Climate Craziness of the Week – cool (E)motional Icebergs

A group called http://www.coolemotion.org/ got funding from WWF to build a giant sculpture on an iceberg. As of May 6th the iceberg was still trapped in pack ice;

http://coolemotion.blogspot.com/2010/05/iceberg-still-stuck.html

But now they claim that the iceberg sunk/melted after just a few weeks:

http://coolemotion.blogspot.com/2010/06/no-iceberg-anymore-comments-of-ap-1.html

Iceberg disappeared, GPS signals from Satut. What happened?

“In the very early morning, 2nd of June, we could see at our GPS tracker that something was going on. Later we noticed that our signal moved constantly to the South East faster than the iceberg ever moved , and then suddenly moved to the North into the settlement of Satut.”

You have to read this below to really experience the cool-E-motion of it all:

The iceberg sunk………. Can you believe that an iceberg like this one disappears in only a matter of weeks? Last week I interviewed my very good friend Ole Jorgen Hammeken, standing in the sun, sweating because of the heat, while normally they can go for dogsledding untill [sic] June. It raises some questions… The whole day and night you can hear icebergs exploding, or collapsing because of this heat. What is going on? I am an artist who travelled [sic] many times through the Arctic and every year it becomes warmer and warmer. I am not a scientist, but only listen to the stories that people tell me. I am not interested in the question: Who’s guilty at this situation? Is there global warming? Not at all, I am asking the question: What if Climate Change enters my world: Can we anticipate on these fast changes? In Uummannaq the extremes started only a couple of years ago, and now it is warmer as ever before, with all consequences. I am personally convinced that we soon will experience what is happening over there, even if we only feel the tail. We need all energy and focuss [sic] on the future. My question is: How can we create a more flexible society? Climate Change is from all times, people always adapted to these changes, but are we now capable to cope with these extreme changes? We have to stop naming, blaming and shaming, and put this energy in another direction.

“What is going on?” he asks. Gosh, exploding icebergs! Gaia must be really angry right now. Since we are talking about “art” here, let’s venture back to artists of the past that traversed the Arctic, like this one.

From the website: In Search of Icebergs: Tracing the 1859 expedition of the painter Frederic Edwin Church  to Newfoundland and Labrador

An excerpt from the link above, reading from the book:

Reading from the book: After Icebergs with a Painter: A Summer Voyage to Labrador and Around Newfoundland, 1861, by Louis Legrand Noble

Warnings passed down through local lore flowed with stories of exploding and capsizing icebergs. The author registers a sigh of relief each time the captain signals the return to a sheltered cove. On one occasion, the two companions enjoyed the sounds and sights of a collapsing berg from a safe distance. The painter, known throughout the book merely as C—, contributed a sketch of this astonishing event to Noble’s book.

Huh, exploding and capsizing icebergs in 1859. Whooda thunk?

Some in the press are eating this “iceberg sculpture cum Titanic disaster” up:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/06/08/iceberg-sculptures-sink.html?ref=rss

What’s really funny is the pic of the sculpture, iceberg and boaters for reference in this article: http://www.adn.com/2010/06/08/1313027/global-warming-sinks-dutch-artists.html

The iceberg looks to extend about 3.5 meters above the waterline. According to DMI, Arctic temps have been trending below average and are still mighty cold;

Thus it seems likely the sculpture probably slid off the iceberg when it tipped/flipped something like this:

or this

or this

Mega hat tip to WUWT reader “Just the Facts”, who gathered most of the content and links and placed them in comments.