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.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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!