporting was an exercise in surrealism.
Surprise surprise no joy as yet.
Unfortunately here in Australia the Channel 7 news reported that they had reached the North Pole and planted their flags there (nice picture – but no facts). I just about broke my nice young LCD TV! It was only a 30 second filler – and I couldn’t get any hard copy of the broadcast so that I could protest about it.