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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Mike Borgelt says:
“We don’t have a base on the moon, I can’t see why taxpayers should fund a bunch of self indulgent scientists to do research in Antarctica. It’s not like you would be allowed to drill for oil or mine coal or anything else. Useless. They’ve had over 50 years to figure it out. Enough is enough.”
Quite right! – And here’s the kicker: Antarctica is nearly twice the size of the continental US. At least one seventh of the world’s mineral wealth is already there, completely untapped. If governments want their scientists to continue Antarctic research, they should pony-up the cash to drill a couple of wells and build a small refinery. Technology is not the problem, it’s the eco-nazis who want to set aside one of the earth’s seven continents (the most barren and desolate one at that) as a penguin and whale sanctuary.
Several things. First, although I don’t like her politics, Hillary R. Clinton is the U.S. Secretary of State, the most senior member of the cabinet. As such, official correspondence should be addressed to “Secretary Clinton”, or “Madam Secretary”, not just “Dear Hillary”. Have I missed something, or has the blight of assumed familiarity infected even diplomatic communications?
Second, look on the bright sight: this is a potential jobs program! We need to hire American workers to build state-of-the-art American research icebreakers! Even better: build *green* icebreakers, powered by a combination of solar and wind technologies. I can just see the stimulus $$ flowing now …
It is indeed ironic that global warming research requires a significant expenditure of fossil fuel. Perhaps we could make a gesture towards reducing greenhouse emissions by mandating that all climate change research projects be entirely powered by zero-carbon technologies. Didn’t I read somewhere that with the right policies 70% of our energy needs could be met by renewables? Surely dedicated researchers trying to save the planet should jump at the chance to prove that we really don’t need fossil fuels, for example using bicycle pedal generators to power their climate model computers …
“…I’m willing to admit that I’m not PC in the slightest, and to take the inevitable heat for saying so. ”
Good on you Willis. Me too.
Nuke Nemesis says:
September 7, 2011 at 12:52 pm “In the future, humans will have a sense of humor genetically engineered out of them.”
In the past, Germans had the sense of humor socially engineered out of them . . . . as I learned in the history of the Reich’s . . . because laughing or even smiling was considered a sign of disrespect and insubordination . . . That’s why there only a very few and far between such as things as a “german” joke . . . not /sarc
Willis, you say that Brits can’t spell ‘aluminum’.
It’s worse than you think. We spell the word ‘rutabaga’ s-w-e-d-e.
Sam Hall says (September 7, 2011 at 4:49 am): “Nuclear power is fine in Antarctica, just no nuclear weapons. The U.S. Navy operated a nuclear plant at McMurdo for ten years 1962-1972.”
When I read the part about fossil fuel transport and consumption in Antarctica, the first thing I thought was, “Hey, what a great place to put nuclear reactors!” So I looked up small nuclear reactors on the Web and found the Wiki article on McMurdo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station
which mentioned that the reactor replaced up to 1500 gallons of fossil fuel per day.
Just think how useful a nuke would be at the South Pole. You have unlimited cooling water, the “waste” heat is as valuable as the electricity, you can fuel your vehicles with locally produced hydrogen, and you can grow food locally year-round in nuclear-lit greenhouses.
Best to get started now and prepare for the influx of global warming refugees. 🙂
“Oden” is the correct swedish spelling!
Oden, or “Odin”, has the following additional names, all with correct swedish spelling:
Allfader
Atrid
Biflinde
Bileyg
Båleyg
Bölverk
Enöga
Feng
Fimbultul
Fimbultyr
Fjölne
Fjölsvinn
Framtyr
Gagnråd
Ganglere
Gautr
Gestumblinde
Glapsvinn
Grim
Grimner
Gaut
Göndle
Hangadrott
Hangatyr
Har
Harbard
Have
Helblinde
Herblinde
Herjafader
Herjan
Herteit
Hjalmbere
Hnikar
Hropt
Hroptatyr
Hroptatyr
Hrossharsgrani
Härfader
Härfader
Jafnhar
Jalk
Jolner
Karl
Kjalar
Knikud
Korpguden
Ofne
Ome
Oske
Rafnatyr
Raner
Ropt
Roptatyr
Rögne
Sann
Sanngetal
Sidgrane
Sidhatt
Sidskägg
Sigfader
Sigtyr
Skilfing
Svafne
Svidre
Svidur
Svipal
Tekk
Tredje
Tro
Tund
Tunn
Tvegge
Unn
Vafud
Vaker
Valfader
Vegtam
Veratyr
Vidre
Vidur
Ygg
Willis- Excellent example of the conservative mind and how it reacts to global warming! I see you have issues with spelling. Brilliant! Flawed economic analysis, ignoring the fact corporations sit on over $1 trillion in profits, money has never been cheaper for the US gov to borrow, and we need corporations to spend, and a giant jobs program to avoid a deflationary spiral, and you’ll NEVER get that! Just the opposite. Then a little later, rooting for your side, I notice, nice tribalism, oh and excellent use of punctuation to avoid having to deal with the vanishing Arctic icecap. Oh, yeah, Antarctica, nice, irrelevant and inaccurate cherry picking ( ever hear of Larsen B? Or ozone, or snowfall, or-never mind). But no real interest in the truth.
Oh, by the way, I mention Bastardi because he made a hilariously inaccurate prediction over here on WTF, ABOUT this year. About arctic ice.you really,
you should embrace him, he’s right up your alley.
Willis,
Nice pic of an icebreaker. BUT it is not a nuc. Nuc icebreakers rule!!!
John
There was a recent show on directv regarding McMurdo and it’s a small city. They even have a soft-serve ice cream machine. Since they have been there for years polluting with CO2, what have they accomplished?? Is anything worthwhile coming out of there except a place for adventure types to go?? All I saw was them blowing a hole in the ice….isn’t that special?? Along with a lot of staring at computer graphs…seems like a cold version of hell.
LWR’s can’t produce nukes, only graphite moderated ones, or similar, do.
Mea culpa, mea culpa! I’m a Swede – although a resident of UK for almost a decade now – so I should feel ashamed, I know I know. But maybe I should get exonerated because I’ve been staying away from Swedish shores for most of the time, although I’ve been visiting from time to time with friends and family in Åland which is an island situated in in an archipelago off the coast of Finland. Halfway between Sweden and Finland.
But I don’t. Feel ashamed, I mean. Swedish politicians believe unanimously in CAGW and these past frigging cold and snowridden Swedish winters have done nothing to change their attitude.
Mr. Bildt can have it. When it comes to climate science, or any science, he’s a nitwit just like his Environmental Minister Carlgren. None of them care a bit for real science.
Sven-Ove Johansson says:
September 7, 2011 at 2:44 pm
———–
Sven-Ove Johansson,
Your comment reminds me of “The Nine Billion Names of God” science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke.
The question that I always immediately have about ‘gods’ is, ‘Are they good gods or bad gods?’
Also, it reminds me of gods wrt to superiority as in “”Superiority” which is a science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke, Good stuff on the god topic.
John
Bowen the Troll says (September 7, 2011 at 2:08 pm): “In the past, Germans had the sense of humor socially engineered out of them . . . . as I learned in the history of the Reich’s . . .”
Which explains why the Third Reich had no defense against the Allies’ secret weapon:
Louis Hissink says:
September 7, 2011 at 3:35 pm
LWR’s can’t produce nukes, only graphite moderated ones, or similar, do.
—————
Louis Hissink,
Nucs.
The entire US nuc navy to the contrary not withstanding.
John
This is arctic rather than antarctic but still relevant to this discussion;
http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2011/09/piomas-august-2011.html
How does this tie in with ‘we’re heading for global cooling’ which I hear here quite a lot?
Timothy Hanes says:
September 7, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Tim, you have missed the humor entirely. Obviously, the Swedes are going to spell “Oden” in the correct manner on their own Swedish ship, duh. So my comment was a humorous riff on the spelling of the words. I’m sorry it went over your head. But next time you have a choice between “Willis is so stupid he thinks the Swedes can’t spell the name of their own gods” and, well, anything else, I’d advise you to pick “anything else”.
If you didn’t get it the first time, my comment about the Brits and their spelling of “aluminium” should have given you a second clue. And if you read back through the comments, you’ll see that most people got the joke. I lived outside the US for about 17 of the last 25 years, so yes, I know the differences between American and British spelling. I ran a shipyard for three years where we built aluminium boats, in a place speaking British English. Me, I think the British manner, “aluminium”, makes more sense, matches up with “thorium” and “uranium” and the like.
In any case, you’ve got to get up to speed to play here, my friend. You’re welcome to join in, but goodness, lighten up. It’s called humor, you might try some …
w.
TimC says:
September 7, 2011 at 9:48 am
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.”
This was in the Independent Wednesday 1 Sept 1993
‘European Commission subsidies for nine British shipyards were sacrificed by the Government in 1985 to get Brussels approval for privatising the industry, a BBC Television documentary claims tonight.
The yards, the programme claims, had been deliberately targeted for run-down by Margerate Thatcher and her Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Norman Lamont. Sir Robert Atkinson, former chairman of British Shipbuilders, alleges in the programme that a permanent under-secretary told him in the early 1980s: “Margerate wants rid of shipbuilding. Remember that”. Mr Lamont, he adds, was “obsessed with getting rid of shipbuilding in any way”.
What is lamentable about all this it could not have been solely about subsidy. There was one week when a 150+ year old shipyard was closed in Sunderland and in the same week the government announced it would step in to help UK horse breeders who were concerned about losing bloodstock to abroad.
Unlike any other nation it seems the UK has been obsessed with shedding industrial skills. Michael Howard MP once said ” what we want is a low wage low skill economy” or words to that effect.
So, as I stated earlier, all of the newest and largest cruise liners are made in old economies: France; Germany; Italy; Norway. And the newest and largest container ship is made in Norway.
Still wondering about the ice in danger and all those ice breakers bashing their way around, breaking it up, and making it easier for wind and currents to float it out of the arctic to melt. Could some of this research be self confirming? Aren’t envirowhackjobs supposed to be upset by anthropogenic interference in the environment?? Why aren’t they demonstrating against all those ice breakers??
With all the talk of UHI in the US and other populated areas, you have to wonder about the UHI in the Arctic and Antarctic inhabited research stations that burn huge amounts of fossil fuels!!
I gotta say I find this all rather humorous also.
“Tell me about it. I was in Trafalgar Square in 1984 fighting riot cops in an effort to overthrow the mad bitch”
Tallbloke – there was nothing to stop you and your mates building ships for sale. The fact that British shipyards were inacapable of building ships that the the world wanted to buy was the point of the exercise. So I am very glad that your riot failed…
Viv Evans says:
September 7, 2011 at 12:09 pm
You got it, hot off the presses, first use right here, straight from my demented mind and released into the ether on WUWT. Run with it.
In general, I toss my words out and hope that they don’t fall on stony ground. Anyone is welcome to use my ideas, at the end of the day the nets belong to the sea …
w.
Swede says:
September 7, 2011 at 5:18 am
“My point was just that everyone should expect that the Swedish vessel’s name is in, eh, Swedish. So of course it’s name is Oden, not Odin or Islandic name Óðinn. ”
Normally one does not “translate” ship names. Oden is the name of the ship as one can see in the picture with its name painted on the side of the superstructure.
Willis Eschenbach says (September 7, 2011 at 4:05 pm): “Me, I think the British manner, “aluminium”, makes more sense, matches up with “thorium” and “uranium” and the like.”
And “siliconium”, “phosphorusium”, “manganeseium”, “ironium”, “cobaltium”, “copperium”, etc. 🙂
All kidding aside, do the Brits spell element 57 “lanthanum” or “lanthanium”? Carbonium-based lifeforms want to know! 🙂
Actually, there’s no shortage of countries lusting over Canada’s Arctic.
(as a Canadian, what I would like to see is the construction of new icebreakers and SSN’s to enforce our claim all the way to the pole)
There’s China…..
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-stands-firm-on-sovereignty-as-china-eyes-arctic-resources/article2143962/
“….a reporter with the official Chinese news service who is accompanying the Prime Minister on his annual summer tour, asked him to clarify his position.
“It seems like there are some local media reports that the Arctic region belongs to the Arctic countries and it’s not the business of the rest of the world,” the Chinese reporter said. “What is your comment on this opinion and what role do you think the rest of the world can play in the Arctic region affairs?” ”
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/07/19/chinese-analysts-urge-greater-presence-in-arctic-ocean/
“Zhang says under current international law, the Arctic does not belong to any country, but it has been divided due to ambitious expansion by nearby countries. He says Beijing must speak out in the international community to “stand up for its interests” concerning both resources and navigation in the Arctic.”
There’s South Korea and Asian shipping execs.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/asian-juggernaut-eyes-our-golden-waterways/article2144360/
“I point out to them that the Arctic will be a risky place for ships even after the multiyear ice is gone, because of powerful storms, shallow and poorly charted waters, seasonal darkness and the extreme remoteness of the region. When I tell them about the danger of icing – when ocean spray freezes on the superstructure of a ship, causing it to become top-heavy – their eyes grow large with concern.”
I should think that if Odin/Oden/whatever cares about the spelling of his name, he is probably ideally positioned to ensure that his name is spelled correctly. Or at least to make sure that it is misspelled only once per mispeller.