Guest post by Steven Goddard
From the Catlin web site today – a first hand description of what motivates the explorers, and what they are learning about Arctic warming.
Thursday, 02 Apr 2009 10:04
“Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”
Thousands of men (and three women) replied to Ernest Shackleton’s advertisement, which (the story goes) was placed in a London newspaper in 1913, ahead of his Antarctic expedition aboard the Endurance.
Polar expeditions have moved on in terms of technology and equipment, but the motivation and commitment to research that fuelled Shackleton and his team seem not to have altered.
“There’s a cocktail of motivational forces at work”, commented Expedition Leader Pen Hadow from the team tent, huddled over the sat-phone at the end of another long, cold day. “You can sum it up by saying we feel a commitment to represent the Arctic Ocean as an eco-system and the three of us have the skills that allow us to gather the information that will enable people to be better informed about the state of the region and its future“.
But given temperatures of -40 degrees centigrade with a wind chill factor in the minus seventies, does the motivation that fuelled the team from their warm UK base in the planning stages, diminish?
Photographer Martin Hartley who’s been crawling into a frozen sleeping back that becomes a wet sponge overnight for longer than he cares to remember, remarks “I’m getting extremely frustrated with the stupidly cold temperatures that are making my life a misery, day after day. All I can think about, 24 hours a day, is getting a new sleeping bag on the next re-supply”.
But Hadow says he’s speaking for all three team members, himself, Hartley and Ann Daniels, when he concludes, “We’ve absolutely no regrets about being here. Given that it’s so awful, our commitment to the research and our motivation is in fact what keeps us going”.
With a team currently preparing the next re-supply, Hartley should get his new sleeping bag within the next few days.
What I find interesting is the use of the word “But” and “stupidly cold” highlighted in red above. It appears that what they are experiencing on the ground is not what they were expecting to find.
“The team covered a staggering 16.7km today, the biggest distance achieved to date. By covering so much distance since the last resupply (134.5km in 13 days), the team have observed the ice they are crossing is getting significantly older and thicker“
So it is extremely cold and they are finding old, thick ice. That does not sound like the sub-tropical Arctic as portrayed by The Guardian.
Flashback to February, 2008 OSLO, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — The polar cap in the Arctic may well disappear this summer due to the global warming, Dr. Olav Orheim, head of the Norwegian International Polar Year Secretariat, said on Friday.
“Knight Blue (06:37:21) :
Good aquaintance,
Indeed Global warming is an issue that deserves immediate attention…
Therefore ignorance iof Gods Law is no excuse. But there is relief. The ancient vedic scripture, assures that this age of evil (Kali) lasts for 432,000 years.”
It’s always good to see that those in the AGW camp are not hindered by religion. Also good to know that we must only wait for 432,000 years for good to triumph.
Steve Hempell 16:45:55
OT Dr Roy Spencer post explaining the greenhouse effect.
It would be nice if Anthony posted this so it could be discussed.
Spencer’s explaination is quite clear until he uses the term “blanketing effect”. This term definitely applies to liquids and solids but does it apply to GHG molecules. Clouds which contain water droplets definitely delay the atmosphere’s cooling. Smudge pots give off particulate matter that definitely delay cooling. These droplets and particles absurb most of the radiation they receive. They transfer heat to the atmosphere by collision etc. How do GHGs do this?
But this is off topic.
Peter. Yes, there are thousands of web pages dedicated Wilkins. I’m glad you found one and linked it here! 😉 But there are not that many dedicated to the rest of Antarctica, which gains ice so that Antarctica have a net gain of ice. (Wingham, Bengtsson etc.)
Also the West Antarctica will “collapse” very very slowly in several thousand years of time if (and only if) water temperatures around the ice increases with between 7 and 9 degeres F. You can read more about this study here:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/study-west-antarctic-melt-a-slow-affair
This isn’t that big threat to us, as you can see.
Br, Magnus
No kidding the poles are freezing cold. Is it a surprise to find out the ice is thick? Goddard is thicker- I’ll say that.
Good aquaintance “Mike Bryant”
“It’s always good to see that those in the AGW camp are not hindered by religion. Also good to know that we must only wait for 432,000 years for good to triumph”
“Religion without science is sentiment..Science without religion is mental speculation”-Srila Prabhupad. Religion has its place in society. It is not a hinderance. It is systematic and supportive. It helps with the general morale and ethics that regulate the vices of desire. I must correct that we need to follow proper authority, otherwise it would be simply speculation. You must follow authority. This is important.
Now, I would like to thank you for reading my article sir, and must dutily clarify. “there is relief”- line 10, word 6, refers to relief from global annihilation due to the global warming situation. It does not refer to a time period of wait. I have mentioned 427,000 years left, not 432,000 years. This is bonafide scriptural authority. This period is simply to indicate that our human species will survive this age.
Good truimphs over evil all the time. Even at this moment. There is no waiting period (Laughter). Indeed as long as the living entity is in this material world, there would be dualities of negative and positive, hot and cold, happiness and distress, good and evil. I trust this gives you proper clarification.
“I don’t know … But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking …. don’t they” The Scarecrow
“Unusual weather we’re having, ain’t it?” Cowardly Lion
“I do believe in spooks. I do believe in spooks. I do! I do! I do! I do believe in spooks” Cowardly Lion
“There is no place like home, There is no place like home, There is no place like home” Dorothy
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” Al Gore
MA (08:28:36) :
Peter. Yes, there are thousands of web pages dedicated Wilkins. I’m glad you found one and linked it here! 😉 But there are not that many dedicated to the rest of Antarctica, which gains ice so that Antarctica have a net gain of ice. (Wingham, Bengtsson etc.)
Also plenty showing a decrease too!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060302180504.htm
Knight,
Consider me clarified.
Mike
I notice CT has no images yet for 2009 to compare side-by-side extents. I have yet to see anything regarding the increased rotation of the earth in the past several years, where the only explanation put forth is increased mass at the pole(s). I finally found a way to count pixels in photoshop, and am posting this image again, the shoreline change with the addition of snow since 2004 at CT. I used the maximum ice extent number of 15 X 10^6 Km^2 to determine the pixels for artic ice, 1979 and 1988. This minimizes the area for shoreline change with/without snow, and arrive at a conservative figure of 1.6 X 10^6 km^2. This represents area that won’t be counted in maximum ice area since 2004. I don’t know to what extent this will affect the annual amount, I would guess 50% or less of 1.6 X 10^6 Km^2.
http://i44.tinypic.com/330u63t.jpg
>>To me the North Pole should be friendly and have lots and
>>lots of flags were we can hold hands and where we can all
>>put on a yellow Parkas, which we can keep.
http://www.nathab.com/destinations/index.aspx?pageID=7&tripID=153&action=trip_overview
Hold on – they got there using a nuclear powered ice-breaker. Should it not have been a sailing ship, like Shakelton? Now that would make the journey more environmentally freindly (and completely impossible).
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On a more serious note, these explorers are a worrying extension of the New Religion generation, people who will jump on any Liberal bandwagon while ignoring the reality around them.
We see it in the many thousands who bought roof-top wind turbines only to find out they did not work, when all rational folk screamed that they were useless (the store has stopped selling them now). We see it in the many do-gooders who say there are no really bad in people, they are just misunderstood, and then they add another layer of security on their property. We see it in the many liberal folk who declare that immigration is wonderful, and then move to a completely white neighbourhood.
Instead of being GW deniers, these people are Rationality deniers. They see a world as their mind thinks it should be, and filter out the reality around them. Liberals have always been dreamers, but they have taken a leap into the completely irrational over the past decade or two.
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On a more sober note, these explorers are a supreme manifestation of the recent surge in Liberal dreaming, new Martyrs offering their frost-bitten souls on the altar of the New Religion.
We see elements of this New Revelation in the many thousands who bought roof-top generators and discovered that they did not work; despite the rational telling them they were useless (the store has stopped selling them now). We see it in the do-gooders who say there is no bad in people, they are just misunderstood, and then they add another layer of security to their property. We see it in those who say immigration is wonderful, and then move to a completely white neighbourhood.
Liberals have always been dreamers, but they have drifted into extremes of irrationality in recent decades. It is about time the rational gained some of the levers of state, and exercised real power.
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About temperature jump in January. Something hit magnetosphere in January 21 it was HUGE
look ant this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqWNNhsYrdI check temperature probably will be higher too..
“One hundred years ago, Sir Ernest Shackleton tried, but narrowly failed, to become the first man to reach the South Pole. Descendants of his team have been retracing and completing his journey.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7979798.stm