Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
A number of nations conduct research in Antarctica. To do research in Antarctica, you need to have an icebreaker. As the old saying goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few icebergs … or something like that.
For the last few years, said icebreaker has been the Swedish ship Oden, leased to us by the noble Swedes, who (other than being a bit confused about how to spell the name of the god Odin) built a wonderful dual-purpose icebreaker and research vessel. Here’s a photo of the good ship “Oden”:
Given the dependence of the US McMurdo Sound and Amundsen-Scott South Pole bases on the availability of an icebreaker to allow resupply by ship, it must have been an unpleasant surprise for our Secretary of State, Hillary R. C., to receive the following missive from the aforesaid perfidious Swedes …
This is unfortunate for the scientific work in the Antarctic, as it will require extensive reshuffling of existing studies and projects. However, it does have its ironic side.
The first irony is that the main thing that is brought in by ship, the one thing that really can’t be brought in by plane, is fossil fuel. Can’t do global warming research without fossil fuel, particularly in Antarctica, and running a couple of US bases through an Antarctic winter takes a lot of fossil fuel.
The second irony is that research into global warming is being curtailed by, of all things, too much ice. Or as Mr. Bildt described it, “transport delays due to vessels having been blocked by ice.”
I do feel bad and have compassion for the scientists and the scientific studies that will be disturbed, and I know I’m on the primrose path to perdition for saying this, but it’s hard not to enjoy the spectacle of scientists who can’t do global warming research because the Northern Hemisphere is too cold.
w.
PS—As of a few days ago, the US has lined up an icebreaker, the Ignatyuk, to replace the Oden. It is run by a Russian firm, the Murmansk Shipping Company. So that’s good news. Unfortunately it is not set up as a research vessel, just an icebreaker, but it can break the path for the tankers.
It will steam off from Murmansk half way round the world, burning lots and lots of fossil fuel, to clear the ice to allow the tankers to deliver much more fossil fuel to McMurdo Sound and even send fossil fuel to the South Pole to power inter alia the global warming research …
So there’s the final irony—with the laying up of the US Coast Guard “Polar Star” icebreaker, and the decommissioning of the “Polar Sea” icebreaker, the US has only the lightweight “Healy”, not fit for the Antarctic needs. So the US is reduced to renting an icebreaker from a Russian shipping company … and some folks in Alaska are not happy about that state of affairs.
[UPDATE] From some of the comments below, it’s clear that my eco-felony in writing this is admitting to feeling “schadenfreude”, which means taking pleasure in your opponents misfortunes. It’s one of those emotions that everyone has, but nobody is supposed to admit they have. What, you never laughed when irony overtook your opponent? And you gotta admit, global warming research cancelled because of too much ice? That’s funny anywhere.
I’m no different than the rest in relishing life’s ironic turns, except for the fact that I’m willing to admit that I’m not PC (politically correct) in the slightest, and to take the inevitable heat for saying so. Consider it my small protest at the ongoing vanillafication of the planet.
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@ur momisugly Neil Jones
Bouys, submarines, and vaerious ships have been measuring arctic sea ice all summer.
There will be a comprehensive report come out in October. We have never had the level of detail this summer before in measuring thickness of arctic sea ice.
Which has turned out to be record thin. Which is likely attributed to record warm ssts in the arctic.
if you want to see for your self look up MODIS.
http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?mosaic=Arctic.2011250.aqua.4km
You can see the ice all over fraying and cracking because it’s so thin..many places the last week have started to crack like large river like cracks. not chunks.
Chunks of ice can form up to 4-5 meters thick. but mostly 2-3 meters. These cracks are caused from the ice being pushed by the winds in different directions and the ice is not strong enough so it severs.
Currently Jaxa sea ice extent is 2nd all time at 4,567,000km2
Bremen which uses a higher resolution sensor is 2nd at only 60,00km2 behind 2007.
NSIDC is around 4,500,000km2 or lower now.
The weather is not good the next 7-10 days with compacting winds and record warm 850mb temp anomalies moving in day 4-10.
Stephen Skinner says:
September 7, 2011 at 5:54 am
tallbloke says:
September 7, 2011 at 12:43 am
“Britain gave up its shipbuilding capacity years ago”
We did not give it up. One of our leaders chose to block funding to upgrade the ship yards on the grounds that ship building was old fashioned, ignoring the fact that 2/3rds of the world’s surface is sea!
Tell me about it. I was in Trafalgar Square in 1984 fighting riot cops in an effort to overthrow the mad bitch.
Tom Harley says:…..http://pindanpost.com/2011/09/07/man-made-climate-change-hypothesis-smashed-once-and-for-all/
I read the linked story but no link to Nature. Checked Nature web site and couldn’t figure out which article they are talking about. Can anybody help?
JPG says:
September 7, 2011 at 2:09 am
“Does any one know the effect of icebreakers on the sea ice extents? ”
Ice breaking on the Great Lakes is used to precipitate the spring melt. Would you agree that is because once the ice is broken there is more surface area to melt as well as weakening the structural integrity of the ice? All the rules and knowledge regarding land locked ice should apply to sea ice as the physics can’t be much different. For example, those who do ice fishing on the lakes up near Yellowknife are advised to beware of ice that has been thinned by the actions of shoaling fish. Fish swimming in circles just below the ice disturb the stable layers of water bringing warmer water closer to the surface. Consider then several thousand tonnes of submarine travelling under the arctic ice and how this could disturb the stability of the thermohaline, thereby bringing warmer water from below.
I would expect either ice breakers or submarines to have little effect when the ice is re-freezing, but once the melt season begins and particularly during the peak of summer melt then I do not see how such activities will have no effect. All surface and subsurface activity in polar regions has increased considerably over the last 50 years from almost nothing to everything from scientific, military, commercial, prospecting, community support and tourism. Looking at the following image Arctic ice instability appears to commence around the 1950s:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seasonal.extent.1900-2010.png
I know I have committed a crime by trying to make connections here from the comfort of my home and I’m not a climate scientist, so I should be mute, but Lewis Gordon Pugh did not receive any criticism when he tried to make dubious connections between his ability to swim in open water at the pole and global warming.
This is good news for Canada. For years the US failed to recognize Canada’s claim to the Arctic as a result of the vast network of islands stretching northwards from Canada’s northern shoreline. Mothballing the US icebreaker fleet is defacto recognition that the US no longer has any national interests in polar regions. This opens up millions of square miles of the arctic to Canadian oil exploration.
US policy in this regard is of course a result of climate change. The US government through its science agencies such as NSF and NASA believes that the polar regions will soon be ice free and thus there is no reason for icebreakers.
The truth of this is self-evident because these agencies receive billions of dollars in taxpayer money to say that it is so. If it wasn’t true why would the government continue to give them money to say it was? Therefore it must be true, otherwise the government would be wasting money. And the government would never do that. After all, they spend every dollar like it was coming out of someone else’s pocket.
Hey Hafeacow, Lighten up! Nothing worse than someone without a sense of humor.
Sean says:
September 7, 2011 at 5:08 am
“Isn’t it rich. The US Coast Guard can’t provide access to research stations in Antarctica and NASA can’t provide access to the international Space Station. Meanwhile the government spends billions to produce expensive, unreliable electricity and the most expensive healthcare in the world.”
Add jobs to the growing list of things the US isn’t able to produce.
You can be sure we Know how to spell Odin in Swedish, Oden.
Why do they need fossil fuel in the Antarctic? Surely renewable energy is the way to go. Wind turbines (they never ice up we’re told) and solar panels (they work at night and when covered in snow we’re told) give reliable and constant energy (we’re told). What’s sauce for us geese is sauce for them gander.
Bernd Felsche says:
September 7, 2011 at 3:38 am
IIRC, a nuclear-powered ice-breaker wouldn’t be permitted in Antarctic waters by “Convention”.
Vancouver is also nuclear free – according to our local city council. Apparently this provides us a protection shield from nuclear missiles landing on the city in case of war. It has successfully prevented US nuclear aircraft carriers from invading our local waters and draining our local beer supply.
However many homes in Vancouver use smoke detectors with radioactive material in their sensors, in direct violation of our nuclear shield. North Korea has taken note of our provocative stance and resumed their own nuclear ambitions. One has to wonder how many of these nuclear armed smoke detectors have made their way to the south pole.
to “gnomish” Thank you very much – that was very useful.
Just imagine, if no replacement for the Oden could be found. the headline would have read:
Antarctic Global Warming Research Canceled/Delayed due to Extensive Global Cooling
Another fine example regarding our shrinking infrastructure; it is typical political incompetence on the part of our U.S. leadership.
The Russians are producing larger more effective ice breakers. They understand what most Phd.’s obviously need billions of grant dollars to understand: Wind moves ice cubes more effectively than solid unbroken ice sheets.
Once again, the government outsourcing jobs to a foreign country.
G. Karst 7:45am:
Crikey, G.K, you must be as ancient as me! Four Jacks and a Jill – 1968, wasn’t it? Some old memories there!
But Willis, it’s consistent with the models!
(Bonus points for those who understand sarcasm without the /sarc tag)
Brian H says:
September 7, 2011 at 3:20 am
Thanks for the explanation, Brian. I didn’t have the heart to tell the Swede the bad news …
w.
That´s surely an undesirable consequence of the prevalent “global warming” acting through the well known “Gore effect”, which for all practical purposes, decreases temperature and increases ice…sadly indeed!
Alex says:
September 7, 2011 at 4:05 am
So you are saying the Swedes used to know how to spell Odin but then forgot? ;-P
I’ll get Stan Lee of Marvel Comics on the line and tell him he’ll need to … but wait, the first appearance of Thor in Marvel comics was in 1962, maybe that was long enough ago that the old style Nords were still speaking Old Style Nordic, and thus “Thor” was historically correct.
In any case, why can’t Europeans get with the spelling picture, the British can’t even spell aluminum, for goodness sake.
w.
ferd berple;
“This is good news for Canada. For years the US failed to recognize Canada’s claim to the Arctic as a result of the vast network of islands stretching northwards from Canada’s northern shoreline. Mothballing the US icebreaker fleet is defacto recognition that the US no longer has any national interests in polar regions. This opens up millions of square miles of the arctic to Canadian oil exploration.”
I suspect the residents of Alaska would dispute you on this.
Geoff Withnell
What’s wrong with telling the Swedish how to spell the name of their gods!!
I always thought that the Norse god was Odin, or is that just because that is the way that the Norwegians spell it, and as the Norwegians claim; there are only 2 types of people in the world, those who are Norwegians, and those who wish they were Norwegians!
Willis,
Swedish is spelled just like it’s pronounced.
Tallbloke said “Britain gave up its shipbuilding capacity years ago”; Stephen Skinner said “one of our leaders chose to block funding.”
These are not true characterisations. British Shipbuilders Corporation (the British shipbuilding industry, nationalised in its entirety by PM Harold Wilson in 1977) was de-nationalised in 1983 on the basis that it should no longer be subsidised by taxpayers but should compete as a private sector company in the open market. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Shipbuilders
The Conservative manifesto for the 1983 general election said “We shall transfer more state-owned businesses to independent ownership. Our aim is that British Telecom – where we will sell 51 per cent of the shares to the private sector – Rolls Royce, British Airways and substantial parts of British Steel, of British Shipbuilders and of British Leyland, and as many as possible of Britain’s airports, shall become private sector companies…. As before, we will offer shares to all those who work in them.”
PM Margaret Thatcher (I assume who Tallbloke refers to in his later comment as “the mad bitch”) won the 1983 election on the manifesto above with a huge 142 seat majority. On any constitutional basis she had the democratic mandate to privatise the British shipbuilding industry, despite usual left-wing “tax and spend” protests.
And perhaps more on topic, we Brits bought MV Polar Circle (now HMS Endurance) from the Norwegians in 1990 as our (class 1A1) icebreaker, but it suffered major flooding in 2008 and we have chartered MV Polarbjørn until March 2014, pending the decision whether to refit Endurance.
Chris Biscan (@ur momisuglyFrivolousz21) says:
September 7, 2011 at 6:55 am
@ur momisugly Neil Jones
Bouys, submarines, and vaerious ships have been measuring arctic sea ice all summer.
There will be a comprehensive report come out in October. We have never had the level of detail this summer before in measuring thickness of arctic sea ice.
Which has turned out to be record thin. Which is likely attributed to record warm ssts in the arctic.
How could you know if it’s record thin with a record that’s only one summer? You might as well have said it’s record thick.
Smokey says:
September 7, 2011 at 9:37 am
True, Smokey. American English, on the other hand, is very easy to follow because it is mis-pronounced almost exactly like it is mis-spelled …
w.