Well I’ve ignored the “new” Catlin Arctic survey as long as I can. Like last year, they’ve gone off the deep ends of the earth with wacky claims.
Apparently the team isn’t watching the sea ice extent data closely. Me thinks they just like having the insurance company pay them to trek the ice. There’s no real science being done. Just commentary. At least they aren’t pushing bogus biotelemetry this year
From Tom Nelson’s link aggregator, comes this simple set of points:
The Catlin warmists think that we’re stupid
“The conditions we’re experiencing are unlike anything I’ve seen in any of the nineteen expeditions I’ve previously been on,” says Martin Hartley. “There are great swathes of only recently refrozen open water peppered with small snow-covered islands of ice in the distance. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come for Arctic travel?”
The open water is revealed when fields of the floating ice break apart due to underlying ocean currents and pressure exerted on it by winds or tides.
A massive weather event forced the Ice Base to go into lockdown mode for two days this weekend. Starting on Friday evening, the team experienced gusting winds of up to 60mph and temperatures of -45 C, giving an effective ‘feels like’ temperature of -75 C.
[Flashback: If SUVs caused the open leads in 2006, what caused the open leads in 1909?]
Check out the New York Times article here, where Commander Peary talks about Arctic conditions in 1909.
Excerpts from Peary himself:
The difficulties and hardships of a journey to the North Pole are too complex to be summed up in a paragraph. But, briefly stated, the worst of them are: the ragged and mountainous ice over which the traveler must journey with his heavily loaded sledges…
…the open leads already described, which he must cross and recross, somehow…
h/t to Pierre Gosselin
Weren’t they supposed to be one of the star turns at Copenhagen? Anyone know what happened?
“Our Explorer Team have reported another day of walking on ‘flippy floppy ice’, the likes of which none of them have experienced, despite clocking up years of Polar Travel between them.”
Why don’t they just come out with it and say “it’s rotten ice“? Meanwhile, according to their website, the temperature on the 25 March 2010 is -18C!!!
““The conditions we’re experiencing are unlike anything I’ve seen in any of the nineteen expeditions I’ve previously been on,” says Martin Hartley.”
What?!!!
“Our Explorer Team have reported another day of walking on ‘flippy floppy ice’, the likes of which none of them have experienced, despite clocking up years of Polar Travel between them.”
Why don’t they just come out with it and say “it’s rotten ice“? Meanwhile, according to their website, the temperature on the 25 March 2010 is -18C!!!
“It will without doubt have come to your Lordship’s knowledge that a considerable change of climate, inexplicable at present to us, must have taken place in the Circumpolar Regions, by which the severity of the cold that has for centuries past enclosed the seas in the high northern latitudes in an impenetrable barrier of ice has been during the last two years, greatly abated.
(This) affords ample proof that new sources of warmth have been opened and give us leave to hope that the Arctic Seas may at this time be more accessible than they have been for centuries past, and that discoveries may now be made in them not only interesting to the advancement of science but also to the future intercourse of mankind and the commerce of distant nations.”
President of the Royal Society, London, to the Admiralty, 20th November, 1817
Rotten ice in 1817?
OT – shows
Apologies might soon be in order for the UK’s Channel 4 which aired the “The Greenhouse Conspiracy ” (1990) and the “The Great Global Warming Swindle” (2007). The channel seems to have been one of the MSM outlest to have been years ahead of its time.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070308093308/http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070306-122226-6282r.htm
http://fufor.twoday.net/stories/3428768/
I hope this year’s Catlin survey is as entertaining as last year. For their own safety, however, I hope they’ve learned how to read a GPS, bring at least one person who knows how to perform chart calculations (especially directional and distance), remember to make at least one or two changes to the fake data logs they copy and paste, remember to bring a few spare batteries, and, oh yes, remember to bring some flare guns so they don’t have to wait so long for rescue this time.
“Me thinks they just like having the insurance company pay them to trek the ice. ”
If the insurance company can convince people that the icecaps are melting and sea levels will rise and there will be floods, then they can sell more flood insurance policies to the people who take the bait. This works particularly well for the insurance company that knows that there, in fact, is no melting and there won’t actually be any floods that will result in their paying out claims on these policies.
They are doing the same thing the politicians are doing only from a different angle.
The politicians want to convince you that if you part with more of your cash and grow the bureaucracy, they will save you from roasting to death. This works really well for them when they know you aren’t really going to roast to death and that the “evidence” is all contrived. Then when it becomes obvious the world isn’t warming they can congratulate themselves on what a wonderful job they did in “saving” the planet!
I love these guys, they are endlessly entertaining.
Jeff Wood (14:29:48) : “Off-topic, but relevant: do I understand correctly that each time we click one of those “Fight global warming/climate change” ads up there, the tip jar clinks?”
You lucky, lucky person you! The advertising space often shows something different here in England: “Rajendra Pachauri at the London Speaker Centre”. Poor guy must need the money if he’s moonlighting now.
http://londonspeakerbureau.co.uk/rajendra_pachauri.aspx
Did Ice Station Ztupid offer an explanation as to what caused the open water to flash-freeze?
They were there, weren’t they?
Ah yes, there it is, -45C air travelling at 60mph.
So much for the GISS barbecue Arctic Anomaly.
That should relate back to the Ice Extent Anthony has been keeping an eye on.
Oh really!!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8352469.stm
—-
They still give the habitual nod to Co2 warming of course.
“Catlin Group Limited is an international specialist property/casualty insurer and reinsurer which operates through six underwriting hubs: London, Bermuda, the United States, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Canada. The Group underwrote gross premiums of US$3.7 billion in 2009.”
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/Sponsors.aspx
Hey, get working on lies for 2010.
Is this science compromised, conflict of interest or what? What if Catlin reports back to their sponsors that the ice is thicker than average, it’s bloody freezing and nothing out of the ordinary? Would they get to go on another Arctic expedition sponsored by the insurance company Catlin?
With this sentence alone you immediately realize you’re dealing with congenital exaggerators, PR flaks, and stuntmen:
“Starting on Friday evening, the team experienced gusting winds of up to 60mph and temperatures of -45 C, giving an effective ‘feels like’ temperature of -75 C.”
Gosh, that “effective ‘feels like’ temperature” is really very intimidating…. if you’re standing naked in the Arctic and in the full force of the wind. Put on some warm clothes, stand in the windbreak of your tent, and the phony baloney “effective ‘feels like’ temperature” instantly goes back to the “effective ‘real’ temperature” of -45 C.
Man *does* control nature, so long as it’s phony and contrived nature.
Steve Goddard (13:53:53) :
Thanks for the heads up on the Barrow webcam. Nothing like sitting here on a warm Sydney morning watching others freeze their backsides off. The videos of each years recordings are most impressive.
And thanks Anthony/Pierre Gosselin for bringing us the Catlin show. There is nothing quite like reality TV.
At their FAQ page here:
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/faq.aspx
“Aren’t there better and more accurate ways to measure the sea ice, such as satellites?”
“Airborne equipment has trouble determining the difference between ice thickness and snow depth and can experience difficulties in adverse weather conditions such as heavy cloud cover.”
Just like they ‘failed’ with their ground radar due to cold. Just like they avoided built-up-ice and chose flatter, thinner ice as admited by Hadow. Meanwhile Polar 5 did the work in much less time:
http://www.awi.de/en/news/press_releases/detail/item/polar_aircraft_polar_5_starts_antarctic_season/?cHash=0ced91bbb71bcc0fa07217188c5f4861
or was it “as admited by Hadow [Penn]”? Can’t be bothered to look, just remembered that one of these climate criminals mentioned it.
Gary Hladik (14:14:39) :
I can’t bear to read another depressing story about these guys, but that title certainly raised my spirits!
The first sentence may not apply here, or maybe change it to ‘unimportance.’
Enjoy.
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/faq.aspx
Using their language, it should mean that the September Arctic sea ice extent has been recovering since 2007 regardless of melting.!!!!!! [Note: official warmist scientists don’t consider the 2009 September sea ice extent as a recovery]
If nothing else, we now have new terminology for arctic ice:
1) Rotten
2) Flippy Floppy
What’s next: “unrobustfulness” ?
Isn’t this a waste of time, except for the comedy of it all?
“As well as the great stretches of open water, we’re also experiencing some rather frustrating drifting that’s hampering our progress northwards. It’s got to the point at which I’d rather turn the GPS off in the evening than watch the figures click away, indicating that we’re steadily move back in the direction from which we’ve come!
But morale is good because, on the plus side, we’ve managed to undertake all the science we’d hoped to at this point. ”
Yeah, right!
Sorry, forgot the link:
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/blog.aspx?postId=107
[ Jimbo (16:55:50)]
There is a new bird on the birdfeeder, a Catlin’s warbler. Yes, I know warblers don’t normally eat seed, but I put out suet which attracts small insects which attracts warblers. Catlin’s warbler features a very heavy plumage because it breeds in the far north.
Warblers are, in general, noted for their beautiful songs. Catlin’s however, emits a continious stream of disjointed, discordant notes. Catlin’s warbler has no song.
This is a good site to follow the daily progress of various polar expeditions:
http://explorersweb.com/polar/
Here we go again — our intrepid explorers have struck off to do …
What is it they’re trying to do again? Oh yeah, they’re honing their communication skills. And they’re off to a great start, finding conditions they’ve never seen before. Which raises the question, what were they doing in all their previous adventures? Sleep walking?
Here’s a hint guys — it’s sea ice. It’s not some huge, monolithic ice sheet. It breaks up from time to time, exposing the ocean, which in turn refreezes. If you keep looking for the easiest travel route you’ll keep finding areas where the ice has split open. Try hiking over some of those ridges and see how solid the ice is. That ought to keep you busy.
In the meantime, try looking up some old US Navy submarine photos from the pole showing all that open water. It’s an old story, no matter how hard you work at trying to spin it as something new.
Jeff Wood (14:29:48) – Some ad services forbid discussion of the ads because there should only be natural and valid behavior. That usually works well, although it can cause awkwardness if one wants to discuss changes.