I thought when I saw the Catlin expedition and their faked biotelemetry on their website I had seen the epitome of stupid when it comes to polar publicity stunts. I was wrong.
Enter the new candidate:
Not only is it pointless, but misleading to nearly (see update below) the point of pushing a lie with the expedition name. Why?
Well you see they know they can’t make it to the real north pole at 90N, 0W, since there will be a formidable ice pack they won’t be able to row through. So what do they do? They aim for the magnetic pole and will tweet some caterwauling about the northwest passage being open (maybe) along the way.
Look at the proposed route:
I had to laugh though, when I clicked “The science” link on the homepage and read what the scientific justification was. Its as if nobody ever took salinity and temperature measurements in the Arctic before. Here’s what they say:
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A chance for gathering ‘world first’ data
The extreme weather conditions and its remoteness make field research in the Arctic difficult, so chances to gather data are relatively rare. That is why The Old Pulteney Row To The Pole voyage provides a vital opportunity to conduct much needed research.
David Mans, one of the crew, is an oceanographer and he will be leading the science programme to capture data on the open water crossed during the expedition. This will be first data captured from these waters and will provide a base line for all future studies.
Using specialist equipment, David will be measuring the salinity and temperature of the water at different depths. This data will then be sent to the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton where it will help researchers piece together a more detailed picture of the changing Arctic.
Once processed, the data will be useful for modellers seeking to project the pace and pattern of changes which are likely to occur in the future: not only in the Arctic, but in other parts of the world.
How the research will be undertaken?
- Data will be collected every 10 nautical miles throughout the voyage.
- A small probe, is lowered into the water down to a depth of 50 metres
- The probe will be lowered over the side around 8 times a day
- The probe will measure the conductivity, temperature and depth levels of the water
- The probe’s readings will be recorded along with the exact location from the vessel’s GPS system at each sampling position
- Boat GPS system accurately
records the location.
- The probe is lowered over the side of the boat
on a line released from a drum.
- As the probe descends it measures the conductance of the water,
indicating salinity and records the water temperature at each depth.
- The probe can take measurements every few metres
down to 50 metres or more.
With temperatures down to minus 15 degrees Centigrade, this will be hard and sometimes painful work to undertake as wet equipment in these temperatures can quickly freeze over.
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Gosh, “data useful for modelers”. And how do they reconcile this statement on the science page:
With temperatures down to minus 15 degrees Centigrade, this will be hard and sometimes painful work to undertake as wet equipment in these temperatures can quickly freeze over.
With this one at the top of the very same science page:
This once ice locked destination is going through rapid change as Global warming brings a great thaw to the region.
Hmmm. Too much Old Pulteney when they wrote this?
With the ‘world first’ data, I suppose this means the data gathered by NOAA drifting buoys and webcams since 2002 aren’t useful for modelers?
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/gallery_np.html
They actually start at the true North pole and relay thousands of data points as opposed to the few hundred points at best the row boaters might gather on the way to the magnetic pole.
In fact, there’s a whole bunch of satellite linked buoys in the Arctic operated by the US Military via the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory:
They measure data at depth too.
And then there’s the International Arctic Buoy Programme, which has a number of satellite linked buoys measuring sea water temperature and salinity, much closer to the actual North Pole:
So when the rowboat guys say:
A chance for gathering ‘world first’ data
I have to wonder what the “world first” aspect of the data is. It might be they mean this:
“Worlds first Arctic data gathered by a bunch of guys in a rowboat on a publicity stunt”
In case anybody thinks this isn’t a publicity stunt, meet the sponsor showcased on this page, http://www.rowtothepole.com/the-whisky/ Old Pulteney:
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UPDATE: I didn’t see this, because I was focused on the route map, but our sharp readers did. Not only is the expedition pointless, it’s now an outright lie. They aren’t even going to the North Magnetic Pole!
Under the route map, they say this:
The expedition to the Magnetic North Pole (as certified in 1996) will set off from Resolute Bay in July/August 2011, the crew plan to row for 450 miles before finally reaching the Magnetic North Pole at 78 degrees, 35.724 minutes North, 104 degrees, 11.915 minutes West.
From Wikipedia:
The Canadian government has made several measurements since, which show that the North Magnetic Pole is moving continually northwestward. In 1996 an expedition certified its location by magnetometer and theodolite at
78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W / 78.595°N 104.1983°W / 78.595; -104.1983 (Magnetic North Pole 1996).[8] Its estimated 2005 position was
Even drunken sailors could get closer than this:
I have to chuckle at all the science they plan to do on this expedition. I have been on scientific expeditions in Arctic, navigating the open ocean north of 80 degrees latitude near Spitzbergen in a two-person kayak. It was sheer survival. Luckily, I was doing my science on land and only using the boat to get from place to place. I can’t imagine days on end in a small boat under those conditions trying to take measurements, while your puking!
Please excuse, but this bears repeating:
Buffy Minton says:
June 15, 2011 at 3:45 pm
I spent 2 months last year somewhat north (81 degrees) doing CTDs (conductivity temperature depth) down to about 3000 metres from a research vessel, so I’m not sure what is unique or interesting about a dodgy 50m profile from a rowing boat but…hey…they’re saving the world. The word “wankers” really is in context here.
That’s right WANKERS (oh hell, that’s a pejorative – go ahead, shoot me).
My poor, misguided children. Who could have put you up to such ice folly?
In the UK such people are commonly known as a bunch of wankers or sad gits. 😉 When they make it back home they will tell delusional people how they hugged the sad polar bears in the tropical waters.
■Data will be collected every 10 nautical miles throughout the voyage.
■A small probe, is lowered into the water down to a depth of 50 metres
■The probe will be lowered over the side around 8 times a day
■The probe will measure the conductivity, temperature and depth levels of the water
■The probe’s readings will be recorded along with the exact location from the vessel’s GPS system at each sampling position
I can see it now…
“Dang-it, boys! We’ve been rowing for days and it’s still only 50 meters deep!”
“Well you see they know they can’t make it to the real north pole at 0N, 0W, since there will be a formidable ice pack they won’t be able to row through.”
Just a quick correction; the North Pole is actually 90N, isn’t it?
REPLY: Yup, thanks for catching the typo, dropped the 9
I still think they are idiots, but their choice of the 1996 magnetic pole is probably influenced by that being the Top Gear destination, and the destination of the annual Polar Challenge which is a race to the 1996 magnetic north on skis.
Before Moderate Republican (@ur momisugly June 15, 2011 at 5:22 pm) put their foot in their mouth, I was going to say how interesting it was so few people ‘troll’ threads like this. And by this, I mean, something so amazingly stupid from the AGW alliance one cannot possibly defend it’s relevance to science!
Taco Bell had a great publicity stunt when the MIR crashed into the ocean, this thing by Pulteney reminds me of the same sort of thing.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=4152
“Taco Bell has created a 40 by 40-foot target, painted with a Bell bull’s-eye and bold purple letters stating: “Free Taco Here.” The floating target will be placed in the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia in advance of Mir’s descent.
“Taco Bell is capturing the imagination of millions of people as they eagerly await Mir’s return to earth,” said Chris Becker, vice president of brand communications, Taco Bell Corp. “If Mir rings our bell, we will offer a free taco to everyone in the U.S.,” added Becker. “
The end of a magnet which points (roughly) north is historically known as the “north pole” of the magnet, and the other end is known as the magnet’s “south pole”. Because opposite poles attract, the Earth’s South Magnetic Pole is physically actually a Magnetic North Pole. This means the “Row to the North Pole” crew are really rowing to the Magnetic South Pole which is the magnetic pole in the North instead of the Magnetic North Pole which is in the South …
.
Robert F. Scott’s expedition ended in tragedy, and Roald Amundsen won the race to the pole, because, in part, Scott disguised a chase for glory as a scientific enterprise. Scott wasted time collecting rocks when he could have been making time to or from the pole to the safety of base camp. The punchline to Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s __The Worst Journey in the World__, about a second prong of Scott’s expedition, to collect the eggs of the Emperor penguin, was that, after years, no one bothered to dissect the eggs that they collected at the cost of so much suffering. The science was a pathetic front for Scott’s grandstanding. Kinda like the space shuttle and NASA or this “row to the pole”.
They must have been drinking mass quantities of that stuff to come up with this stupid stunt.
I hope they wreck on an iceberg and have to be rescued. Idiots….
And they will find mushy ice like Barnard did.
I see in the photo that they are all in T-shirts so I don’t think their equipment is going freeze too soon?!
sophocles said: “The end of a magnet which points (roughly) north is historically known as the “north pole” of the magnet, and the other end is known as the magnet’s “south pole”. Because opposite poles attract, the Earth’s South Magnetic Pole is physically actually a Magnetic North Pole. This means the “Row to the North Pole” crew are really rowing to the Magnetic South Pole which is the magnetic pole in the North instead of the Magnetic North Pole which is in the South.”
I’ll have to ask you for a reference for that. I had always assumed that a magnetized compass arrow took all that into account. IOW, the south pole of the arrow is the one pointing north.
Data will be collected every 10 nautical miles throughout the voyage.
The probe will be lowered over the side around 8 times a day
8 times a day every 10 miles (I’ll assume US miles, not Nautical miles which are longer) means they aim to row 80 miles a day. In no wind and flat seas on a straight line that’s 8mph for 10 hours. I doubt if a laden row boat does more then 5 mph. Then if it takes 30 minutes to take a reading that’s a 14 hour day in sub-zero(deg C) seas. Now add islands and icebergs and open leads that head in every direction but the one they want and consider bitter cold head winds and the time needed to cook and consume 8,000+ calories a day (just to stay alive) and I don’t see 8 readings as achievable unless they stop regardless of where they are.
Probably end up with 8 a day, but over a very randon set of distances! Looks like simple arithmetic is already too much for these intrepid explorers.
Comments above reminded me of Spike Milligan in the Goon show in a sketch where they were marooned in a lifeboat: “They rowed for days and days, until one day they found an outboard motor under a thwart. So they rowed with that instead!”
Has anyone shown that an ice free north pole is actually a bad thing?
I actually see a pedagogical value in the expedition. Let them freeze their buns off learning how cold the Arctic really is even in midsummer. The only downside is giving a good scotch a bad name. That is unforgivable!
Jimbo says:
June 15, 2011 at 5:33 pm
My poor, misguided children. Who could have put you up to such ice folly?
In the UK such people are commonly known as a bunch of wankers or sad gits. 😉 When they make it back home they will tell delusional people how they hugged the sad polar bears in the tropical waters.
The correct terminology is actually “Plonkers”
The fact that they claim to be academics actually emphasizes the point.
Pray for the polar bears, Should these fools be eaten, the polar bears may catch a loathsome disease!
(Hey guys! It’s a JOKE!)
What these fools are doing is dangerous. Lots of people have died exploring the arctic and they were much better equiped. I expect that they will abort when they find out the inconvienent truth (it is really, really, unpleasantly cold), or will put themselves at real risk and expect the world come to their rescue.
This has been around before, but it encapsulates the subject. (The Love of My Life says it freaks her out, but then she is just a girl.) If you watch closely, you can see similarties between him and the Goracle.
http://www.pieheaven.net/2009/11/21/tiny-tim-the-ice-caps-are-melting/
Steamboat Jack (Jon Jewett’s evil twin.)
How sad! A few years ago, we’d have all immediately recognized this as the joke I sure hope it is.
If they drink a bottle of Scotch in 18 nips along the way they can claim the world’s first Arctic Aqua Golf Course …
“This will be first data captured from these waters and will provide a base line for all future studies.”
I guess they’re working from the old Buddhist saying that you can’t step on the same river twice. By that logic, that specific water at 50 meters probably never has been measured.(along with 99.99999% of the rest of the water in the ocean. You can’t be too esoteric to push this stuff.
Colin Porter says:
June 15, 2011 at 4:26 pm
“As a once proud Brit, may I apologise in advance to intelligent people around the world for this latest stunt, which follows those of other “intrepid” British explorers, Pugh in his kayak and Pen Hadow’s Catlin Expeditions.
I feel deeply ashamed that a once great exploring nation with its great history in scientific endeavour, should these days be represented by these mirthful excuses for humanity, not just once, but for the last four consecutive years.”
Societies decay from the top. True, we used to be calm, outward looking and extrovert. Now we’re an island of aggressive, psycho babbling, intense and inward looking creatures.
I don’t know how this came about, but all societies turn to barbarity at some stage. Barbarity in the sense of Matthew Arnold’s definition – Absence of culture and civilization – along the lines of “Shameless”
Frank sociological rant over
David L says:
June 15, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Has anyone shown that an ice free north pole is actually a bad thing?
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In the world of left wing lies and their related internet myths and mainstream media BS, of course it’s a bad thing. So shut the f*** up and pay your taxes to them would ya.
Meanwhile in the actual real world, has anyone noticed how many people actually look out of the window on a transatlantic flight over the Arctic ?? It’s usually approximately one on the numerous flights I’ve taken (me – and I have photographs to prove it). The crap movie usually takes precedence over 12 seconds of viewing this so wondrous and valuable planetary asset.
Jeremy says:
Oh here we go, here come the vitriolic debates about having a little water with your scotch…
No debate, I take mine neat. 😀