From the Catlin web site today –
Hypothermia Posted by Gaby Dean
Monday, 06 Apr 2009 15:58
In disadvantaged inner cities it’s known in medical circles as Urban Hypothermia. GPs adopted the term after seeing an increase, during winter, of elderly patients who have switched off their heating, fearful of the cost, and become ill as a result because of the cold.
Chronic, as opposed to acute, hypothermia is the official term.
The Catlin Arctic Survey Team have now been working in temperatures of below -40 degrees centigrade for more than 30 days. When the three (Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley) leave messages on the TVM – a machine that records the messages they phone into London HQ – their voices often sound slurred and they occasionally muddle their words.
Extreme cold affects the senses and everyday skills we usually take for granted, like speaking. According to CAS medical adviser Doc Martin, the team are constantly battling chronic hypothermia, which was to be expected. (Pen Hadow has described it as an ‘occupational hazard’).
“Chronic hypothermia affects people who are under-nourished, physically and mentally tired and not sleeping well”, says Doc. “You can see the connection between vulnerable elderly people and the physical and mental condition that Pen, Ann and Martin are in”.
Weather
 -35°C |
Perhaps they are preparing to come home? They are 15 km further from the pole today (722.28 km) than they were yesterday (707.83 km) and according to satellite data, temperatures have been running below normal for the last two and a half months.
And from the NSIDC web site today – It was a warm winter in the Arctic. No doubt the Catlin crew will be relieved to hear that.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
This story reminds me of something covered in Bjorn Lomborg’s book “Cool It”.
http://www.amazon.com/Cool-Skeptical-Environmentalists-Global-Warming/dp/0307266923
In it, Mr. Lomborg cites statistics showing that many more multiples of deaths occur annually world-wide as a direct result of COLD vs. the few that occur from heat, heat related illnesses, or warming climate in general. This reinforces his overall theme: what exactly are the “climate change” alarmists hoping to fix? There MANY more worldwide “macro” problems that can actually be addressed in real time with the world’s money and effort (diseases, famine, energy, etc) than a vain attempt to “correct” the entire world’s climate!
. . . but they have the cutest, most photogenic snow suits . . . they look so hip on TV.
Too bad they don’t keep their holier-than-thou butts warm enough to prevent frostbite.
-40 isn’t all that cold. As someone who has done DEW Line time and lived in the Arctic for 4 years, -40 barely slowed anyone, who was prepared, down. Out hunting or fishing, running around on the skidoo, -40 was the norm and easily handled.
Now -55 in Hall Beach loading a belly bay in 737 . . . now that’s cold.
First, in their cold, muddled state of mind I hope they don’t shoot any polar bears that are stalking them for lunch. Polar bears are said to be endangered, but we have plenty of people.
Second, these AGW Paris Hiltons are doing the publicity equivalent of wearing a short skirt with no underwear. These people are after headlines, not science.
I have known better people who have died doing what they had to do just to take care of their families. I find it impossible to care what happens to these deluded clowns.
How is Arctic ice data averages between 1979 and 2000 a valid metric for current conditions? I suspect that the addition of 2001 through 2008 data would disclose the absurdity of the doom and gloom rants coming from AGWers. Am I wrong? If so, please explain why.
Edward (08:04:41) :
Perhaps they would like to postpone their trip for a 100 years until things warm up there a bit!
By then they can just boat up there…”ice free” should make that easy /sarc
makes me think of the idiots who climb the Himalayas and pester you with ‘dramatic’ footage of their suffering. Sorry but i find this behavior irresponsible and sure to cost society lots of cash for rescue operations and to repair the damage better spend healing people with diseases didn’t inflict on themselves.
From the NSIDC website 4/6/09:
“Arctic sea ice extent has begun its seasonal decline towards the September minimum. Ice extent through the winter was similar to that of recent years, but lower than the 1979 to 2000 average. More importantly, the melt season has begun with a substantial amount of thin first-year ice, which is vulnerable to summer melt.”
Is this deja vu all over again?
From the NSIDC website 4/7/08:
“Despite strong growth of new ice over the winter, sea ice is still in a general state of decline. The ice that grew over the past winter is relatively thin, first-year ice that is susceptible to melting away during the summer.”
I think only the Goreacle roots more ice to melt than does NSIDC. Have you ever noticed their PR is always stated in the negative? “It’s the fifth lowest since…” rather that “It’s the third highest since…” It’s clear to me that the infomation gatekeeper here is cozying up to the AGW money train.
Very few people commenting on this thread seem to have any concept of what they are discussing. Plenty of people put themselves into dangerous situations regularly without attracting this sort of ridicule – how is this different from sailing round the world single-handed? Get out there and live a bit 🙂
The obvious may have already been pointed out but why did they not go by car like Top Gear’s Polar Expedition a la Clarkson and co? They only took a few days sipping gin and tonics along the way in a Toyota Hilux pick-up.
If you have not yet seen it, it is a seminal – and hilarious – piece of film making.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4954020154349675922
Their resupply plane is now two days overdue because of the brutal cold weather. If the Catlin trekkers haven’t learned the truth about the actual conditions of the Arctic by now they have to be suffering from hypothermia hallucinations.
Maybe this is piling on–well, here we go anyway: In addition to the other points mentioned in these posts about the nonscientific aspects of this so-called science, I will contribute (a la Karl Popper) that the Catlin team is not doing science also because it is impossible to reproduce any of their (alleged) findings. They are merely taking measurements, not doing science. If they actually wanted to do science, they would, at the very least, have to take with them one or two (or more) teams to reproduce independently any of their findings. Actually, I feel sad about the whole business. Quixotic in a way, perhaps.
They’ll be glad to see the ice start melting now that it’s only -35C today. That should speed things right along.
One thing people fail to grasp, when it gets hot, you sweat. When it gets cold you die. Humans like warm, not so much cold.
We are back down in the 40-50-s for the next few days.
It’s also interesting that probably the cold weather gear they have is made from that evil oil. Not enough polar bears and seals to go around.
I think they have already started to die, they need to extract these people before they finish dying!
They may be D.O.A.
Defrosted On Arrival…. home.
Get them out of there before something terrible hapens!
I am sitting at my desk here in the wilderness of Alaska where we have lived for 30 years. No one for hundreds of miles around us. I skied from the front door yesterday and went 10 miles up our valley breaking through at least two feet of snow. Seems late to have this much snow and ice. I guess we caused GW with our wood fires this winter and caused more precip and colder temps. It went to minus 65F here this winter for three weeks along with the normal minus 40’s and 30’s. We are all fine. I notice the pictures of this group with their zippers down, their fur ruffs back and wonder at their ignorance of arctic living. There are proper ways to survive and there are proper ways to do science. I think they failed at both.
Another thing that can be blamed on AGW :
Stupidity
I have zero sympathy for people killed or injured in the voluntary service of a lie.
Anyone heard where the bear is?
Lunch time for some polar bears.
What a little frost bite!
Stop the expedition.
That‘s only stop cowards, not true belivers.
Anyway, the artic ice is thining, the news say so.
This Monty Python video, “Star War” style is perfecty dedicated to their brave endevor.
http://www.natelki.net/video/4134/monty-python—black-knight-star-wars
When you stay that cold for that long, you make bad decisions. (BTDT) When you make bad decisions, you have bad experiences. (BTDT as well) They need to get out. While they still can.
The chap in the photo has very swollen lips, if he got cold sores they would be very painfull!
On a more serious note, I hope they come back safe and a lot wiser for their silly adventure.
OT Guess these “experts” dont read this blog much.
“Nine of 11 experts, who were among authors of the final summary by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 (IPCC), also said the evidence that mankind was to blame for climate change had grown stronger in the past two years.”
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre5363mv-us-climate-change/
I’ll bet I’m not the first to see the irony in a global warming alarmist making this statement:
“. . . elderly patients who have switched off their heating, fearful of the cost . . ”
The goal of the enviro-whacko, global warming scammers is to increase the price of fuel so that we human viruses use less and therefore pump less CO2 into the environment.
YET, we are to feel compassion for those morons who may die due to self-inflicted hypothermia to drum up support for their pet theory which if they succeed would cause more elderly to suffer?
Psssssst: Catlin Crew. Warm is good. Doncha think?