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.
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If they’re drilling through the ice to measure its thickness, why did they take a radar unit on a sledge? And how do their results compare to other measures and/or those taken in previous years?
Also, I though Pen Hadow was supposed to be a real explorer, so howcome he allowed them all to go with the wrong clothes and sleeping bags? Did he really think it was going to be warm?
I hope they come to no harm, but my sympathy will be severely limited if they come back and pretend it wasn’t really cold…
Sorry, ‘though’ = ‘thought’. I’m warm enough, but it’s getting late!
Imagine the behind-the-scene AGW pressure on any inpedendent Artic ice measurement that would conflict with any data from this expedition. That would make a blog unto itself.
Steven Goddard (11:33:38) :
Pictures of polar bears right at the north pole:
http://www.komar.org/faq/churchill_polar_bear_tours/north-pole-polar-bears/
Well only 280 miles away!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5121939/British-freediver-Sarah-Campbell-blacks-out-attempted-to-break-her-own-world-record.html
I’ve been worried about Pen Hadow’s core temp for quite some time. He’s been on the border of hypothermia for some days.
Pull them out before they get sacrificed to Gaia…
I see little scientific value in this expedition. However, every movement needs heroes and martyrs, so perhaps the whole point of it is to set the stage with a dramatic rescue, call the survivors heroes, get them on Larry King Live, headline news for a couple of days, and memorialize the victim(s) martyrs. Scientific combatants in the War on Global Warming, or is it Climate Change, oh yes, CO2 caused the stupid cold. Putting their life on the line to save man and Mother Earth. Sob, Sorry, getting a tad emotional, all choked up. Really.
Anyways, I hope those responsible for this get charged with criminal negligence, especially if tax payer dollars have to be used to fund a rescue effort (normal citizens get charged by government to be evacuated from foreign countries by the way).
Pen Hadows’ core temperature is now 33.4C. According to wikipedia, he is now in stage two of hypothermia:
Body temperature drops by 2-4°C (3.8-7.6°F) below normal temperature (33-35°C or 91-94.8°F). Shivering becomes more violent. Muscle mis-coordination becomes apparent. Movements are slow and labored, accompanied by a stumbling pace and mild confusion, although the victim may appear alert. Surface blood vessels contract further as the body focuses its remaining resources on keeping the vital organs warm. The victim becomes pale. Lips, ears, fingers and toes may become blue.
These people expected to be warm in the Arctic winter????
Cold-bloodilly, I say, let them live or die; it’s their choice, I don’t care for these worthless nitwits. They are fools; allow Darwin his due.
Mark @13:49:36
I hate to say this but there is something sadistically enjoyable about hearing of these eco-warriors freezing their butts off while trying to help save the world from global warming.
…and the once-mighty Nordvaark attacked the smothering glacier with his ice-pick again, and again, and again .. again. He stopped, exhausted of warm breath, panting in the dry air, expelling CO2 as if it was the staff of life leaving his very being,
In his frozen delusion, he thought “must stop global warming.. must… warm .., must stop global warming .. must warm .. must .. warm ..must .. must …….”
To be continued….
…as if it were the …
sorry, missed the subjunctive.
*shrug* IMO, it’s just a giant publicity stunt. I’m sure that they have to make the blog posts as exciting as possible, for who would be waiting breathlessly to read things like “Day 1: Really cold. Walked. Slept. Day 2: Really really cold. Walked. Slept. Day 37: Even more cold. Walked. Slept.” Plus, the hint of valiantly overcoming danger by going 2 days without food while waiting for the resupply plane should be good for a well-paid lecture circuit.
/So call me cynical.
Randall (08:18:55) :
These three are explorers is the extreme. It’s clear that they are sacrificing for their beliefs but I’m saddened that their belief may be misplaced and their suffering is foolish. Their failure would be a blow to the AGW movement.
How can they fail – what are the failure criteria?
If they die from freezing – it will be a sign of catastrophic Climate Chaos caused by man made emissions of CO2.
If they get eaten by Polar Bears – It will be because man made emissions of CO2 have disrupted the bears food supply.
If they get back alive – they will be feted as heroes and paraded on the talk shows to say how man made emissions of CO2 are thinning the Arctic Ice.
etc… etc…
As Shawn said above, Top Gear went to the magnetic north pole which is only about 400 miles northwest of Resolute (not even as far as Isachsen, the first refuel point for Borek Air. If they did what they said, part of the trip was over land west of Resolute. They were about as far from the real north pole as the Catlin expedition is now.
geoff pohanka (08:35:12) :
“I noticed they are not publishing their location today. I assume going back 15KM overnight has caused this.”
The desperate sadness here is, given the “never-confess” attitude of die-hard alarmists, they would rather freeze to death than look the cold hard world in the eye and say, “We were wrong.”
Will Prince Charles win the pennant for the turtle?
…-
“Polar explorers setting off to measure the thickness of the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice attended a farewell reception at Clarence House held by HRH The Prince of Wales.
The Prince, who is Patron of the Catlin Arctic Survey, presented Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley with a specially-commissioned pennant to carry to the North Geographic Pole.”
http://princescharities.org/blog/2009/2/11/catlin-arctic-survey-join-forces-business-community
…-
Full name
Charles Philip Arthur George
Detail
Titles and styles
HRH The Prince of Wales/Duke of Rothesay
HRH The Duke of Cornwall
HRH Prince Charles of Edinburgh (wiki)
…-
“Prince Charles Names Baby Giant Tortoise After His Son – iCelebZ.com
18 Mar 2009 … Britain’s Prince Charles is worried he will be in “terrible trouble” with … While at the center, the royal couple met 80-year-old turtle …
http://www.icelebz.com/gossips/prince_charles_names_baby_giant_tortoise_after_his_son“
This expedition has a useful scientific purpose.
The hypothesis is the Arctic is becoming warmer, and these guys are putting it to the test by making a trek geared for benign conditions (for that part of the world). They have pretty much proven the hypothesis to be untrue, or at the very minimum, an overstatement.
Their problem is they are trying to prove a point they passionately believe in, and to give up now means they will be admitting they were wrong. I recollection it was the leaders of the Fourth Crusade who relied on God to stop the (annual) Nile floods rather than move their camp to higher ground, with pretty unfortunate consequences.
This is a 21st century equivalent: going in to an inherently dangerous situation under prepared because of a reliance on faith (that Global Warming would make it easier).
My feeling is God (“God” in the broadest sense, however you wish to define the term, in the traditional sense or as nature itself through non-divine evolution….I’m casting a broad bow here, not trying to start a theological discussion), gave us all the intelligence and capability we have so we can look after ourselves. We are judged on what we do and how we conduct ourselves, not by meaningless subservience and reliance on God. Putting yourself in danger, and relying of something else, God, nature, Gaia or Global Warming to sort out the problem for you (but in truth it’s the people that go in and rescue you), is irresponsible and dangerous to yourself.
That is quite different from the well prepared group that gets into trouble. Sh*t sometimes happens. But in this case, these people were relying on a belief and were trying to prove that belief by being under-prepared. They were relying on good luck to be fine, rather than having been well prepared and encountering bad fortune.
A positive is that they have highlighted that Global Warming concerns regarding the Arctic are somewhere in the wrong-to-exaggerated range. But it’s a good bet that’s NOT what they’ll be saying when they get rescued.
Most of you are missing a very important point in Gaby Dean’s blog. Keep in mind that Gaby Dean is the operations manager for the Catlin Crew expedition. In her blog, she starts out with:
“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.”
Well, what about the fixed income, retired, and single mothers that will cut back on home heating when “Cap & Tax” is passed in Congress? The prices for energy are certain to increase far more than the rebates to the poor used to silence the poor and increase their support for those wonderful socialists in charge.
All day stupid expedition.
The weather isn’t about to co-operate.
Next comes bad decisions.
If you had them in a warm room for a day, they’d snap out of it and realize
just how close they were coming to thier demise.
But, they can’t do that with chilled brains and an endless loop of pressing on stuck in their heads.
When they sit down in utter exhaustion, they will sit down to die.
This has trajedy written all over it.
The other end is also stuck in exhilarating expedition, and will not get them out before it’s too late.
Well, hopefully someone with sense will pull them out on the next supply trip. Nature is not known to lose contests of will power.
schnurrp (13:51:52) :
Oh yeah, it’s time for the Klotzbach/Gray forecast. Don’t read it at breitbart.com, read the full forecast at http://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/forecasts/ !
Let’s see. “Average activity for 2009” – quite a break compared to previous years. Actually quite a break compared to their December forecast reducing their expectation of Net tropical cyclone activity from 135% to 105%.
Why the reduction? Here: “We expect current weak La Niña conditions to transition to neutral and perhaps weak El Niño conditions by this year’s hurricane season. If El Niño conditions develop for this year’s hurricane season, it would tend to increase levels of vertical wind shear and decrease levels of Atlantic hurricane activity. Another reason for our forecast reduction is due to anomalous cooling of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic. Cooler waters are associated with dynamic and thermodynamic factors that are less conducive for an active Atlantic hurricane season.”
Well, that ought lead some more interesting than usual comments about global warming… nope, about the same as previous years.
They do call out “Figure 7 displays the SST anomaly difference between March 2009 and November 2008. Note the strong anomalous cooling that has occurred across the Main Development Region. Current Tropical North Atlantic index (defined as 5.5-23.5°N, 57.5-15°W) SST anomaly values of approximately -0.4°C are the lowest that have been observed since June-July 1994. This strong anomalous cooling is another reason for the reduction in our Atlantic basin hurricane forecast. Cooler-than-normal waters provide less latent and sensible heat flux for developing tropical cyclones. In addition, an anomalously cool tropical Atlantic is typically associated with higher sea level pressure values and stronger-than-normal trade winds, indicating a more stable atmosphere with increased levels of vertical wind shear.”
I guess it’s been a cold winter in the eastern tropical Atlantic too! If this forecast of an average season verifies (note hurricane Andrew was in a very below average season), there may be little coverage in the news.
Pragmatic (16:29:32) :
geoff pohanka (08:35:12) :
“I noticed they are not publishing their location today. I assume going back 15KM overnight has caused this.”
The desperate sadness here is, given the “never-confess” attitude of die-hard alarmists, they would rather freeze to death than look the cold hard world in the eye and say, “We were wrong.”
Some new Oxymorons.
“Honest Climate Science”
“Humble Climate Science”
People dying of cold in this society is not funny and that is exactly what is happening in the UK and Europe with their cap and trade laws. The UK’s percentage of excess cold related deaths rose 7% in 2008, no word yet on how many died this past winter. In Ontario, our provincial government has decided to pass a Green Energy bill which will raise electicity prices and to apply the 8% PST to everything including gas, propane, heating oil, electricity, hair cuts, etc. That will cost me an extra 1,000 a year plus the Green energy bill will add another 300 to 900 a year. I don’t think I can afford to live in this cold climate anymore. I might as well live in a warm banana republic.
Don’t die Pen. It’s not worth it. If you do, the Guardian, the inbred pseudoscientist Prince, and the BBC will deny and/or cover up that you and your ill-fated expedition ever existed.
But we won’t, ha ha ha ha
Just think, on April 25, 2008 (yes 2008) New Scientist predicted the north pole could be ice free by the summer of 2008. I wonder what they were smoking — bunch of lying %$#$*(‘s
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13779