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
Speaking of which…one of this years teams taking a dip
http://www.explorersweb.com/sitemedia/TSthumbs/20100325swimlarsen.jpg
@JER0ME (19:40:03) : You very much made my day. I am still laughing.
When I was taught chemistry at school in the 1960s, the process of adding an acid to an alkaline solution was termed neutralisation.
How times change.
old44 (20:00:53) :
Why don’t they just do what the “Top Gear” crew did and drive there?
Probably because the Top Gear crew didn’t do so?
I believe, based on the geometry and locations described (near islands off of the Arctic itself) , that the Top Gear driving team actually got to the north magnetic pole, not the geometric north pole.
however, they did more useful “science” than any of these yokels have done.
RACookPE1978 (13:37:47) :
I believe, based on the geometry and locations described (near islands off of the Arctic itself) , that the Top Gear driving team actually got to the north magnetic pole, not the geometric north pole.
Actually they didn’t even do that! Not even 80ºN.