From the you’ve got to be effin kidding me department comes news of the epic journey to Antarctica. What do they hope to prove? I don’t know, it seems like nothing but a publicity stunt, especially since the sea ice trend in Antarctica is up in the last 30 years:
I predict what will come of it will be much like this joke of a new report by Scott Pelley of CBS News who went to Antarctica at the peak of the southern summer to capture images of melting ice. Here’s the transcript. Antarctic summer is opposite that of the northern hemisphere and runs roughly from October through February.
Gore, Hansen, and Trenberth and more than 100 fellow travelers will depart from Argentina late next week and arrive in late summer in Antarctica, just in time to witness melting ice, put it on video, wail about the tragedy, and ask for money to combat climate change. Basically, they are going to lie with seasonal visual aids..
Scientists, celebrities to cruise with Gore to Antarctica
Lauren Morello, E&E reporter
E&E News
“This winter we will be talking about Antarctica as part of our ‘Living on Thin Ice’ campaign which will focus on how people around the globe are being impacted by the melting of the world’s ice,” Climate Reality Project spokesman Eric Young said. “As part of that effort, we are journeying to Antarctica with our chairman, Vice President Gore, and leading scientists and thinkers to see firsthand how the climate crisis is unfolding.”
Antarctica is not the only stop for Gore’s campaign, Young said, which has convened events in Ecuador, the Sierra Nevada and Brooklyn and is planning trips to Nepal and the Alps.
Oh, also, these folks are tempting fate… Gore has a known history of bringing unseasonably cold weather with him where ever he goes. In Antarctica that can cost people their lives.
Looks to me to be the vacation of a lifetime on someone else’ dime (donations).
I started to think that it was a hoax (MSM seems to be ignoring it and there still seems nothing on it at the Website of the sponsor the Climate Reality Project.) But I found that on Dec. 14, 2011, Branson did a blog post on it at virgin.com: Antarctica anniversary.
I wonder if Capt Schettino is available to helm the cruise? Do you suppose that any of the PRs that flow from this effort will get around to mentioning that the annual max-min sea ice flux in the Antarctic is close to twice the area of the entire lower 48 States? Or that that has been the case for as long as we’ve been paying attention and for centuries before. Of course, the “journalists” of the MSM, who have turned themselves into biologically based fax machines for whatever Algore and his minions produce, won’t bother to add this significant bit of backround info when they faithfully regurgitate this nonsense for their viewers and readers.
Garethman says:
January 23, 2012 at 8:08 am
Forget the Antarctic for now, there does not appear to be a problem down there. But look at what is happening in the Arctic, now that is worrying. http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_timeseries.png
WHY?
Lauren Morello, E&E reporter
E&E News
Former Vice President Al Gore is taking his fight against climate change …
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I think Lauren should have written “fight against human civilization”…
Anyone want to bet Pine Island and Thwaites is on the destination list?
http://takvera.blogspot.com/2011/11/global-warming-in-antarctica-thwaites.html
Anyone in favor of sending Christopher Monckton to Antarctica to debate them in situ. It would be difficult for them to avoid the event considering the small size of the community. It would probably be a welcome break, from the monotony of isolation, for many. GK
Eh, he’s going to film a sequel… an “Incontinent Truth”
That grim realization that you have a problem… and you probably aren’t gonna make it to the toilet.
Rather than snide comments, would it not be more appropriate to applaud this effort. After all, if you are really a “sceptic”, finding the truth of your claim that warming is having no effect in the polar regions, will be best ascertained by “going and seeing” with a smattering of measurement thrown to solidify your points. Why don’t you accompany this group, or organize your own “exploratory” voyage? Is this not the way to find truth?
Changes in ice extent are just natural variablility. If CO2 was the cause, the Antarctic would be losing ice just like the Arctic. It isn’t.
The Antarctic is right at its 30 year average. And there is nothing to be concerned about with global ice cover.
Climate models predicted that both poles would lose ice due to “polar amplification”. As usual, the predictions were wrong.
And the Arctic was ice free 6 – 7 thousand years ago, when CO2 levels were very low. In the early 1800’s the Arctic was losing ice fast, as reported to the British Admiralty. As shown here, there is wide variability in ice extent at both poles. Even more extensive melting occurred in the 1920’s than now.
Looking at actual satellite maps, it’s hard to discern much change in Arctic ice cover. The scare is due to the y-axis used, which magnifies the smallest changes, and makes natural variability look alarming. But the current variability is entirely routine, and has happened many times before.
Gore, Hansen and Trenberth are just grant trolling. They will come back with wild-eyed scare stories. Count on it.
Bon voyage – may you all feel the ‘gore’ effect in route – and need a rescue or body retrieval.
Harsh perhaps, just not feeling very charitable towards any of these very rich liar(s) at this point.
JustMEinT Musings said
Oh an yes we can but hope the weather turns dastardly cold……… pleaseeeeeeeeee
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On the road to Concordia, perhaps a second shipwreck predicted by the one below
http://www.space.com/14273-satellite-photo-costa-concordia-cruise-shipwreck.html
E&E reports that “Gore is taking his fight against climate change…” and I’ve just discovered that Branson is founder of Carbon War Room. Perhaps they will be traveling around by battleship. I’m guessing that this trip is a showboat opportunity for one of Branson’s green technology businesses described at http://www.carbonwarroom.com
Hugh Pepper says:
January 23, 2012 at 9:46 am
Rather than snide comments, would it not be more appropriate to applaud this effort. After all, if you are really a “sceptic”, finding the truth of your claim that warming is having no effect in the polar regions, will be best ascertained by “going and seeing” with a smattering of measurement thrown to solidify your points. Why don’t you accompany this group, or organize your own “exploratory” voyage? Is this not the way to find truth?
This effort is obviously not about “going and seeing”, but is entirely about “going and being seen to have gone”. As to a smattering of measurement thrown in, none of these clucks has ever demonstrated the capacity to even read a thermometer competently, let alone perform any actual scientific investigation, which given the brief duration of there tour, would be completely meaningless, even if performed at the highest standards. This a PR exercise, undertaken as a desperate attempt to revive a dying fable by displaying out of context photos and videos of ice behaving exactly as it has for longer than we can possibly know.
Hugh Pepper says:
“Why don’t you accompany this group, or organize your own “exploratory” voyage? Is this not the way to find truth?”
Hugh, since you purport to want to find the truth, you must be willing to provide financial assistance for an exploratory voyage. How much are you pledging to donate? I’ll match it.
What do you want to bet that the ship goes about halfway along the Antarctic Peninsula, barely across the Antarctic Circle, and then they send back reports about the dire state of conditions in “Antarctica”. It worked for Alanna Mitchell so that CBC radio programs gave her plenty of publicity.
I was down in the Peninsula early in the season, and it was definitely not a good year for ice. We barely got through the Lemaire Channel. But I suppose Gore and friends.can at least get as far as the Bransfield Channel this late in the season, so they have at least technically visited Antarctica.
And actually it isn’t really that dramatic to visit the Antarctic Peninsula, provided You are in reasonable health and travel in a suitable ship with a competent crew (with a captain who is a good ship-handler).. But you had better not suffer from seasickness, because crossing the Drake Passage from Tierra del Fuego can be quite an ordeal.otherwise.
They should get Piers Corbyn’s forecast before setting off.
saltspringson says:
Anyone want to bet Pine Island and Thwaites is on the destination list?
I would say almost certainly not. The sea-ice is very bad in that sector this summer, and they would almost certainly not get close to the coast without icebreaker assistance. Though they might chance standing-off a couple of hundred miles offshore and hope nobody notices..
Concerned.
I hope these wonderful planet saving saviors don’t fall through hole in the ice and suffer an agonizing cold / drowning death or even worse the get attacked and eaten by an angry too warm polar bear. We would miss them badly.
Maybe they will all fall down a crevasse! 😉
This is great! Algore goes to Antarctica. I mean what could go wrong? Haven’t Hansen and Trenberth heard about the Gore effect? Maybe Trenberth will find his missing heat.
The sceptic side needs to get out one basic “fact”: The Total Global Sea Ice Anomaly has been oscillating around zero for the last 30 years. The Earth is in balance, even if the Arctic ice cover is down.
By drawing the Antarctic into the conversation, these Warmists are placing themselves on slippery ground.
[the comment has been deleted – thus this reply – moderation occasionally misses some comments that are out of bound with policy – thanks for pointing it out – Anthony]
Jenn Oates on January 22, 2012 at 7:46 pm said:
Are people really not aware enough to know when it’s winter up here it’s summer down there? Please tell me that people won’t fall for it. Please.
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Sadly they will fall for it 🙁