UPDATE: BBC (and now the Independent) commit the same FAIL. See below.
More “Row to the Pole” nonsense writ large:
Ummmm…no, Mr. Hough, the Telegraph’s headline and story are simply wrong. You are a victim of spin and/or a failed geography lesson.
First congratulations, to the RttP team for reaching their destination, which is not a pole of any kind, much less the actual “North Pole”. I didn’t think they would make it.
As I explained before the trip even started, there’s no “pole” achievement here, not even close. They are 738 KM short of the actual magnetic pole. The 1996 magnetic pole doesn’t exist there anymore and thus can’t be a pole of any kind.
The Telegraph article says:
The successful trip to the Pole, described as the “greatest ocean rows of all time”, was only possible because of more seasonal ice-melt in the Arctic that has opened the waters up.
No mention of the fact that they aren’t even close. The actual North pole is 790 miles away:
The FAIL is strong with this one. h/t to reader “Angry Exile”
And the BBC is in on the act of shoddy journalism too:
Kitefreak says:
BBC reporting that the Pultney rowing expedition has reached “the north pole”. Reported on Radio Scotland at 8am (main news bulletin) and on the news website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937
Absolutely no mention on the radio or the website that it’s the magnetic north pole from ’96, no, they just say the folks have rowed TO THE NORTH POLE.
Pure propaganda.
UPDATE: The BBC commits the same FAIL here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9573000/9573302.stm
What a bunch of liars.
UPDATE2: The load of porkies continues…now the Independent repeats the lie.
Mustn’t dilute the message with facts now, must we.
There was too much ice for them to actually row to their arbitrary destination, they had to drag their boats across the ice.
Talk about being poles apart 😉
Geographical ignorance knows no bounds. Distortions abound.
Did they happen to report that they had seen father Christmas as I always understood that he resided at the North Pole?
Congratulations to the rowers, a mighty achievement even though they are a long way from the m. pole. Will they ‘fess up to the fact on return? Typical sloppy UK reporting.
Do they intend rowing back or are they to be airlifted out before the nasty weather starts?
What a joke, ok they rowed north, had a fun adventure but in no way went to the “North Pole”
Congrats for getting funding for this adventure and succeding in your goal, but to dress this as proof of global warming is a lie on the scale of the hocky stick!
So they had to drag that boat across sections of ice, which means that they did not row all the way, they walked for some of it on ice… and where they ended up was not the North Pole, nor the current magnetic North Pole, So it was not a Row to the pole in any way, shape or form.
Hmmmp!
“trust our journalist, with the highest integrity” …./sarc off…
I don’t know what it is they’re all shoveling, but it sure isn’t white.
‘The father-of-two captained the team that broke the London to Paris rowing record in 1999 and walked unsupported to the North Pole in 1992’
Speaking by satellite phone the Dumfries-born adventurer and motivational speaker added:
” Arrgh, back in ’92 ah dropped me wallet but ah cudney find it, so me ‘n’ me mates went back far another loook!”
/ misquote
The Telegraph photo produced above shows ice in the background, lots of it and it looks old thick ice. Couldn’t the group produce a photo of them rowing in a boat in a sea with at least a few ice floes, if not a clear blue sea totally devoid of ice? Where is the ice-free Arctic ocean they rowed in?
You must always leave out information that would only confuse people. It is important to do what is necessary to achieve the proper outcome. %^P
It’s the new kind of air brush don’t ya know. If Julia Roberts can look flawless (and lifeless by the way) with an air brush on the digital photo, by gawd AGW can be air brushed too…and thus look equally lifeless.
As Kate would say – time to juxtapose:
“after the ice caps melted”
“sea level hits a pothole”
The comments button is conspicuous in its absence in this Aug. 26th Telegraph article. The July 30th article has the comments button activated. Note the comments posted.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/8672330/Explorers-begin-attempt-to-row-to-North-Pole.html
Typical, just typical.
I heard a satellite phone interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today program in which the normally well-informed and probing interviewer was entirely bamboozled. Sadly I believe he was deliberately misled by the actual rowers and not just the promoters of the event. It is sad that people who have actually accomplished something genuinely remarkable feel the need to lie, or at least connive at a lie to make it seem even more remarkable. Why? Are there really no honorable people left? Are there no modest people left? The whole business leaves a vile taste.
Pure propaganda.
Well, duh. That was the whole point of this exercise from the beginning, and there was never any shortage of alarmist journalists waiting to report it with glee.
You can pass messages on to the Telegraph here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/form/
Misleading, yes, factually incorrect yes, blatant propoganda probably…..
Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story……….
In all fairness, this is the same “North Pole” that Jeremy Clarkson and James May drove to on Top Gear’s Polar Special.
“…in a journey that encountered polar bears, collisions with icebergs, and biting seals.”
How do you collide with an iceberg if you’re rowing?
Didn’t see it?
You’d think they could have swerved to miss it.
And doing it more than once?
What time does the earth cross the moons orbit as I want to walk to the moon.
Isn’t there a GB media ethics commission or something ?
They may have well stayed home and had a booze fueled party celebrating that they “aspired” to row to the pole in view of their 19th century accomplishment with 21st century technology.
Shame on their public relations abuse of the facts.
When somebody actually achieves the feat, rows to the pole, which likely was done already 1000 years ago by some unsung Norse hero who paid no never mind to it, then this failed event will be unwound for the fraud that it is.
Watch our so called “press” lie all about this.
I suppose the truth is a bit boring.
“We rowed to an island!”…..
er? Okay….
” it used to be a pole, you know!”…..
er, righto……
” we sorta didn’t row all the way though, we kinda dragged it a ways…..”
Mmm’kay…..
“It was really hard work….”
Zzzz zzz zzz……
……;-)
Why not counter with a “Skate from London to New York” to warn of the coming Ice Age. With similar spin, and the use of some ice arenas along the way, it would be easy.
Maybe CCM or Bauer would be interested in sponsoring?
Actually, the “MOOT” is stronger than the “FAIL”.
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=08&fd=23&fy=1979&sm=08&sd=23&sy=2011
With the area that they traversed being open in the summer with large areas of sea-ice in the arctic, they might as well rowed to the equator. The same arctic area was open 32 years ago, so I would not even congratulate these rowing idiots.
Canada has some really good false advertising laws — maybe we can throw those whiskey merchants in the clink for a few days or months… I have asked for the reporter to be put on a watch list — we’re waiting. I can see him behind bars now…
They are moving quite slow right now. http://www.rowtothepole.com/satellite-tracking/ shows a speed of 0.03 knots to about 0.12 knots. If they are rowing then they are having a lot of ice around them or they are pulling the boat over the ice. I bet on pulling!
Could someone save them. They are for sure in trouble. Send an icebreaker!
It looks like they are trying to find open water or trying to get on land.
And the sun is shining at the North pole? What date was that picture taken?
If the purpose of this publicity stunt was to sell whiskey. I’d say they probably succeeded. Beyond that I do not see this achieving much. That said, it still would have been fun to participate.
Yep – usual sloppy journalism.
Not only did they not ‘row’ a lot of the way – the boat was equipped with skids to enable it to be dragged like a sled – but it was the ‘magnetic’ Pole which they reached – which keeps moving anyway.
Looking at the satellite-generated graphs from the varous scientific organisations which monitor it, the sea ice extent seems not a lot different this year from any other year – but then no story like this would be complete without the ‘we couldn’t have done it without climate change’ phrase….
I go to my local Barbour every month for a haircut. He has a barbour-pole outside his place, perhaps I should alert the BBC and they can write a story saying people can now drive to the ‘pole’ because of Anthropogenic climate change.
At least the BBC website now says it was the 1996 magnetic pole they reached. But no context, so most folk will probably have no idea how far away it from today’s magnetic pole and will likley assume it’s near to the real pole as well. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937
Seems to me most of the folks here are missing the point.
This trip was an ad-venture for Old Pulteney.
It seems to have been very successful. I only wonder what this will do to sales and does the company have enough to meet demand. Next question: what will be their next stunt?
Reminds me of the Tao of Pooh. Pooh sets out for the North Pole, and finds a pole lying on the ground which becomes the “North Pole”.
The BBC article now begins:
“A rowing expedition has reached the 1996 location of the magnetic North Pole in a bid to highlight the effect of climate change in the region.”
Prior to the expedition Mr Wishart had explained the reasons behind undertaking the challenge.
“It is only possible because of the melting ice in the polar regions,” he said.
“Whether this is cyclical, whether this is because we are pumping too much CO2 into the atmosphere, it is happening nonetheless.
“We want to demonstrate to people there’s a problem up there.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937
—————————————————————————————
Well, if “this is cyclical” why is there “a problem up there”?
Also it would have been a lot quicker, cheaper and easier in a rib, which again would “only possible because of the melting ice in the polar regions”. But ain’t got the kudos I suppose.
At least the BBC website got it right – for once!
“A rowing expedition has reached the 1996 location of the magnetic North Pole in a bid to highlight the effect of climate change in the region”
“Remarkably, the final two miles was the first and only ice blockage which they had to trek across.”
— from their website. They don’t say whether this was because they turned back when they met other icefields earlier.
Also, they do admit that it was the 1996 magnetic pole on their website.
I walked to The South Pole once in a t-shirt and shorts …. Mind you it was “The South Pole” pub in County Kerry, Ireland. The beer was cold.
‘Mark Twain’: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed”.
Jit says:
August 26, 2011 at 9:03 am
“Also, they do admit that it was the 1996 magnetic pole on their website.”
Why didn’t they tell the Telegraph?
The Failograph cannot even find a new picture of The Intrepid Ones – they’ve re-use the same picture from Jul 30 when this ‘adventure’ commenced.
I would venture that nothing more than a snow machine in a (otherwise) disused North London warehouse was employed here. Must further assume that Titter and Boogle realised the fraud ages ago and stopped their accounts, hence the old photo
The story reminds me of Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark’. The hunting party uses a map of the Oceans, which is a blank sheet of paper. Some lines from the poem:
“What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators,
Tropics, Zones and Meridian Lines?”
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply,
“They are merely conventional signs!”
If their purpose was to sell Whiskey, I for one would never buy that brand again. Not that I am a whiskey drinker. I am all for unusual adventures, but this one was just pure bs crap. They banned me from posting on their facebook page. I never said anything bad.
Moving the goalposts.
800 miles.
Classic.
Science: FAIL
Journalism: FAIL
I need whiskey.
“Old Pulteney?”
“No, Rotgut.”
Did they have to drag the boat across large sections of ice?
Due to the recent run of Man made climate change promotion from it’s blindly accepting proponents in the media, I’m actually not that impressed by this stunt at all.
Looks like good 4 meter ice behind them. they should be able to walk the next 250K.
If these kids really wanted to do a First, they should row to North Pole in Colorado Springs, home of Santa’s Workshop. It has been there over fifty years, much longer than that magnetic pole hangs out in one spot. Who knows how many thousands of people have driven Subarus and Edsels to this North Pole, or have biked, walked, parachuted, and perhaps even skied there. But they would most certainly be the first to row there.
Not sure what rowing up Highway 24 would have to do with global warming, though.
Here are the north pole LIVE web cam Images, the team of heroic explorers are nowhere to be seen.
LATEST IMAGE: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/npole/2011/images/noaa1-2011-0826-121836.jpg
ALL IMAGES for the 25th – 26th of August 2011 http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/npole/gallery_np_selectall.php
Thats that then LOL
They did make it to the North (magnetic) Pole.
15 years late! 😉
“John F. Hultquist says:
August 26, 2011 at 8:49 am
Seems to me most of the folks here are missing the point.
This trip was an ad-venture for Old Pulteney.”
Seems to me I’m complaining to the advertising standards authority about misleading advertising.
I think the big story is the invention of the time machine. How else could they get back to 1996?
I just walked to the North Pole in my shorts… I’m sure that sometime in the History of the Earth, the North Pole was located in Cincinnati…
Mike McMillan says:
August 26, 2011 at 8:21 am
“…in a journey that encountered polar bears, collisions with icebergs, and biting seals.”
How do you collide with an iceberg if you’re rowing?
Didn’t see it? […]”
Don’t drink and row.
Besides, they were facing backwards.
And the real magnetic pole messed with their compass.
Plus the runners on the bottom made it hard to steer.
And they only had one pickaxe to chop ice ahead of the boat.
And…
;o)
David Schofield,
Complaining to the advertising standards authority seems a good idea.
However for a case of Scotch I could keep quiet!
PS what are they doing with the canoe/sledge? because if we get a mini iceage next it might come in handy.
A geography test for beginners, Mr Hough: click
Well, here his email address is. Is it best to send just one email politely saying he was punked?
Or everyone email expressing dissapointment over the shoddy journalisim.
andrew.hough@telegraph.co.uk
so in effect, they are approximately half way there, from their starting point, and have another 458 miles to get to the Magnetic north pole.
Seems like they have given up before they started, and only set themselves a previous destination to fool themselves of a success.
I was in Greenwich today, and crossed the meridian, thus claiming the feat of walking across 2 time zones in less than 5 seconds
sent to andrew.hough@telegraph.co.uk
My dearest Andrew,
Your story on the Old Pulteney rowing expedition was entertaining to some degree, but outright wrong.
These intrepid British Explorers didn’t row to any pole, magnetic or otherwise. A bar named the North Pole, perhaps, but nothing geographic. They didn’t even come close.
They saw some bears, they saw some seals, they ate some ham. Big deal. If they’re lying about
where the North Pole is, or don’t even know where it really is, I’m doubtful that anyone who does will grant them any credibility when it comes to climate science.
They should stick to drinking whiskey, something they do know about. Even if it isn’t even good whiskey.
Meanwhile, I’d suggest a few lessons in geography for you. If you claim to have gone somewhere, you should actually GO there. If you report that someone went somewhere, you should know they actually did.
They didn’t. Not even close.
Jock Wishart, as quoted in Telegraph article:
It’s understandable, given today’s journalistic standards, that the Telegraph reporter would not know the difference between the NP and where they actually went. However, it’s amazing that Wishart himself shares this delusion!
In the article he admits that they had to drag the boat the last several miles.
Did you know RttP has even its own Wikipedia page?
Well, well a nice parable to global warming isn’t it? The row to the North Pole is as true as Global Warming.
Thinking….If they’re off by 500 or 800 miles from where the Pole really is, they just might be off by .1 deg C of where the warming is.
I hope next year’s Old Pulteney advertising adventure is not “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Al Gore warns us that it is millions of degrees down there.
You folks are a little too hard on these men. Haven’t any of you had a small dram too much of Old Pulteney (or any libation) and not been sure exactly where you were? Come on fess up.
The magnetic north pole has moved around a lot over 4 billion years. Some of us can probably drive or walk to a piece of land where the magnetic north pole used to be.
I like this picture of them “rowing”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/26/british-crew-row-north-pole
Magnetic Pole should be where the total field is the strongest, and since the 1990s that is Central Siberia
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/data/mag_maps/pdf/F_map_mf_2010.pdf
So Russians have it.
Magnetic needle inclination is just average of the Central Siberia and the Hudson Bay field. Siberia intensity is gaining fast on the Hudson Bay, and that may have important implication for the Arctic temperatures which faithfully mimics the evolution of the magnetic field in the area.
No, magnetic field is not driver of the temperature in the area, that honour belongs to the Arctic currents. Is there link between two? It remains to be seen.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/NFC1.htm
A reason good enough to get science (it is on the move ) correctly, until the science is settled, that is!
I found one of the photographs the expedition took of some of the polar bears they spotted….
http://viad.tv/img/2011/07/Pepsi-vs-Coca-Cola-Polar-Bear-Summer-Time-is-Pepsi-Time.jpg
They’re all holding Pepsi’s!
A tiny bit off topic, but look at the word frequency of words like “arctic” http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=arctic Polar, Frozen, I suppose you could think of a lot of them, and notice the spike in the little ice age…
Lars P says: “The row to the North Pole is as true as Global Warming.”
Our mistake is that this expedition is not the “equilibrium row to the pole”. When positive feedback plays out to its full extent, model simulations predict that in 50 years they will reach the pole and continue north from there. The models may be too conservative – so no point arguing.
I recall a couple of years ago, Jeremy Clarkson DROVE to the north pole in a ‘top gear’ stunt.
Watts up with that?
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/26/british-crew-row-north-pole
“British crew become first to row to magnetic north pole”
The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/british-team-are-the-first-to-row-to-the-north-pole-2344427.html
“British team are the first to row to the North Pole”
“The successful trip to the Pole, described as the “greatest ocean rows of all time””
… The Polynesians rowed / sailed to Hawaii 1,700 years ago, possibly from the Marquesas Islands, over 2,000 miles away! No whiskey and no GPS, no b.s.!
I sent to the Old Pulteney Whiskey the following missive:
“I am very sad to note that Old Pulteney Whiskey is reaching a broad audience in the United States (and global) through a bad geography lesson and other public relations fabrications. The Row to the Pole effort did not row to the pole, nor were they ever even close to the pole. That is; unless people in Scotland call over 700 miles (1120 Km) close.
Just how close to 12 years old is that Scotch? As close as those stupid but intrepid RttP members were to the real or magnetic North Pole?
When one willingly subscribes to a globally broadcast falsehood, it is implied that the subscribing company is willing to use similar tactics throughout their organization.
Having MacDougal blood on my mothers side, I’ve always been proud of my Scottish heritage. I am saddened by the thought of the ridicule that Scotland will receive everywhere because either the Scotch are easily misled and monetarily fleeced or because they don’t know where the North Pole is.”
Old Pulteney Whiskey contact page:
http://www.oldpulteney.com/contact.php
Mike McMillan says: “…in a journey that encountered polar bears, collisions with icebergs, and biting seals.”
“How do you collide with an iceberg if you’re rowing? Didn’t see it? You’d think they could have swerved to miss it. And doing it more than once?”
Kind of like a stampede. How many cows does it take to have a stampede?
So what constitutes an iceberg? It’s just a piece of ice floating in the water. But I’ve never actually seen the specifications for how big it has to be before this floating chunk of ice is called an iceberg. Maybe they kept running into chunks of ice that were about the size of a gallon milk carton, and they’re calling those icebergs.
And how do you get bitten by a seal? Were they trying to pet it? Get close enough for an autograph?
Isn’t North Pole, Alaska near the Tatana river?Let’s row to North Pole Alaska via Beaver Springs Slough and eat at the Santa Claus-themes Wendy’s. I wonder if they serve mooseburgers too?
If Palin or Bachmann said this was the North Pole, the progressive Left would be apoplectic with giggles. 800 miles off?
Apparently, from the article they saw “around eight polar bears”!
With such priceless accuracy, no wonder they missed the correct destination (or maybe nobody was prepared to take their mittens off to count up properly).
Maybe though, it was just the one bear playing ‘peek-a-boo’ round the pack ice every now and again: those polar bears – I ask you, what are they like?
Should’ve taken vodka, not whiskey. Seals don’t like vodka.
Jordan says: “When positive feedback plays out to its full extent, model simulations predict that in 50 years they will reach the pole and continue north from there. The models may be too conservative – so no point arguing.”
These guys reached 78 degrees North. It is an achievement, but not the North Pole nor the magnetic North Pole. This is reality Jordan, I live in the real world not in a model.
Maybe it’s not really 12 year-old scotch either.
This is the subheading of the BBC article you attack. “A rowing expedition has reached the 1996 location of the magnetic North Pole in a bid to highlight the effect of climate change in the region.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937
It says: “Last updated at 09:11 GMT” Did they correct it? If so, it’s time to withdraw the attack.
Kitefreak says: “Absolutely no mention on the radio or the website that it’s the magnetic north pole from ’96, no, they just say the folks have rowed TO THE NORTH POLE. Pure propaganda.”
Maybe then, but now they do mention it.
Don’t expect a headline to be complete. Ever. Think about this one: “Phil Jones says there’s been no global warming since 1995.” Was that a complete and honest headline? Don’t think so…
No mention of the powerful outboard motor on the boat, which they used extensively and desperately early on when they almost got trapped in a bay by rapidly moving floes. So I guess we have to take their word that they never cheated and used it instead of their oars for the “real” progress to the Mag-Pole-That-Once-Was.
To be fair, Andrew Hough does have this in the version of the Telegraph that I have just read
“It was later pointed out by observers that the group had in fact reached the 1996 location of the pole. ”
Still not very good, though, is it ?
Wasn’t it ‘OP row to the Pole’ (however defined)
and NOT ‘OP tow to the Pole’?
Vince Causey says:
August 26, 2011 at 11:19 am
I recall a couple of years ago, Jeremy Clarkson DROVE to the north pole in a ‘top gear’ stunt.
Watts up with that?
Yes, in Toyota pickups in May 2007 (the year of the lowest ice extent of course). The same 1996 magnetic north pole, spooky!
It would have been worth reporting if they had replicated one of the “greatest ocean [small boat journeys] of all time”, and emulated Shackleton in 1916, who did it without the benefit of satnav, satellite phones, radios and aerial extraction. I would have had so much more respect for them if they had made sure their PR was truthful – UP FRONT.
For those who want to read a truly heroic tale of survival (in the Antarctic), I advise they read ‘South’ by Ernest Shackleton, who not only navigated three open boats to elephant Island, but went on, in the James Caird, to sail to South Georgia, 600 miles away. All by dead reckoning! He got all but three of his 58 team home, the majority of whom immediately enlisted for action in WWI, where three more lost their lives.
Rowed to the North Pole? Pah!!!!
Some European says:
August 26, 2011 at 12:42 pm
“This is the subheading of the BBC article you attack. “A rowing expedition has reached the 1996 location of the magnetic North Pole in a bid to highlight the effect of climate change in the region.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937
It says: “Last updated at 09:11 GMT” Did they correct it? If so, it’s time to withdraw the attack.”
So, as soon as the BBC corrects a mistake, everyone who noticed the mistake has to pretend there never was one? “Some European”, you are not only the most gullible person i ever read, but also the most Orwellian.
A good friend’s daughter, 21 years old and supposedly very smart, triumphantly exclaimed to me that the Row to the Pole expedition had reached the north pole, because the way was cleared by global warming. She constantly disbelieves me when I correct her inaccutrate beliefs (greater weather severity, malaria becoming more widespread, temperatures higher than ever before, etc., etc.). When I countered her on this, she actually called me a liar!
She is a polar bear lamenting, internal combustion engine driving, sunny Mexico vacationing and imported designer label wearing Goraphile. Stupid AND disrespectful.
A sailing ship got farther north. These folks should check history on ice extent.
A sailing ship got farther north.
In 1874, the Alert was converted for Arctic exploration. The original engines were removed and replaced by a set of Hawthorn compounds, she was reboilered to 60 pounds per sq. inch and the armament was superseded by a token battery of four Armstrong breach loaders. The hull was strengthened with felt covered iron, the whole being sheathed with teak above water, and Canadian elm and pitch-pine below. Thus encumbered, the Alert was hardly a racehorse. In May, 1875, under Captain George Nares, and with Commander A. H. Markham as second in command, she sailed for the Arctic in company with HMS Discovery.
The ship herself reached 82 deg. North latitude, a remarkable effort, and Markham took a sledge party to 83 deg. 20 26″ North, the highest latitude reached by man up till that time. This was a great feat of leadership and endurance as the group was stopped by an outbreak of scurvy and was lucky to get back with only one death. On their return Nares was knighted and Markham was promoted to captain.
Lars P
Excuse my little joke. It was meant to poke fun at people who accept the predictions of models. Like reaching the pole in 50 years, and continuing north from there ….
I note (surprise, surprise) that comments are not allowed on either The Telegraph or The Independent websites for this (non-)story.
Snotrocket says:
August 26, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Agree, Captain Bligh also of course.
Bligh reached Timor after a 47-day voyage, 3,618 nautical miles (6,701 kms) the only casualty being the crewman killed on Tofua. (Wiki but I think it’s accurate). All this in open boats, an astounding achievement.
As I have said many times before, the BBC will never reform and curb its propaganda until we divert 50% of its ‘government’ grant into Channel 4. Not that I love Channel 4, but at least their documentaries are more cutting edge than anything the Biased Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) would contemplate.
Why Channel 4? Well, I don’t know if you all know, but Channel 4 (a commercial station) is actually 100% owned by the UK government.
.
@Lord Beaverbrook says: August 26, 2011 at 8:03 am
I’ll have to remember the “/misquote” tag – haven’t seen it before, & I like it!
>>Snotty
>>It would have been worth reporting if they had replicated one of the
>>“greatest ocean [small boat journeys] of all time”, and emulated Shackleton
>>in 1916, who did it without the benefit of satnav, satellite phones, radios
>>and aerial extraction.
Come, come, now Snotty, that’s history – the BBC wouldn’t know anything about that. And even if they did they would cover it up – we cannot have Brits looking heroic and as though they were conquering the world, you know. Tut, tut….. Oh, not unless Shackleton’s crew could be shown as multicultural. Where did their cat come from?
.
I’m gonna row to the Moon, to advertize moonshine.
Trip to old location of magnetic pole made possible by climate change?
How is the location of the magnetic pole in any way influenced by climate change?
I keep picturing these journalists as Basil on the British TV show “Fawlty Towers” having one of those hilarious ‘telephone conversations’ where you only see his side of it…. and some invisible person on the other side trying to get him to understand they only got to where the pole was in 1996, and yes, the pole actually moves, and no, no one picks it up and moves it… yes, it changes location every year, and so on… and poor Basil utterly unable to understand the concept as it goes so against the grain of general education, but he finally gets it, then tries to comprehend that it’s now actually over 700 km towards Siberia, which of course generates outbursts about not bringing the Russians into the story…then tries to figure out how to explain this to readers, along with the fact that they towed the boat part of the way (“what, Jesus came and pulled it across the water for them?? No, THEY pulled it across ICE? I thought this was ROW to the pole!”)…. with him finally giving up, throwing his hands up, and saying he’ll just report that they rowed to the pole in this miraculous achievement, because no one will know the difference anyhow and slamming the phone down in anger.
It sounds like Orwellian speak on a road trip.
In 1973 avant guard musician and artist Laurie Anderson hitchhiked to within 200 miles of the north pole. “I had decided to hitchhike so one day I just walked out to Houston Street, weighted down with seventy pounds of gear, and stuck out my thumb. “Going north?” I asked the driver, as I struggled into his station wagon.” http://www.elijahwald.com/hitchquotes.html
http://www.csuchico.edu/~jalexander/Sound_Vision/Reading/LAnderson.pdf
They’re already planning next years expedition……..
..Rowing to the South Pole!
Oakgeo,
“She is a polar bear lamenting, internal combustion engine driving, sunny Mexico vacationing and imported designer label wearing Goraphile. Stupid AND disrespectful.”
Good thing you posted under a pseudonym then 🙂
How is dragging a boat over the ice ‘rowing’?
“British Explorers Row Almost Half Way To The North Pole” just doesn’t have that ring, does it? Maybe Ol’ Putney should only pay them half.
“The successful trip to the Pole, described as the “greatest ocean rows of all time”, was only possible because of more seasonal ice-melt in the Arctic that has opened the waters up.”
Actually, it was only possible because of a failing and frantic ideology, a company willing to profit from it via the PR and promotional value, and convenient idiots willing to risk their lives and others’ for a buck, and for fame. Next up will no doubt be skateboarding up Kilimanjaro, “showing” how all the glaciers are melting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pole_(disambiguation)
Any of those could be called the north pole… I can’t be bothered to check if their accomplishment happened to be one of those.
Where ever they wound up, the point of this stunt is clear – propaganda. Not to worry, if these people have a need for those stunts it means they’re not really sure about robustness of their science.
I can’t believe I’m even going to mention this…. I just can’t resist, because at the time these began down in Texas, they were the most outrageous radio bits and then ads, so much so that you couldn’t help but remember the product, and laugh…
Just where would they row to in order to showcase fine Hiney Wines? Talk about successfully branding a little Hiney product. “You too can share a little Hiney with a friend!” “If you have to travel, be sure to take your Hiney with you!” “Who wouldn’t want to share some Hiney with a friend?” “Grab a little Hiney anytime” (even worse, they’d sometimes mix in “cornhusker’s lotion” or things of that nature with the ample Hiney bits).
Borrowing from wine spectator: http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/Unfiltered-Elway-Adds-Wine-Spray-Champion-to-List-of-Accomplishments_4261 (there is even a photo of the Red Hiney label there).
Apparently they even did a video spot (crude innuendo alert!!), with Big Red Hiney and Thor Hiney relaxing on the wrap around porch:
“Greatest Ocean Rows of All Time”
Piltdown man, or real? http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-human-precursors-sea-team.html
Human precursors went to sea, team says
August 17, 2011 By Helen Chappell
Early manlike creatures may have been smarter than we think. Recent archaeological finds from the Mediterranean show that human ancestors traveled the high seas.
A team of researchers that included an North Carolina State University geologist found evidence that our ancestors were crossing open water at least 130,000 years ago. That’s more than 100,000 years earlier than scientists had previously thought.
Their evidence is based on stone tools from the island of Crete. Because Crete has been an island for eons, any prehistoric people who left tools behind would have had to cross open water to get there.
The tools the team found are so old that they predate the human species, said Thomas Strasser, an archaeologist from Providence College who led the team. Instead of being made by our species, Homo sapiens, the tools were made by our ancestors, Homo erectus. (cont’d)
Rational D;
Well-conceived and shared! I could see and hear the episode as I read … from incomprehension to incredulity to irritated impatience. In slow stumbling steps.
@snotrocket: hear hear.
@various contributors: there’s no ‘e’ in whisky. No e, no ice. Just sayin.’
They saw “maybe 8 polar bears”? And they’re still alive? Aren’t polar bears getting ready for their winter hybernation about now and don’t humans look like large seals to them?
Welcome to 1984. Climate Change BS is not the worse of it. Have you seen the BBC “reports” on the war crimes in Libya?
DirkH says:
August 26, 2011 at 1:03 pm
To me, ‘Some European’ sounds awfully like ‘Bystander’ (whom Anthony banned IIRC).
Perhaps an IP address check is in order.
Google Web for “incredible row to north pole” shows about 1,230 results. Those reports will never be corrected. The liars have won again. Warmists will quote this lie to me for years and not bother to check the real story for themselves.
Why doesn’t somebody publish a map of their whole journey from the beginning complete with the true North and magnetic poles on it? I can’t post inline pictures here unfortunately.
Have a headline “British explorers row a third of the way to the North Pole in world first voyage but find too much ice in summer to continue”
Are they sure they were even rowing in the right direction? Seems not.
The Telegraph? Who cares, they’re loosing readers by the numbers. One could probably plot the spreading of self indulged incompetency amongst the journalists to the ever lower numbers of readers quiet nicely. :p
I am a bit perplexed by your “mouse navigation” heading for the True North Pole- given as 016 deg.
The heading for the True North Pole from anywhere is 360 or 000 deg.
This really ticks me off, and makes me want to double my efforts against the liars.
This is what the warmists don’t understanding. Lies like this is why an army of skeptics is being born.
An army of very motivated skeptics!
I think most here are missing the more important thing…. The North Pole is MOVING! Clearly the impact of Global Warming on the location of the North Pole needs to be considered. How can we function with our compasses all going crazy because Global Warming is causing our North Pole to move about?
Think of the penguins and whales – won’t someone think of the penguins and whales!
Rhoda …polar bears do not hibernate. In winter they go north looking for seals or whales or hapless humans.
From that area over into Eastern Siberia the ice edge appears to be solidifying and will soon start its annual equatorward progression. One thing I’m noticing is that as with past years, the remoted sensed depiction of the ice edge position and concentrations is out of whack with what the NWS Anchorage Ice desk has been reporting. Also, FYI, the Ice Desk forecast plenty of new ice to show up West of the Date Line, over the next 5 days.
A final observation – The various graphs depicting continued decrease in extent are either reflecting net loss in lower longitudes or are flat out wrong.
“”””” Lord Beaverbrook says:
August 26, 2011 at 8:03 am
‘The father-of-two captained the team that broke the London to Paris rowing record in 1999 and walked unsupported to the North Pole in 1992′ “””””
Well even if they walked on water, they would still have been supported; well maybe excepting walking on the bottom as a special degenerate case !!
@ Jit August 26, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Scotch whisky, no ‘e’
Irish whiskey, definitely an ‘e’.
But, to be fair, we are talking about Old Pulteney Scotch Whisky.
The Whiskey boat expedition was never more than a publicity stunt. And the media always gets things wrong. So why is WUWT making such a big deal out of this? There has been far more coverage of these Whiskey boat clowns than they deserve. Meanwhile actual coverage of the real conditions of the ice on WUWT has been minimal this year. Why is that I wonder?
Go look at the graphs? (Thanks Anthony for a wonderful resource). We have already achieved a “lowest ice since 2007” with the clear possibility of a record low. It is going to be very close. Go look at the satellite coverage of ice extent. Both passages are open. You really could circumnavigate the pole in clear water right now in a fast enough boat.
Will we break the 2007 record low? When Irene blows itself out in the Arctic in a couple of weeks time it is going to carry some unusually warm air and strong winds up there. I would expect to see the ice graphs take a bit of a dip when that happens. And a bit of a dip is all that is would be needed to drop us below the 2007 level into record low territory.
So by all means poke fun at the clowns in the whiskey boat and the media who wouldn’t know a fact if they tripped over it, but the real story is that Arctic ice levels have NOT recovered from 2007 and we may indeed be headed into record low territory.
Is that a problem? I don’t think so. But if it happens the news media will be full of stories of “record low” ice levels in a couple of weeks time which will be a lot less easy to poke fun at because, not to put too fine a point on it, they’ll be perfectly true.
TedK says:
August 26, 2011 at 11:31 am
because either the Scotch are easily misled . . .
They won’t like that!
Richard111 says:
August 26, 2011 at 8:41 am
Ummm…., in the Arctic (and Antarctic) circle, the sun shines 24/7 in the summer…..
Come on! Where Josh when you need ‘im?
LexingtonGreen says:
August 26, 2011 at 9:25 am
Probably because you spell ‘Whisky’ the Irish way. Not a thing tolerated for Scotch!
Wish Jon Stewart would get ahold of this one. Let’s see:
1. Didn’t make it to either the magnetic or geographic pole.
2. Didn’t row all the way, had to carry the boat over ice at the end.
So which part of “Row to the Pole” did they actually accomplish?
Epic Fail all around.
In 1994 with friends I sailed a small boat to latitude 80N, which last time I checked was 600 nm from the real North Pole. That year the ice pack was 100 or so miles further north (of Svalvard). We got closer than these yahoos did and no one noticed. Perhaps it’s because we didn’t announce it and weren’t trying to make headlines. Or perhaps it’s because we didn’t have a whiskey brand sponsoring us, although we did consume quite a bit during the trip. Or maybe it was because in 1994 AGW was no big deal and no one cared how far the ice pack receded each year.
Whatever…..this expedition is nothing more than “manufactured news”. Let’s get on with something more important.
Facts are not the issue. Entertainment, or the “message”, or encouragement for the effort, are rewarded here.
What else is treated thus? Ah, right. The changing climate ….
Ian H says:
August 26, 2011 at 5:53 pm
… Meanwhile actual coverage of the real conditions of the ice on WUWT has been minimal this year. Why is that I wonder?
Go look at the graphs? (Thanks Anthony for a wonderful resource). We have already achieved a “lowest ice since 2007″ with the clear possibility of a record low. It is going to be very close.
___________________________
Wow, a record low! Lowest since, what, 1970? Do you think, just maybe, there might have been even less ice at the pole sometime prior to 1970? Maybe? Or is a “record low” since 1970 a catastrophe?
And why ridicule the Row to the Pole team? Oh, I don’t know, maybe because they did neither, i.e. the hauled the boat, over ice, to a location that isn’t a pole. So which part of “Row to the Pole” did they accomplish????
Next year I’m organizing an expedition to “Walk to the Peak of Everest”… except I’m actually gonna climb Mt. Olympia here in Wisconsin and actually I’m gonna take the ski lift. Hope I can get Old Putney to sponsor me!
Well they reached their objective, so well done. To suggest any similarity to Shackleton’s feat is a big stretch IMHO and nobody really expected the media to bother with facts, did they?
Well, their latitude is not clear – very clever, youse guys! – but Ellesmere Island extends from about latitude 78 north to about 82 north. (+/- depending on the day of the week and the number of penguins landing there.)
The fiction of 24 hours of sun is sort of true for areas of the Arctic north of the Arctic circle: What really happens is that – at EVERY point north of the Arctic Circle (66.5 north, based on a ecliptic variation of 23.5) will see the sun towards the north at least once during the year.
As you go further north, the sun remains above the horizon for longer and longer periods of time during the arctic summer, during a period centered around the June 22-23 each year.
As you go further north – to a max of the pole at 90 north – the sun appears higher and higher in sky towards the north each midnight. At the “perfect north pole” you would see the sun at the same 23.5 elevation all the way around the horizon at the same height all “day” for 24 hours. Great. Fantastic.
Every foot further south you walk, the sun gets closer and closer to the horizon at midnight each day. (To be fair, the sun also gets higher in the sky towards the south at noon every day as you walk south. In Key West, just north of the Tropic at 25 north latitude, it appears just about directly overhead at this very same moment at noon on June 22.) At any given latitude between the Arctic Circle and the pole, the sun will be above the horizon for 24 hours only a very few number of days every year (the further south, the fewer the number of days!) and as you go further south for any given day of the year different from 22 June, the lower the sun gets at midnight every night.
Thus, at Ellesmere’s nominal 80 north latitude, there are several days when they “could” have photographed a midnight sun. Including today, by the way. But by Aug 30, it will have set before midnight at this assumed latitude of 80 north, then risen again in the northeast horizon at few minutes later on Sept 1.
On Sept 22, it will rise in the east at 0600, then set due west at 1800 that evening. Just like every other location on earth.
RAC;
The next one will be the first. Wrong pole.
>;-p
I wonder why the Telegraph is not allowing comments on this story!
The Telegraph now has a report with comments enabled, mentions the 1996 date but weasels a reason why that location is used.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/8726484/British-crew-become-first-to-row-to-magnetic-North-Pole.html#disqus_thread
As I have said before, the Arctic is warming thanks to warm water currents from the Atlantic Ocean, not because of any imaginary greenhouse effect. This makes any claims of this trip having “proved” global warming just childish babble. The original source of this warm water in the Arctic is the Gulf Stream which turns east in the North Atlantic and spreads out into the North Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The warming started at the beginning of the twentieth century, prior to which there was nothing but two thousand years of slow cooling. Temperature of the warm currents reaching the Arctic from the Atlantic exceeds anything seen for the last two thousand years. It is not out of the question that if the path of these currents should change the warming could be interrupted by a cooling incident or even stopped. The record shows that after the start of the warming at the beginning of the century there was a temporary cooling period from 1940 to 1970, after which the warming picked up again at the rate of 0.5 degrees per decade. This switch from warming to cooling to warming again can easily be understood if currents are its cause but it cannot be duplicated by any sort of greenhouse warming. There is no doubt that the changing course of the Gulf Stream is behind this. Now Nils-Axel Mörner has suggested (E&E April 2011) that the changing course of the Gulf Stream could have a much larger influence if it should be combined with the influence of a solar minimum. According to him this happened during the Little Ice Age when the Gulf Stream, instead of terminating in the North Sea as it does today, turned southeast instead and entered the Bay of Biscay. He figures that this could happen again by 2050, freezing the Arctic and cooling Europe. I would not have taken it seriously before but when I realized that the warmth behind today’s Arctic warming is actually carried there by the Gulf Stream I began to see the possibility. Monkey with the Gulf Stream and you will monkey with Arctic temperature for sure, not to mention Europe.
Lying blighters. What’s really annoying is that millions of people will be taken in by this warmist clap-trap. It reminds me of the time I drove to the summit of Everest (until I had to park up, and walk the rest of the way (until I got to Base Camp, and turned back)). OK, I made that up – but it would be about as noteworthy and demonstrable of AGW as this horlicks of an expedition.
I had the thought that Old Pultney could ask for their Whisky back, but of course the crew have been busily recycling the product to melt the ice. Damn, one for the cartoonists, depicting this heroic act – shades of yellow snow!!
TedK says:
Thanks for the link TedK… I have sent them some comments.
I wonder when the peer reviewed paper of the scientific data collected during this expedition will be published ;-)? (not holding my breath 🙂 /sarc
The organizers must have counted on the press misrepresenting this feat as being a trek to THE North Pole–and most likely engaged in dissembling to the press to encourage this mislabeling.
Any sour grapes in here?
Congratulate these guys on what must have been an awesome adventure.
I don’t see why these guys should get the credit for what I did last weekend. OK I was a few miles short as well but the media simply refused to report my triumph. Maybe I was drinking the wrong whisky? Anyway I’m off to the South Pole now, I’ve fitted new rowlocks to the armchair and should be back in time for dinner.
>>Laurie Ridyard says: August 26, 2011 at 3:58 pm
>>I am a bit perplexed by your “mouse navigation” heading for the True North
>>Pole- given as 016 deg. The heading for the True North Pole from anywhere
>>is 360 or 000 deg.
Headings are given in Magnetic, because you cannot navigate True headings. So the heading given is 16 deg east of Magnetic North.
.
The story of the Mutiny on the Bounty back in 1789 (see also the movie).
The mutineers provided Bligh and eighteen loyal crewmen with a 23 foot (7m) launch (so heavily loaded that the gunwales were only a few inches above the water). They were given four cutlasses, enough food and water to reach the most accessible ports, a quadrant and a compass, but no charts, sextant or Marine chronometer. The launch could not hold all the loyal crew members, so four were detained on the Bounty for their useful skills; they were later released at Tahiti.…
Bligh had confidence in his navigational skills, which he had perfected under the instruction of Captain Cook. His first responsibility was to survive and get word of the mutiny as soon as possible to British vessels that could pursue the mutineers. Thus, he undertook the seemingly impossible 3,618 nautical mile (6,701 km) voyage to Timor. In this remarkable act of seamanship, Bligh succeeded in reaching Timor after a 47-day voyage, the only casualty being the crewman killed on Tofua.
Row to not the pole? Greatest ocean row of all time my posterior!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Bligh
Emailthe churnalist from here
http://journalisted.com/andrew-hough#tab-contact
Kitefreak says:
August 26, 2011 at 12:20 am
BBC reporting that the Pultney rowing expedition has reached “the north pole”. Reported on Radio Scotland at 8am (main news bulletin) and on the news website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937
Absolutely no mention on the radio or the website that it’s the magnetic north pole from ’96, no, they just say the folks have rowed TO THE NORTH POLE.
Pure propaganda.
——————————————————————————————————
When I checked the BBC website again at lunchtmie yesterday I noted that the story and the headline had been changed (corrected) at 10:11am UK time.
The thing is, the damage had already been done, people misinformed and left believing that ‘adventurers’ had rowed to the north pole.
And the radio broadcasts will never been undone.
Brian says:
August 26, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Brian, I think you are new to this.
Some of us have been puking, for many, many years, from the obvious junk being forced down our throats. Not just the impossible tipping of the climate into a catastrophe via CO2.
We will be crowing for a long time as all this rubbish is exposed as politics with near-zero science attached. These fools are just the latest faces of the “useful idiot” pushed at us by creatures who care not for you, yours or anyone but themselves and their agenda.
I have had a few laughs already, with many more anticipated, but they are tinged with pain as the unforseen side-effects of this scam have hurt/killed people all over the globe and damaged science and environmentalism.
Not “sour grapes”, The extraction of urine.
Jordan says:
August 26, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Oh I see 🙁 I did not got your point in the first posting even if “they will reach the pole and continue north from there” should have been enough for a hint.
Sometimes the warmistas have so little sense of humour that they would really mean that…
Well first of all well done to rowing to where they did, an island hardly anyone knows the name of offhand, I didn’t think they would even make that!
The rest really is a bit of a con though, people should not try to spin things which are not so to get publicity.
Andy
The latter few posts are amusing with you Yanks bitching over what is Scotch/Scottish and whisky/whiskey, for a Limey you just have to laugh and get rat-arsed on the stuff!
The Oz has it as well, with ‘1996’ no ref to it being only half way there for today North pole. No comments either.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/british-crew-first-to-row-to-magnetic-north-pole/story-fn3dxity-1226123292517
Whether they did or did not reach their stated destination is immaterial (as indeed is much of the irate comment here), they are reported by the MSM to have achieved their goal and that is the message to the public that will be front and centre. Anger here although quite justified, will not change public perception one iota.
As a cheap publicity stunt to publicise the widespread ignorance of geography in the media, I’d like to announce my forthcoming expedition by hang glider to the West Pole.
Sponsors wanted!
“mkelly says:
August 26, 2011 at 10:47 am
You folks are a little too hard on these men. Haven’t any of you had a small dram too much of Old Pulteney (or any libation) and not been sure exactly where you were? Come on fess up.”
We aren’t bothered about the men, best of luck to them and if they’d done this for charity I would be delighted. But the implications of this ‘north pole’ issue are massive in the general public’s perception of agw. That and the lack of any journalistic integrity is what concerns us.
Don’t drink and row.
“Ralph says:
August 26, 2011 at 11:41 pm
>>Laurie Ridyard says: August 26, 2011 at 3:58 pm
>>I am a bit perplexed by your “mouse navigation” heading for the True North
>>Pole- given as 016 deg. The heading for the True North Pole from anywhere
>>is 360 or 000 deg.
Headings are given in Magnetic, because you cannot navigate True headings. So the heading given is 16 deg east of Magnetic North.”
It did not specify Magnetic North. In any event , being so close to the Magnetic pole Magnetic Compasses would be virtually useless.
I didn’t see Lord Kelvin’s Balls in any of the photos of their boat.
Chris Smith says:
August 26, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Welcome to 1984. Climate Change BS is not the worse of it. Have you seen the BBC “reports” on the war crimes in Libya?
———————————————————————————–
[snip – this is way off topic even if it is well desrved ~jove, mod]
As you say Chris, the climate change stuff is not the worst of it – not by any means.
And now the Australian SBS are reporting the misinformation …… I’m sending a formal complaing, worded as follows.
Dear SBS Ombudsman,
I was watching SBS news and saw reported that a group of climate awareness activists had “rowed to the magnetic north pole.”
This is entirely incorrect as the position they rowed too is not the Magnetic North Pole. The actual Magnetic North Pole as of year 2011 is actually 738 km further North.
The place these activists rowed to, or near to, was the Magnetic North Pole in 1996 and being over 700 km closer to temperate waters is often “ice free” as compared to the current Magnetic North Pole.
What was reported was in essence, Climate Propaganda and not News, for not only is it wrong, it is couched in such a way as to politicize a particular political view on the climate system that is not confirmed by science and thus does not represent the views on this topic in any fair or meaningful way as far as the public interest is concerned.
I would wish to see this piece of misinformation corrected so that everyone concerned understands that these rowers, did not row to where the actual Magnetic North Pole is….. Because that Magnetic North Pole is currently entirely Ice Bound and thus an unattainable destination to a seagoing vessel being rowed.
Hoping for a resolution to this…… Jason Mark Hansford.
i have been an active rower all my adult life. The rowing crowd I know are hard training, sensible sorts who would be ashamed to be associated with such a blatent stunt and even more ashamed once they learn of the hi jack of their achievement in getting so far. I hope that the ARA in the UK does not fall foul of this silliness and align itself with stunt.
And to help save the planet they are leaving the rowboat there to be picked up at a later stage and moving to an area where they can be picked up by an aeroplane (presumably manned by a crew frantically flapping their arms)
After reading the comments in Telegraph, I’m really dismayed by the basic premise of the people who are cheering the expedition. Aside from the obviously fallacious nature of this particular expedition, why do so many people cheer any completely useless, expensive and dangerous endeavor?
Even if they had actually made it to the Pole, what in the world would they accomplish? How would they improve the lives of actual humans? The Pole has been reached before, so it’s not even a journey of discovery. Nothing invented, no jobs created, no new species found. Nothing.
Just a sense of completion for a few rich people whose lives are apparently empty without it.
Pretty much the same thing as the widespread cheering for manned spaceflight. Empty glory.
You have to remember the WHOLE point of this exercise was so they could reach the target and then issue a headline saying “just rowed to the north pole”.
Don’t worry though …. the fact that this kind of spin is required is comforting for those who actually believe in truth.
The BBC’s got it right at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937 but still absurdly misleading at http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9573000/9573302.stm
I have used the “Contact us” facility to pinpoint the mistake.
This story reminds me of an old geography conundrum. At the beginning of an exploratory adventure, you see a sleeping bear near your tent when you get up on the very first morning. Then you commence your expedition, always traveling directly to the West. You have every imaginable piece of equipment to make this possible. This includes climbing gear, winches, inflatable rafts, good whiskey, etc. After traveling 1500 miles (2400 km), always in the West direction, you eventually return to your starting point, and you see the same sleeping bear. Question: What color is the bear?
ImranCan says:
August 27, 2011 at 3:39 am
“You have to remember the WHOLE point of this exercise was so they could reach the target and then issue a headline saying “just rowed to the north pole”.”
The WHOLE point was to sell more whisky by raising brand awareness. Worked, di’nit?
And the “Row to the Pole” chaps made how much for doing this?
Folks, we should see this epic fail and all the lies about it as a money making opportunity. This is a slam dunk way to pickpocket the brainwashed sycophants.
So let’s all do this (everyone who knows one of these dimwits). Kill two birds with one stone. Set them straight on this North Pole thingie, and pocket a little bank in the process. Make them literally pay for their gullibility.
P Wilson says:
I was in Greenwich today, and crossed the meridian, thus claiming the feat of walking across 2 time zones in less than 5 seconds
Except that the Greenwich Meridian is in the centre of the timezone. You really need to be 7.5 degees east or west.
J.H. says:
I would wish to see this piece of misinformation corrected so that everyone concerned understands that these rowers, did not row to where the actual Magnetic North Pole is….. Because that Magnetic North Pole is currently entirely Ice Bound and thus an unattainable destination to a seagoing vessel being rowed.
I suppose that it would in theory be possible to build an oar powered “ice breaker”. But given the size of the likely crew it probably would be a waste of time to get Mythbusters to check it out.
Steve Goddard has demonstrated yet another point about this epic fail …
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/you-are-not-rowing-and-it-is-not-the-north-pole/
From the PDF about the August 1922 expedition he has linked to …
So let’s summarize about the Telegraph claim: “A group of intrepid British explorers yesterday became the first people to row to the North Pole after the ice caps melted …” …
[1] :: They didn’t row all the way because there was ice requiring them to drag their boat some distance.
[2] :: They never got near the North Pole at all. They reached 78° N, but the North Pole is at 90° N.
[3] :: This was done before (to the same latitude albeit sailing vs rowing) in 1922 and no way did they drag a sailboat anywhere.
[4] :: The path was ice-free in August 1922. Imagine that!
I’m trying to think of a way that any more fraud could be attached to this AGW publicity stunt, but I got nothing. Everyone involved in this scam deserves to be mocked mercilessly.
I am also at the North pole, I m off by only 2000 miles. Did not even have to leave my couch.
I have submitted complaints to the Press Complaints Commission here in the UK for The Telegraph, the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent who all in one form or another repeat at least one of these lies uncritically.
I’ll let you know if the complaints are upheld.
“OUR DAY AT THE POLE” 27th August
“Whilst the horizon looked more promising what was noticeable was the rate at which the water was freezing. The leads from yesterday hadn’t closed up with ‘bergs but had, in fact, started to freeze.”
http://www.rowtothepole.com/
“So, this was another big day on the expedition. It’s by no means the last one, because if we can’t row the boat to Isachsen (where we will be picked up by plane), then we face hauling our gear 11 miles to the airstrip.”
Anyone want to go on an expedition. We’ll call it ROW BACK FROM THE POLE.
I feel slightly cheated.
Maybe everyone would benefit from reading the rowers’ actual blog: http://www.rowtothepole.com/satellite-tracking/ where they clearly state that they were at the location of the magnetic pole in 1996. See the caption on the picture.
Well – doesn’t this just prove the old truism..:
‘A lie will go round the world before the truth has got its boots on…’
Wonder how many times this male bovine waste product will be trotted out by the ‘warmistas’ in the coming weeks/months..?
Katabasis says: August 27, 2011 at 6:12 am:
Best of luck with your complaint, but don’t hold your breath.
I submitted a formal complaint to the BBC in January (about the infamous “Horizon” programme – “Science Under Attack”). After dozens of exchanges of letters it is still going on….
(Another plug: STOP THE DECLINE – http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2035)
If you think about it – if these guys had REALLY rowed to the North Pole for the first time EVAH, surely this would have warranted the same sort of publicity as Hillary and Tensing climbing Mount Everest..?
Instead, as The Orkneys are 59 degrees North and these guys got to 78 degrees north, shouldn’t the headline read: ‘Rowers go about half-way to the North Pole..’…?
Dr T. G. Watkins asks; ” Do they intend rowing back, or are they to be airlifted out.” The 1996 Magnetic North pole is shown on the West coast of Bathurst Island. If they row round the south end of Bathurst and head for the South end of the next island to the ESE, Cornwallis Island, they would arrive at Resolute Bay, ( it looks about 200 miles.) From the airport at Resolute Bay they could get a ride on a commercial 737 – it’s configured for freight and passengers, so I am sure it would be able to take their boat as well. Of course, it might dent the macho image to come home on a commercial flight.
The Telegraph journalist can be emailed here
andrew.hough@telegraph.co.uk
Dr T. G. Watkins asks; ” Do they intend rowing back, or are they to be airlifted out.”
They intend to fly from Isachsen which is located on the western shore of Ellef Ringnes Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ellef_Ringnes_Island.svg
“Colliding with icebergs and dodging polar bears: British explorers become first to row to North Pole… after global warming melts ice caps”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030768/British-explorers-row-North-Pole-global-warming-melts-ice-caps.html#ixzz1WFecEKau
Now in a tabloid
“Arctic rowers celebrate historic journey to the magnetic North Pole ”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/08/27/arctic-rowers-celebrate-historic-journey-to-the-magnetic-north-pole-115875-23374361/
Another tabloid
The Independent is going with this unbelievable headline “Rowers reach ‘impossible’ North Pole, thanks to global warming”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rowers-reach-impossible-north-pole-thanks-to-global-warming-2344689.html
Crikey, the media really are having a field day with this one.
Amazing how vast swathes of the mainstream media run with the same story, on the same day, every day.
Anthony, there’s been a consensus on this, they rowed to the pole. That means we’ll have to recalculate a whole lot of astrophics to account for the new rotational axis of the planet. (Did anybody feel the planet shift?) You can’t fight consensus! We dare not be science deniers!
hmm… could have sworn I wrote “astrophysics”…
@ DirkH and @ Billy Liar
Aren’t you being a bit harsh, now? Isn’t this over the top? I agree that journalists should reach maximum accuracy and I agree that a headline like “Rowers reach ‘impossible’ North Pole, thanks to global warming” is hugely sensationalistic and misleading.
But seriously, what did you expect?
Kitefreak says: “The thing is, the damage had already been done, people misinformed and left believing that ‘adventurers’ had rowed to the north pole.”
Hello, welcome to whacky media world!
…..Get me right, I totally agree that it’s misleading…..
Now, those who call me gullible and Orwellian, open up your mind and follow me through this simple example (I’ve got lots more up my sleeve):
“Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html
What did Jones actually say? Read it for yourself.
B – Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming
Yes, but only just. I also calculated the trend for the period 1995 to 2009. This trend (0.12C per decade) is positive, but not significant at the 95% significance level. The positive trend is quite close to the significance level. Achieving statistical significance in scientific terms is much more likely for longer periods, and much less likely for shorter periods.
So, the man basically said: “The CRU data from 1995-2009 show a positive trend. Statistical analysis shows that we have almost 95% confidence that it’s not just noise. The fact that the 95% level is not reached is not surprising since we are looking at only 15 datapoints.”
If you don’t see how that headline was misleading, you’re freaking blind.
PS1: This question was proposed by Lubos Motl who did the math, screening the data to find a trend below 95%.
PS2: The 1995-2010 data have crossed the 95% threshold.
In this post
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/11/phil-jones-does-an-about-face-on-statistically-significant-warming/
the subheading is “from the make up your mind department”. I don’t see why. New data, new results. Nobody’s changed their mind here.
Ok, so you’ll say, it’s beside the point. All I’m saying is, there’s imprecision all the time, try to put things into perspective. This story is not worth freaking out over.
And I don’t see why my comments on this post earn me epithets like ‘Orwellian’ and why I should be blocked.
Don’t we like exchange of ideas? Fair and balanced debate?
Here is an interesting tidbit. I was on the BBC videographers FB fan page and told him what was going on with the RTTP FB fan page where skeptics posts were being taken down. Here is his response.
Why do the bloggers rage, and the commenters imagine a vain thing?
No media conspiracy, just modern journalism –
1. Get press release.
2.
Determine veracity.3. Rework to house style.
4. Print.
Simples.
David Corcoran says:
August 27, 2011 at 1:12 pm
(Did anybody feel the planet shift?)
(Did anyone feel the earth move?)
This does surprise me that they claim to have rowed to the North Pole, only a year or so ago the TOP GEAR presenters drove to the North Pole in Toyota Hi-Lux’s, yet again more climate change lies and deception by the liberal agenda media.
@ J Garratt
Top Gear and liberal agenda in the same sentence. My brain just shortcircuitejgoris 64g.% r
The wortothepole website states where they were heading. As far as I can see they are adventurers who’ve reached where they said they’d go – so why blame them for how other people describe it? Chill out guys. You might blow a fuse!
wow, I didn’t realise being intelligent (as you lot clearly are…) makes you so miserable, cynical etc. A bunch of people did something that was a bit different and you lot act like they’d just committed some massive crime. A group of people went on adventure and used getting to the pole to get some publicity. What a terrible thing. I read about it and went on their website and it seems that they have raised quite a bit for charity, got paid nothing and despite all your wishes, not got lost, eaten etc. You all must be gutted. Still you can always leave some more bitchy comments while doing, well so it seems actually nothing yourselves. No worries though just sit on the sidelines making catty commnets, that what a good plan
REPLY: Well, unlike you, I have the courage to put my name to my criticisms, and the critcism is valid. They didn’t row to ANY pole, mganetic or geographic, yet the media said they did, which is a blatant lie, so your criticism is not only cowardly, but fatally flawed – Anthony Watts
come on Anthony lets have a big hug and a little drink of whisky together. You know you love me really. And being cowardly is not such a bad thing. You don’t get beaten up, everyone likes you and you get to play the lion of wizard of oz. I know we are poles aparts at the moments, but these poles change all the time. One minute you’re at a pole then you’re not. Anthony, i hope you have a lovely day filled with flowers and nice things. As my old gran used to say “muck in not mucking about”. I do believe this is the start of a beautiful relationship.
Breaking news correction: Team now reports that they actually rowed to the SOUTH Pole.
Freaking leftist liars stop at nothing
FWIW, they left via an abandoned military base.
http://www.rowtothepole.com/latest-news/ says in part:
After three long hikes across 75km of bogs, hills and beaches, we spent our final night in the luxurious derelict confines of Isaachsen once again, the final stop of our expedition and from where we would be ‘extracted’ in the morning. The place is an ex American radar base set up as part of the DEW Line back in the late 1940’s and which shut down in the late 70’s. Given its remoteness the size of the place was staggering, as was the amount of discarded kit still on site – including ATV’s, Caterpillars and other toys (painful sightings given our need for one of these the past 3 days). Whilst it had been turned upside down over the years by other explorers/extreme looters the place was still very much alive with memories of the past.
With any luck this was to be our last night before extraction and once again we slept shoulder to shoulder in one of the old accommodation blocks, if only to keep warm as the temperature plummeted and the wind howled through the smashed windows and doorless doors – another wonderful (but hopefully final) bonding experience. Sleep was again minimal, not helped by Jock’s impromptu early morning chorus which shook the building and woke all of us. However given sleeping conditions and a few unfortunate ‘moments’ (such as Dave waking to find himself wedged in under Mark D’s armpit) it was no bad thing that sleep was cut short – and besides today was extraction day.
With the snow falling and fog clinging to the hills there were final anxious moments that the Arctic may have one final trick up its sleeve but following a few words of gentle encouragement from Jock to the air charter company the twin otter touched down on Isaachsen’s runway at 11.40am.
So after 33 days out in the wilderness it was finally time to say goodbye to the place we had called home.”
It was time to say thankyou and close what had been another exciting chapter in this expedition – and with it you got a distinct feeling summer was closing and winter very much arriving. Richard (our Operations HQ guru) had travelled out with the plane and after a celebratory nip of Old Pulteney the engines started and we set off for Resolute. Having literally bounced up the hill to get to the plane there was a noticeable quiet amongst the crew during the flight, as our route retraced the steps we’d taken over the islands, ice blockades and open water. The landscape below had been our playground and tormentor for the past 32 days and it was weird to be leaving, especially leaving in a plane as opposed to arriving back in the boat. All things being well she will not be out here long
At 2.10pm we landed at Resolute to be greeted by Ozzie. It’s amazing to be back but given the recent tragedy also very much tinged with sadness. A plane went down killing 12 two weeks ago which for a community this size must have had a devastating effect. For Jock especially he has developed many close friendships with this part of the world and Resolute in particular and we hope to be able to pay our respects at the memorial service on Friday.
So here we are back in the land of the living, although still very much in the Arctic. We all smell horrific, look like Neanderthals and despite eating well (by expedition standards) seem to have lost a good few pounds along the way. As per any expedition that first look in the mirror has been quite scary for one and all, which could explain Richard’s reluctance to engage in any man hugging back in Isaachsen – nothing a shower (maybe two in some cases) and a change of clothes won’t sort. Thankfully the annual ship delivering supplies to Resolute has just docked in the bay which means food should be plentiful, which is just as well because conversations have focused on little else these past few days. First up will be a cooked breakfast in the morning…and here’s preying it doesn’t involve omelet. Mmm fresh, hot ‘normal’ food…