Regular readers may recall that back on June 15th, I pointed out the absurdity of this “Row to the Pole” publicity stunt sponsored by the whisky company “Old Pulteney” which had plans to row to the North Magnetic Pole (based on the 1996 location) and along the way take some temperature, water, and ice samples along the way in the guise of a science expedition.
Only problem was, the North Magnetic Pole is far into the Arctic sea now, and ice locked. The destination they chose for “Row to the Pole” hasn’t been the location of the North Magnetic Pole for 15 years, as I illustrated below, they’ll fall about 738 km/458 miles short of the North Magnetic Pole due to a drift of about 41km/year:
Undeterred by this complication, the group of rowers has set off anyway, and made some good progress according to their Facebook page, covering 40 kilometers on the first day. They even offer a satellite tracking page to watch the progress.
Too bad though they have not checked the latest satellite images from NASA’s AQUA Modis RAPIDFIRE page. I did, and it looks like the expedition is going to hit a wall of ice
soon.
Here’s the area I chose to look at today from this NASA image link=>
I rotated/cropped, plotted the approximate proposed path, and annotated the image from NASA to help readers see what the Row to the Pole people are soon going to run into in a couple of days:
Note the patch of white in the red box that the planned rowing path transects. Are those clouds or ice? The magnified view area gives the answer below.
Yup, unless those guys in the rowboat have an icebreaker leading the way, or there’s an “instamelt” de-icing ahead of them, they likely aren’t going anywhere near the old North Magnetic Pole circa 1996, much less the actual one.
Looks like “Scotch on the Rocks” for them.
However, like any good publicity stunt, they’ll probably figure out some way to make a success out of it, perhaps declaring that “important though incomplete science has been done”.
Isn’t this stunt the perfect metaphor for Warmista climate science? Follow the science and it will lead you to disaster unless…unless…modern technology comes along to save you from the elements. And the argonauts? Fools on a fools journey. Yes, it reads like a play with “midsummer” in the title. Hansen, Schmidt, Trenberth, all of The Team, and others are rowing powerfully but drunkenly toward a disaster that all of their science could not forsee.
When has reality ever stood in their way? I’m looking forward to how this will turn out. Of course, I am worried for their safety and wish them well. Still, I would like to see their expressions when reality will not compromise. Also, I don’t care if portage betrays the point of global warming. I’ve portaged. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. They have a return trip as well. If they keep going, this will turn out real ugly I’m afraid.
Hmmm … I’ve never tried tape …
.
It looks like all their grand plans may be scotched……;-)
Isn’t alcohol anti-freeze? maybe Ole Puteney plans to spray their product ahead of the canoe to clear the way!! They will then send in reporters to take the reactions of the local polar bears and seals to their product!! 8>)
The Arctic sea ice loss is clearly sluggish these days:
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/icecover/icecover_current.png
Let’s see if they can beat HMS Investigator
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2010/08/ship-find-shows-arctic-sea-ice.html
I think they actually left a couple of days ahead of schedule, perhaps due to pack ice drifting north toward their start point … I wish them a safe return and I hope they don’t have to resort to cannibalism.
Just The Facts says:
July 31, 2011 at 7:51 pm
The infrared selection on the Arctic for the link you gave me says this stunt (ahem…expedition) is ill-fated.
T minus 4 hours 48 minutes to STEREO BEHIND roll to Elenin.
I’m sure the story will read ‘Rowers fail to reach Magnetic North Pole due to weather conditions.’
Weather conditions being a sea of ice.
I believe their destination island is called Ellef Ringnes Island.
hopefully, they’ll avoid the wildfires…
28 July: Nature: Carbon loss from an unprecedented Arctic tundra wildfire
Michelle C. Mack,1 M. Syndonia Bret-Harte,2 Teresa N. Hollingsworth,3 Randi R. Jandt,4 Edward A. G. Schuur,1 Gaius R. Shaver5 & David L. Verbyla6
Fire has been largely absent from most of this biome since the early Holocene epoch3, but its frequency and extent are increasing, probably in response to climate warming…
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7357/full/nature10283.html
ABC already alarmed…
28 July: ABC Australia: Arctic wildfires: both symptom and cause of global warming
(Michelle Mack quotes)
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3279743.htm
Top Gear was smarter.
They drove.
With Gin and Tonics.
The worse thing about this whole trip is that they have a BBC Cameraman on this trip…..
Says it all really
Why didn’t they just drive there – like the Top Gear crew?
Ian H says: “I’m sure the story will read ‘Rowers fail to reach Magnetic North Pole due to weather conditions.’ Weather conditions being a sea of ice.”
Which, as we all know, is caused by [drum roll] Global Warming.
/snark
They sailed West and they sailed East
Their ship on oceans of ice did freeze
Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe
Was the only one that ever came through
In Baffin Bay where the whale fishes blow
The fate of Franklin no man may know
The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell
Franklin alone with his sailors do dwell
‘Lord Franklin’
_Jim says:
“Hmmm … I’ve never tried tape …”
3M is the best, much less bitter than that cheap Chinese import. A good cellophane after dinner goes well with stamps. A good weekend tape is duct, and pretty much any maker can get that right… well, usually. For this category I recommend Gorilla™ since it has the staying power of the old school duct tapes.
At least they’ll have plenty of ice for the whisky!!
Getting blind drunk they’ll be doing us all a favour.
I suggest that anyone wanting to save the world via single malt consumption does it with Laphroaig. You get a free square foot of the precious peat to save it from development. The rent of a dram must be collected in person (best to avoid the midge season).
With planing and navigational knowledge such as theirs they should take care they don’t fall off the edge of the world! Or maybe they have their very own bridge over troubled water?
I hope someone has thrown a few dead polar bears in front of the rowers just to fulfill their “spiritual” journey.
The amount of people that get free vacations by pretending to be saving the planet is incredible. Just a false pretense in global warming will just about get you anything you want nowadays for free.
Yet it is the taxpayer or the owner of a commerical ship that will pick up the bill when these numpties send out an SOS.
So if they have to be rescued off the ice, can we send the bill for that to all the leading AGW theorists? After all, they should bear the responsibility for making these people believe that the Arctic would be ice free enough to row to the North Pole or whatever they believe to be the North Pole is.
The BBC program Top Gear drove there, well Clarkson et al did, plus a film crew and the program did show the GPS position at end of trip at the NMP.
Whisky and the sea is a good combination. When sailing on the North Sea (in me younger days) the ‘tot for the crew’ at 11 and at 4 were a potent preventor of seasickness. And very enjoyable too.
Whisky and ice, however, is near to sacrilege. I never met a Scotsman who took his dram other than straight or with a little bit of water in it, to bring out the flavour of in particular the peaty malts of the Western (Scottish) isles. So, I wonder how the association of Old Pulteney with this expedition will go down in Scotland.