UPDATE2: get a load of the hilarious announcement from the expedition, where they claim sea ice is disappearing, see update 2 below.
UPDATE3: A film (now a video) has been found from 1912 showing Mawson landing in ice free Commonwealth Bay in 1912. see update 3 below.
UPDATE4: Bad weather has forced the Aurora Australis to back off from its rescue attempt. See below.
UPDATE5: See my opinion piece on why this is a fiasco
There’s quite an ongoing worldwide fascination over the So much sea ice in Antarctica that a research vessel gets stuck, in summer! episode with the ship Akademik Shokalskiy we first reported on WUWT.
I think it was best summed up by this Tweet:
http://twitter.com/ElBuehn/status/416608616070664192
Now, after the first rescue ship The “Snow Dragon” failed:
Our rescue boat, the Xue Long, has had to turn back because the ice was too thick for it to get through. We're now awaiting Aurora Australis
— Alok Jha (@alokjha) December 27, 2013
Which we see in the distance here…
…all eyes are now on the Aurora Australis, which was trapped in ice for 3 weeks last month.
But, even that ship seems to have trouble picking through the sea ice. here is the webcam from the bow of the Aurora Australis:
![A133631800A[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/a133631800a1.jpg)
Link to webcam: http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora
Supposedly, the ice around the Akademik Shokalskiy 3-4 meters thick.
Then there’s the comedy of a scientific research expedition disguised as a junket for activists and reporters, such as this guy, tweeting up a storm from on-board:
The other fellow, Chris Turney, has some science credentials, but also has a propensity for wackadoodle alarmism as we see in this WUWT post: Now it’s 2°C climate change target ‘not safe’
Mostly, it’s a media sponsored event, presumably so they can tell us how terrible things are in Anarctica with melting and such:
WUWT reader “pat” writes at 2013/12/26 at 1:59 pm
seems this expedition was more a BBC/Guardian/ABC CAGW exercise!
18 Dec: Guardian: The Guardian lays claim to Antarctica – in pictures Journalists Alok Jha and Laurence Topham have landed in Antarctica with the 2013 Australasian Antarctic Expedition Documentary filmmaker Laurence Topham lines up a shot from the bows. Photograph: Alok Jha/Guardian…
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/gallery/2013/dec/18/guardian-antarctica-pictures
Guardian: Laurence Topham, documentary filmmaker
In 2007 he worked for Current TV, where he edited over 50 short-form documentaries for terrestrial broadcast…
http://www.theguardian.com/open-weekend/laurence-topham
Guardian: Science: Antarctica live (MASSIVE COVERAGE, NO HINT ABOUT THE SHIP’S CURRENT PREDICAMENT!)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live
26 Dec: BBC: Andrew Luck-Baker: Science continues for trapped Australasian Antarctic expedition Science reporter Andrew Luck-Baker is on board the Russian research vessel Shokalskiy, covering the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013 for the BBC World Service programme Discovery…
Tantalisingly, a low band of grey sky to the Northeast suggests clear water lies not so many kilometres away. The grey colour is light reflected from open water. The early Antarctic explorers named this colour phenomenon “water sky” and used it to navigate their route through the treacherous pack ice…
In addition to the Russian crew of 22, the expedition team consists of 18 professional scientists from Australia and New Zealand, and 22 volunteer science assistants. They are members of the public, ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s. They paid to join the scientific adventure…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25519059
25 Nov: ABC Lateline: $1.5 million Australian expedition to Antarctica Professor Chris Turney from the University of NSW is mounting the largest Australian science expeditions to the Antarctic with an 85-person team to try to answer questions about how climate change in the frozen continent might be already shifting weather patterns in Australia.
ABC’s MARGOT O’NEILL: The research stakes are high. Antarctica is one of the great engines driving the world’s oceans, winds and weather, especially in Australia. But there’s ominous signs of climate change.
CHRIS TURNEY: The Southern Hemisphere westerly winds encircle Antarctica, and over the last 20 or 30 years or so, they’ve been pushing further south. Now – so actually in a way it’s almost like Antarctica’s withdrawing itself from the rest of the world…
EMMA ALBERICI: And tomorrow night, in the second part of this special report, could the British Antarctic explorer Robert Scott have lived? We look at how Professor Turney discovered that choosing the right team can be a matter of life and death.
Meanwhile, in the “Spirit of Mawson” Spirit of “never let a good crisis go to waste”, the folks on-board have realized the world is watching, and decided to make a pitch for money at their website, presumably to fund next year’s research media junket:
Mother nature doesn’t seem to care about the comedy either way, as Antarctic sea ice is still over 2 standard deviations above normal.
National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) – Click the pic to view at source========================================================
UPDATE1: Thanks to Roger Tattersall “Tallbloke” who writes:
I’m amused to see Global Warmist Professor Chris Turney’s expedition to Antarctica to retrace polar explorer Douglas Mawson’s route and replicate measurements has run into a spot of bother.
Here’s an old news report on Mawson’s expedition
It looks like that part of the Antarctic was warmer in Mawson’s day than now. In fact the antarctic is currently colder than it has been for a long time. The high latitudes of the Southern Ocean have been cooling since the 1980′s according to SST data.
====================================================
UPDATE2: You can’t make this stuff up. This is from a news.com.au story covering the incident and the announcement made by the expedition:
Um, no, sea ice isn’t disappearing right now, it is growing in the Arctic and within two standard deviations:
National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) – click to view at sourceTwo standard deviations above normal in the Antarctic:
National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) – Click the pic to view at sourceAnd above normal globally:
Cryosphere Today – University of Illinois – Polar Research Group – Click the pic to view at source========================================================
UPDATE3:
A video has been found from 1912 showing Mawson landing in ice free Commonwealth Bay in 1912.
========================================================
UPDATE4: The Times of India reports:
SYDNEY: Bad weather on Monday forced back an Australian icebreaker struggling to reach a scientific expedition ship stranded off Antarctica, while snow and winds have prevented a helicopter rescue, authorities said.
The Aurora Australis made it to within 10 nautical miles of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which is stuck in an ice field, before retreating in the face of freezing winds and snow showers.
“Adverse weather conditions have resulted in the Australian Antarctic Division vessel Aurora Australis moving back into open water this afternoon,” the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
==========================================================
Related articles
- Rescue near for trapped Antarctic ship (foxnews.com)
- Cracks in ice new hope for stranded Antarctica ship (worldnews.nbcnews.com)
- Chinese icebreaker forced to cut Antarctic rescue attempt short (ctvnews.ca)
- Rescue of icebound Antarctic ship faces setback (foxnews.com)
Warmists meet Mother Nature and… MN wins, as always.
If the ice is there, then send some polar bears down there too. Problem solved!
You can’t make this stuff up – the AGW dude stuck in ice along with the Australian Green Party senator and their ilk. Priceless!
Fascinating account of the original Douglas Mawson expedition here.
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2012/01/the-most-terrible-polar-exploration-ever-douglas-mawsons-antarctic-journey/
Tamino and friends might compute now the chances that the one sciency boat down there is trapped exactly in the presumably one place where Antarctic sea ice is accumulating beyond icebreaking capability.
Remember the mantra, Antarctic sea ice doesn’t matter because it melts almost completely in the summer.
They are putting up a good front. I wonder how the sanitary conditions are.
Enter “Aurora Australis” for close to real time ship position information. It currently looks like the ship is within the ice line presented by NSIDC.
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/index.html
If they really felt that lack of sea ice was a problem, they wouldn’t be waiting on icebreakers to rescue them.
Hopefully they purchased sufficient carbon credits to save the rest of us from them.
Where’s Global Warming when you REALLY need it? ;-))
Weather not cooperating right now https://twitter.com/AMSA_News/status/417358293200142336
Troubled times ahead when they run out of coffee.
I wonder who picks up the tab. That’s got to cost a small fortune to send three icebreakers thousands of miles.
I’ve just had a look at the webcam for Aurora and clicked on the stern cam – Someone has wrote “Green” with some other writing in the snow on the burning deck – Answers on a postcard please.
@Mary Wilbur likely to match their sanity condition very soon.
Anyone taking bets that this will be reported in an honest manner by our ever-so-unbiased media?
I;m sure they’ve got an eco-deal with Starbucks to airlift in some lattes, all carbon-neutral, of course.
Well, it is now Monday in their neck of the woods and not a peep of a successful rescue.
@albertalad – send food, diesel, and biodegradable bog paper, shut off their internet, leave them there.
Poetic justice! They have been telling the world that we need to pay high taxes on fossil fuels to stop AGW; they get stuck in the substance they say is disappearing (clearly it isn’t), needing icebreakers burning fossil fuels to attempt to rescue them.
It would be wise for the local penguins to keep their distance, even a starving greenie could turn into a veracious carnivore!
According to Reuters it’s cracking up (and disappearing LOL): http://ca.news.yahoo.com/cracking-ice-bodes-well-antarctica-ship-rescue-112304356.html
I hope they will be ok. They have underestimated the ice, so I hope they do not underestimate the very real danger they are in.
What are the scientific objectives of this cruise?
At last – true Environmental Justice in action! In the most direct and immediately tangible terms, the expanding ice pack surrounds them with blunt and massive evidence that their beliefs are wrong. Yet, they continue to preach the AGW dogma, even as the antarctic climate tries to kill them. If that isn’t a hallmark of religious environmentalism, I don’t know what would be!
ABC’s MARGOT O’NEILL: The research stakes are high. ….But there’s ominous signs of climate change. Indeed, Margot. Ominously, the incredibly thick and extensive pack ice is trying to crush your ship!
Adding insult to their hypocritical injuries to the environment, consider of all of the energy, money, human effort, and resulting emissions/’pollution’ being needlessly expended to ‘rescue’ these enviro-miscreants from their own ice folly. Ahhhh – the massive, ice cold irony!
Looks like the Golgafrincham (Ark)(Antarc?) ship B has landed in Antarctica….and instead
of the captain spending time in a bubble bath, he’s worrying about his next cup of coffee….
Hope they bill the Grauniad back for this misadventure….even if AGW manniacs fiddle
the numbers, managing editors shouldn’t (then again, turning this episode into a disaster
is probably doing wonders for their circulation)…
Oh, how I love the smell of yellow journalism in the morning….not…
“In 1998, the Aurora Australis became stranded in ice and was towed into clear water by the Japanese icebreaker Shirase.”
Well, that doesn’t bode well for a successful mission. Neither does this bit of information:
“Aurora Australis can break level ice up to 1.23 metres (4 ft 0 in) thick at 2.5 knots.”
So how are they going to break through 3-4 meters of ice if 1.23 meters is their maximum?
But the models said there would be no ice!
The ice MUST be wrong.
It is fair to note that, while antarctic sea ice pack is at + 2 sigma levels, the arctic sea ice pack is nearing – 2 sigma levels again.
Aurora Australis is a ship of fools!
God bless their souls for they are up against a great irony.
Headlines you won’t see.
Green Activists Rescued by Fossil Fuels
Anti Fossil Fuel Advocates Rescued by Fossil Fuel
C’mon guys and girls, this is special ice. It is intelligent ice. It knew they were coming and, supported by skeptics, it has ambushed their ship. But, not to worry, because they are not on a junket, oh no, this is real science. They are going to find that the water under the ice is 10°C warmer than the ice and this heat is causing the ice to float just above the water so it can move around more freely.
If I remember right, Mawson came back across the ice alone, his face so disfigured that the first man to reach him cried out “My God, which one are you?”
Perhaps not the best person after whom to name ones expedition.
This is a classic. It beats writing article after article to denounce their lies. And who pays for the rescue of these idiots? What if the third attempt fails? Helicopters have to be sent in to pick them up. The Australian taxpayer pays.
deniers! thermal expansion of ice…that s where the missing heat is.
more ice in volume more heat.
Our local Gannett rag (The Staunton Newsleader, Staunton, VA) published an AP report in our Sunday paper stating that Chris Turney is heroically leading the rescue party for the poor, trapped cruise ship. I kid you not. Hilarious pretzel twisting mis-reporting to Cover their Bi-asses.
@GlynnMhor – Our modern fossil-fuel-powered industrial state will probably prevent the current bunch of warmist tweetmongers from being slapped by reality hard enough to force them to reevaluate their position.
Look what is written in the ice on the aft deck of the rescue ship:
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora
“Green”
Lord Galleywood,
At the end of the word ‘Green’ the ‘other writing’ is clearly a snow-angel made by someone lying down on the deck.
No idea what it’s supposed to mean though.
Seems like the Al Gore effect in play …
I didn’t catch his name but, is Al Gore aboard?
Sure sounds like his M.O.
Summertime….cold weather…lots of ice…yep, that sounds like Al.
cn
What is the symbol following green? It looks kind of like a toilet in profile.
Surely, since they’re devoted faithful, summer will save this ship of fools; in a day or three or more, much more.
Now who in Australia and perhaps New Zealand and Great Britain can FOI these rascals for their funding?
Also, does Australia have penalty fees for using the ice breaker for rescuing silly humans devoid of common sense? I sure hope so!
“Then there’s the comedy of a scientific research expedition disguised as a junket”
surely
“Then there’s the comedy of a junket disguised as a scientific research expedition” ?
The Arctic canoe fiasco, involving a bunch of even more naive true believers, also ended with too much ice. They, too, blamed the winds. Yes, the winds – must be because of climate change. Sigh….
Mac the Knife says:
December 29, 2013 at 12:04 pm
“It is fair to note that, while antarctic sea ice pack is at + 2 sigma levels, the arctic sea ice pack is nearing – 2 sigma levels again.”
Should that not read “….the arctic sea ice pack is FINALLY nearing – 2 sigma levels again.” /sarc
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_timeseries.png
In the video I see them walking on very “thin” ice.
David Ball says:
December 29, 2013 at 11:47 am
I hope they will be ok. They have underestimated the ice, so I hope they do not underestimate the very real danger they are in.
_____________________________________________________________________
They already have.
Thought you might enjoy this little pearler from the scientists on board, via NatGeo
Prince Harry supposedly reached the South Pole earlier this month, but debate later broke out about the multiple—three, to be exact—South Poles in the area.
Why is this the case? Let’s remember, the South Pole is essentially on a huge chunk of ice, which means the continent of Antarctica is constantly shifting around and moving.
Throw in global warming and ocean currents and you’ve got the recipe for a South Pole that moves about 33 feet (10 meters) per year.
Then there’s the idea of a magnetic South Pole, which also isn’t exactly steady, as it’s been shown to move northward toward Australia about six to nine miles (10 to 15 kilometers) per year.
From here
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131226-russian-ship-stuck-ice-mawson-trek-antarctica/?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_r1p_intl_ot_w#finished
Andres Valencia says:
December 29, 2013 at 12:07 pm
Aurora Australis is a ship of fools!
God bless their souls for they are up against a great irony.
_____________________
Pardon, but you have your ships mixed up.
The Guardian reports that air evacuation may be required (oh the horror of all CO2 from the helicopters). Fails to mention global warming in any way, fails to mention that Guardian reporters are on board. Does mention (quite bizarrely) that problems may arise “…if an iceberg began moving towards the ship.” I have to wonder how an iceberg can plow through the pack ice when icebreakers can’t?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/antarctica-live/2013/dec/29/trapped-antarctic-passengers-air-evacuation
I am really very concerned about the carbon footprint of this rescue attempt and also that the reputations of these worthy individuals may suffer, which would be bad for the Cause.
If only the great Gorebot was there, it would be fun to hear his spin on this very obvious example of man made global warming.
A climate change opportunist named Turney,
Was the tour guide for an Antarctic journey,
He trapped in the Ice his environmental tourists,
and diverse other journalists and warmists,
For the ice had little time for his dumb theory
I wonder is there was a consensus that there would be a clear passage?
Well, you really have to give credit where credit is due: These guys really know how to burn biblical amounts of diesel fuel.
I just hope they don’t run out of tofu….
Has Michael Mann blamed all this summer ice on a giant Koch machine, yet?
Looks as though the ice left its mark a few days ago:-
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_26/Crew-repairing-shell-plating-of-ice-trapped-Russian-ship-in-Antarctic-4427/
Louis says:
December 29, 2013 at 11:59 :
“Aurora Australis can break level ice up to 1.23 metres (4 ft 0 in) thick at 2.5 knots.”
So how are they going to break through 3-4 meters of ice if 1.23 meters is their maximum?
1.23 meters is the continuous depth they can steam through. If it is thicker the ship needs to ride up on the ice and break through, much slower process. Got to tour the Polar Star during college, it had large turbine engines they used for just the ice raming, 75,000 Housepower total. Commissioned in 1976, I think I toured I it 1980, so still shiny new.
Meanwhile, aboard the Akademik Schokalsiy, chief climate change scientist Chris Turney, is reporting that cracks are developing around the ice- encapsulated research (sic) vessel.
http://www.christurney.com/
For a day-to-day stirep (Situation Report) of the Aurora Australis, see here;
https://secure3.aad.gov.au/proms/public/schedules/display_sitrep.cfm?bvs_ID=19313
Reports include weather, temps (both air and water) and ice conditions.
The first thing to notice is that the progressive propaganda rag called The Guardian is deeply involved in this propaganda stunt. The second thing is to notice that less ice proves cAGW and yet more ice also proves cAGW according to the true believers of the anti-plant-food religion.
Look folks, if the government schools taught any logic or real science this scam could not go on. The very fact that any occurrence is said to be proof of cAGW invalidates the entire theory. This is not science for god’s sake.
Taphonomic says:
December 29, 2013 at 12:52 pm
The Guardian… Does mention (quite bizarrely) that problems may arise “…if an iceberg began moving towards the ship.”
I have to wonder how an iceberg can plow through the pack ice when icebreakers can’t?
____________________
The very largest of the icebergs have been factory equipped with the latest All Gore Effect- enabled GPS sensors and are programmed to automatically make their way to the nearest locus of Goreblovationism.
Update number two shows the depth of the AGW disconnect from reality. It must be warming, so ice must be disappearing. Even if satellites show it isn’t. They are just unlucky that what is left trapped their ship? Why not ask Trenberth to send the missing heat.
I wonder. Was there a 98% or 99% consensus among the climate alarmists that this wouldn’t happen? Hmmmm…….
I knew they would say this. Any change in anything, heck a run in my stockings, is meant to point to dangerous heavy breathing.
I guess we are not hearing the views of the sailors on the rescue ships because this is a family friendly site. Too bad. Might be interesting.
I was talking to my mother and she brought up the story about this ship stuck in ice. I told her that they were there researching global warming on the Antarctic ice. She didn’t know that. Which tells you already the spin is in effect. How convenient that the news leaves that important bit of information out.
I’m willing to bet money that there was a global warming story that was pre-prepared before these jokers left. A story filled with “coulds” and “it is worse than we thoughts”. The scientific studies start with the ending already, why not the propaganda too? In any event, the spin masters will either deep-6 a global warming story or create a climate disruption story. The problem is these spin masters still preach global warming in the end.
Seriously, can’t they just be left there until the ice does melt? It’s still a way to go until minimum, they’re safely on a ship, they can be resupplied easily by air, and they might develop some idea of just how powerful Mother Nature is compared to us puny mortals.
Aw, come on guys, I hate to spoil the fun but the ice moves around all the time and any vessel can get trapped at any time.
Regarding sanitation, I am sure the ship will be fitted with proper holding tanks which work a bit
like septic tanks (I nearly said sceptic tanks but thought it better not to) and will have supplies of everything else for a reasonable length of time; and the vessel can always be evacuated or re-supplied if necessary by rotary wing aircraft.
Also remember that it was the Captain who got the ship there, not the “scientists” and their “paying guests”. I spent three years commanding survey vessels and the people who hired the ships knew very well that if I said “We aren’t going to do that” then it didn’t happen, no matter how much extra cash was waved in front of either me or the owners.
More to the point, I wonder how much experience that particular Captain has in those waters. He is the one who will answer if/when things really go wrong.
Obviously the ice is being funded by big oil to embarrass the expedition.
At this minute the erstwhile BBC4 is showing movie ‘Scott of the Antarctic’
(Turney? not likely)
Wally626 says:
December 29, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Louis says:
December 29, 2013 at 11:59 :
“Aurora Australis can break level ice up to 1.23 metres (4 ft 0 in) thick at 2.5 knots.”
So how are they going to break through 3-4 meters of ice if 1.23 meters is their maximum?
1.23 meters is the continuous depth they can steam through. If it is thicker the ship needs to ride up on the ice and break through, much slower process. Got to tour the Polar Star during college, it had large turbine engines they used for just the ice raming, 75,000 Housepower total. Commissioned in 1976, I think I toured I it 1980, so still shiny new.
________________
The Swedish Icebreaker Oden appears to have been developed with the strategy of riding up on the ice to break through it, as the following video shows. Apparently, sea water is sprayed continuously on the ice pack to act as a lubricant.
Other videos of the Oden show her merely plowing through ice floes and such in less frozen environment, without spraying water.
Who pays for the clean-up if that ships gets crushed and goes down?
Now what was it the previous Chief Sclentific Advisor to the UK government, Sir Davld King, once said about Antanrtica and the last survivors of mnkind?
Oldseadog says:
December 29, 2013 at 1:22 pm
“Aw, come on guys, I hate to spoil the fun but the ice moves around all the time and any vessel can get trapped at any time.”
But the Guardian is very successful at getting trapped in ice while our planet is warming faster than at any time in history, don’t you think so?
“I have to wonder how an iceberg can plow through the pack ice when icebreakers can’t?”
A typical Antarctic plateau iceberg goes down 100-200 meters below the surface and weighs from several millions to several billion tons. If it is moving (e. g. because of currents) three meter thick sea ice is only marginally more effective than tissue paper to stop it.
“Tantalisingly, a low band of grey sky to the Northeast suggests clear water lies not so many kilometres away. The grey colour is light reflected from open water. The early Antarctic explorers named this colour phenomenon “water sky” and used it to navigate their route through the treacherous pack ice…”
This seems to state that open water reflects more light than sea ice. What happened to the runaway albedo-caused warming as the ice disappears?
Has anybody actually measures the albedos of ice and sea?
Oldseadog says:
“Aw, come on guys, I hate to spoil the fun but the ice moves around all the time and any vessel can get trapped at any time”
I certainly wouldn’t like to go to sea with you in charge. Getting caught in the ice press is quite dangerous and any number of ships have been crushed by ice over over the years.
Whom did they bring as Ice Master? (if anyone)
In the old times of the Hudson Bay Company, the Ice Master (typically an experienced arctic sailor from Orkney) was the only man who had the authority to tell the ship’s Captain where to go.
@ BruceC
December 29, 2013 at 1:03 pm
Nothing new from Aurora Australis for 19 hours.
Must still be sleeping.
One of the passengers, Janet Rice, Senator elect, Green Party. Her life partner is Penny Wheaton, climate scientist for CSIRO.
A quote from Greg Mortimor, expedition co-leader on Australian PM John Howard, “I’d like to take him to Antarctica (maybe a one-way ticket) and show him what we risk losing if we don’t act soon on climate change.”
Expedition press release: “Here ice is building… Forests of algae are dying as sea-ice blocks the light … Who can say … whether the low number of seals suggests changes to their population ? ”
—————————————
I have a few questions for these “scientists”:
1. What are the scientific references on dying algae and low numbers of seals?
2. If true, what are the references supporting the alleged role of climate in causing both “observations” ?
3. How does global warming explain simultaneously receding ice in the Arctic and expanding ice in the Antarctic ? References please.
4. Would it be preferable that Antarctic ice recede and that Arctic ice expand ? Please explain.
Hilarious announcement? Let’s see .. 74 people aboard, maybe a crew of 20 .. that leaves 54 “scientists and tourists” as per BBC. And “…The ship’s shell plating was ruptured on the starboard, 1.8 meters above the waterline. There is no danger to the crew or passengers.” Under these circumstances, they are deadly serious. Just like early Christians in the Coliseum.
C’mon guys, where’s your community spirit, we should be trying to help these poor unfortunates that Mother Nature has trapped, so stoke up your furnace, wind up the aircon (Southern Hemisphere) and drag the SUV out of the mothballs, and let em rip.
I mean guys n gals, CO2 is all powerful, and this was the same solution the people stuck on that ship proposed to save the victims of cyclone Haiyan – let’s not build cyclone shelters, build windmills and install solar panels instead.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11179386
Aurora 20km away from Akademik, (aka Ship of Fools), slow progress due to snow and winds.
Radio report mentioned evac by Helicopter from the Snow Dragon is likely as even if Aurora reaches Akademik, it may not be able to keep a passage clear.
Global Warming – the biggest hoax ever pulled off in the history of this world. It’s all about the money and control. Lies…
“This seems to state that open water reflects more light than sea ice. What happened to the runaway albedo-caused warming as the ice disappears?”
It’s the other way around: “water sky” is darker than the sky over ice. There is a word for the lighter sky over an icefield too, it’s called “ice blink”.
If all four ships get stuck, they could just wait it out for two or three years like other Antarctic expeditions have done. The sea ice eventually moves out of the way in less than three years. And there does appear to be penguins and seals in the area, so they could survive on them for two or three years like other Antarctic expeditions. If the diesel runs out, they could just use candles or whale oil to stay warm like other Antarctic expeditions have done and losses from frost-bite should be manageable.
Of course, this is factual proof there is no global warming here. Two wooden sailing ships went right through this exact same area 172 years ago and had few problems.
As the rations run out for our intrepid scientivists I have one good tip for them: Don’t eat yellow snow!!
Swiss Bob says:
December 29, 2013 at 12:30 pm
Lord Galleywood,
At the end of the word ‘Green’ the ‘other writing’ is clearly a snow-angel made by someone lying down on the deck.
No idea what it’s supposed to mean though.
————————————————————————
It’s the green-angel, there to protect the crew and bless the mission./s
From the captain … “the bad news is we’ve run out of scotch. The good news is we’ve got lots of ice!”.
Bill Illis says:
December 29, 2013 at 2:23 pm
If all four ships get stuck […]
———————————————
They could play ship to ship Euchre.
About helicopter evacuation, it might not be as easy as everyone seems to assume. This class of ship doesn’t have a helipad and landing on the uneven sea-ice is not at all easy, particularly when the weather is overcast and there is no contrast.
Harry, the yellow snow might be marginally more nutritious than the white snow…
Oldseadog says:
December 29, 2013 at 1:22 pm
“Aw, come on guys, I hate to spoil the fun but the ice moves around all the time and any vessel can get trapped at any time.”
Yeah, I hear that’s the problem they’re always having at Royal Caribbean.
RE: First pic above. If you wanted to be rescued, couldn’t you just walk over to the other ship?
Why don’t they use solar powered icebreakers?
Latest news reports say that following the failure of the French and Chinese ice breakers to reach the trapped ship, the Aurora Australis has now arrived, but may not get through the thick wall of ice surrounding the Russian ship! So the Chinese may air lift people off.
I hope they are going to plant some trees down there to off-set their carbon foot prints that they’ve left all over the ice!
😎
If there is a God, (s)he has a sense of humour.
Only a couple of years ago, the publicity stunt that was Row-to-the-“Pole” at the other end of mother earth was disrupted by …………. unexpected ice.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/07/31/the-row-to-the-pole-publicity-stunt-looks-doomed-to-failure-by-a-sea-ice-block/
I get the sense this incident is embarrassing the poo out of the alarmist trolls.
Not a whisper out of them this time around.
A century ago Mawson literally sailed his old-fashioned ship unimpeded through the Antarctic ocean.
Today, as a result of catastrophic climate change that is surely ‘worse than previously thought’ and has supposedly melted the Antarctic to within an inch of its life, their state of the art modern vessel is stuck fast like a plump little piggy in a pen.
Alarmists, the BBC, Guardian, Independent, ABC, C4, Ed Davey et al, UK Met Office and every other sopping wet liberal-agw-loving-grant-chasing ‘climate scientist’, activist and social commentator on Mother Gaia, please excuse the self-indulgent behaviour of all us Filthy Denier Sceptics while we collectively laugh our cocks off at your miserable expense.
Has anybody noticed Turney stands to make money from the global warming scare?
Professor Chris Turney (AAE Leader) (Link to Carbonscape)
http://www.spiritofmawson.com/aae-leaders/
Carbonscape was conceived by a team motivated to address the burgeoning problem of carbon dioxide (CO2) release.
http://carbonscape.com/about/overview/
Bill Illis says
“Of course, this is factual proof there is no global warming here. Two wooden sailing ships went right through this exact same area 172 years ago and had few problems”
That is not correct. In 1841.James Ross went through further east near longitude 180 where he only had to cross a fairly narrow ice barrier to get into the Ross Sea that is ice-free in summer (which he had heard of from sealers). This track is still used by “normal” tourist tours to East Antarctica. The Commonwealth Bay area was unknown until the Mawson expedition of 1911-12, and while this area is also nusually more-or-less icefree later in the summer it has a nasty reputation for storms..
Speed says: December 29, 2013 at 11:49 am
What are the scientific objectives of this cruise?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Not running out of Lew paper. The BBC/ Groniad ‘Journalists’ need something to write their yellow journalism on.
Swiss Bob says: December 29, 2013 at 12:30 pm
At the end of the word ‘Green’ the ‘other writing’ is clearly a snow-angel made by someone lying down on the deck. No idea what it’s supposed to mean though.
————————————————————-
I’ll bet it’s someone on the Aurora Australis who is p*ssed off that they had to interrupt a resupply mission to Casey Station in order to rescue a shipload of green/warmist fools. The 1600km detour will seriously affect some _ real_ research activities at Casey.
Also, as others have noted, the Aurora Australis is not a real icebreaker – it’s a research and resupply ship that has been built to operate in moderate ice-floe conditions. I doubt that it can break through the current ice mass.
Meanwhile the weather forecast is not looking good and the ship of fools is listing about 10 degrees. http://twitpic.com/dqge5e
The fools can thank their lucky stars that one of the rescue ships has a helicopter.
“Tamino and friends might compute now the chances that the one sciency boat down there is trapped exactly in the presumably one place where Antarctic sea ice is accumulating beyond icebreaking capability.”
Ha! Tracking the elusive cold spot.
While I love the delicious irony of CAGW warmunists trapped in ice while studying Global Warming, bottom line, their situation is serious. There are still a million things that can go wrong with this rescue. As they used to say at NASA, “Murphy was an optimist”
If ice does not break up on its own, they will have to abandon ship. There is no icebreaker on the face of Earth that could make it. Even Fiftieth Anniversary of Victory (50 лет Победы), the most powerful icebreaker ever can only cope with ice up to 2.8 m (9 feet) thick. And then, it could never make it to the Southern hemisphere, because it needs cold water as a coolant for its nuclear reactors, equatorial waters are just too warm for it.
What’s the carbon footprint of three icebreakers? Shouldn’t they be doing this under sail?
How did they persuade the captain to go there and risk his ship? You would think he would know better.
Isn’t it the BBC that have all their pension funds banked on carbon credits? So I do a search and
yep, and Tallbloke’s article about this came up on google.
Can’t find a direct link about the Guardian’s PF thus far.
Chris Turney has just tweeted his get out clause:
“Satellite report of conditions shows mass breakout of old sea ice from other side of Mertz Glacier. E winds packed us in.”
What a bunch of delusional idiots. What else can we say about it? The only serious point to make is that these idiots are getting public funding.
They went there to prove that there is no ice. They are now stuck in ice and will perhaps die in that ice. But they still don’t see any null hypothesis rejection.
Shouldn’t GreenPeace be protesting the use of so many fossil-fuel burning ships polluting that area of the world? Love to hear the response of those aboard if they were told the rescue mission was called off to honor such a protest. Surely they would understand.
“The fools can thank their lucky stars that one of the rescue ships has a helicopter.”
I thought that part of Antarctica had very dangerous wind conditions?
“Underwater, forests of algae are dying as sea-ice blocks the light.”
?!?!? …. Isn’t that what you’ve been crying about, too little sea ice?? You cans have a remarkable way of spinning the news to conform to your “..it’s worse than we thought” agenda.
We’re expecting now a whole new disaster in the making….
“SEA ICE KILLING ALGAE FORESTS- POLAR CAPS DOOMED”
Not a good sign, the captain asked his first mate for his brown pants.
Apart from a brief mention on Christmas Day ” We woke early this morning to a phone call tasking the Aurora Australis to render assistance to a vessel that has become trapped in sea ice in the Commonwealth Bay region.” since then nothing in their daily reports I find that odd.
Gripped by cold icy and crushing irony.
This whole fiasco of an expedition is providing the same amount of credibility as the search for big foot TV series. These folks leading the expedition are becoming so anxious about loosing face they are speaking gibberish before they consider the ridiculousness of their statements.
I just hope no one is seriously injured, I suppose then jokes would have to stop. This is funniest thread ever, it would be a shame if it couldn’t continue on into the New Year. ‘Iceman cometh’.
The harsh objective reality of Nature is literally crushing prognosticators of co2 climate doomsday; it’s almost like Nature herself is saying, hey you got it wrong.
“But the models said there would be no ice!
The ice MUST be wrong.”
The ice is a denialist. Call Professor Lew. Maybe the ice has conspiracy theories that need looking into.
“C’mon guys and girls, this is special ice. It is intelligent ice. It knew they were coming and, supported by skeptics, it has ambushed their ship.”
Yes, the denialist ice. Denialists are stupid, but this denialist ice is intelligent and supported by skeptics. Climate change can cause ice to be both stupid and smart, just like it can cause both hot and cold weather.
“They are just unlucky that what is left trapped their ship? Why not ask Trenberth to send the missing heat.”
What they need is some serious upwelling so that the massive heat trapped in the deep ocean can come up and melt the ice for them.
“Seriously, can’t they just be left there until the ice does melt? It’s still a way to go until minimum, they’re safely on a ship, they can be resupplied easily by air”
Ha ha, good one. No, human life on this planet should be reduced to manageable levels, unless it’s their human lives on the line, in which case massive hydrocarbons can be burned. They are so very special you know.
“1. What are the scientific references on dying algae and low numbers of seals?”
They counted the seals with the same scientific precision they used to count the Polar Bears. Or maybe they counted, and changed the numbers after the fact like they did with 100 year old temps. Maybe they counted and then threw the data away because they didn’t have the computer space to store it. Or, maybe they didn’t count at all – well that couldn’t be, because it wouldn’t be scientific. Maybe they just surveyed the folks on board and came up with a consensus. Literally anything is possible isn’t it?
“Global Warming – the biggest hoax ever pulled off in the history of this world. It’s all about the money and control. Lies…”
Gaia you are in such deep denial.
“And there does appear to be penguins and seals in the area, so they could survive on them for two or three years like other Antarctic expeditions.”
Now you’re talking! Let them get back to a more natural and sustainable way of life. Live more like their ancestors did. Seal blubber – raw! Full of good natural nutrients too. Ha!
***
This is what I call a target-rich environment
This is going to cost the ship owners some big bucks.
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/rescue-of-icedin-ship-could-cost-owners-a-packet-20131229-301t1.html#ixzz2ouUXDsR0
http://www.theguardian.com/world/antarctica-live/video/2013/dec/29/akademik-shokalskiy-evacuated-helicopter-improve-video
StefanL says:
December 29, 2013 at 3:05 pm
http://thesargasso.blogspot.ca/2013/12/akademik-shokalskiy-portstarboard.html
Pamela Gray says:
December 29, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Pamela, “any“ combination of you, stockings, and holes in said stockings leads to points of heavy breathing …. 8<) (Ducks incoming dangerous points…)
@StephanL:
“I’ll bet it’s someone on the Aurora Australis who is p*ssed off that they had to interrupt a resupply mission to Casey Station in order to rescue a shipload of green/warmist fools.”
Good point. And if I were on the Aurora Australis, I’d run out there and and write “folly” underneath- there’s space for it.
On the first day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
A Mediocre Icebreaker in which to see the Southern Sea
On the second day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Two Wobbling Penquins
and a Mediocre Icebreaker in which to see the Southern Sea
On the third day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Three Useless News Stories
Two Wobbling Penquins
and a Mediocre Icebreaker in which to see the Southern Sea
On the fourth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Four Radio Distress Calls
Three Useless News Stories
Two Wobbling Penquins
and a Mediocre Icebreaker in which to see the Southern Sea
On the fifth day of Christmas
…
Ok, I’m done, I always hated that song anyway.
re: “I just hope no one is seriously injured, I suppose then jokes would have to stop.”
I guess we should never wish that evil befall others, but these people have been the cause of much suffering on the part of the poor around the world. Never forget that high energy prices and high taxes to fund the “green” incentives hurt the poor the most. Plus many of the “greens” have called for a major reduction in global population — and just who decides who is murdered to make this little green wet-dream come true has not been specified.
I think these people have been the cause of much death and misery. I would not be able to suppress a grin if they met the fate they want the poor to meet. (and I would not feel guilty one little bit)
Yes Vukcevik,
We should keep some perspective, these activists are in some peril, although I’d imagine they’ll be safe with 3 rescue ships in the area. I see the jokes as fair game for the moment, but in the event of a crisis we need to think about their welfare. I would hope though that the Australian Government would take a good hard look at how it came to pass that a bunch of activist idiots managed to spend several million dollars from three governments treasuries, without so much as a “by your leave”.
“…..but in the event of a crisis we need to think about their welfare. ”
They come second place to the welfare of the crewmembers on the ships send to rescue those propaganda peddlers.
The crew are just doing their jobs but the passengers are a bunch of zealot profiteers selling politics as science.. As dirty as they come in my book.. Snake oil in a empty bottle.. It wouldn’t bother me a bit if they had to walk home..
Taxpayer funded media release.
http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/documents/30122013AkademikShokalskiyUpdate6_Media_Release.pdf
“At the end of the word ‘Green’ the ‘other writing’ is clearly a snow-angel made by someone lying down on the deck.”
I’m willing to bet the usual 5 Quatloos that at least one of the symbols in that string is an Anchor……
Hat Tip to justsomeguy31167
Here’s a map from sailwx
” Shackleton is DEAD….” Kind of like the “zealots” will be if they try to walk out, without someone
of the caliber of Ernst Shackleton to lead them.
Current cam views from the Australis show the ship is actively breaking ice.
OK all you ship guys looking for a project!
Find the engines in each icebreaker, and start calculating average fuel burns for each, plus the average fuel burn of the trapped ship making electricity for these goofs.
Post your results, and then it can be quantified for this whole fiasco. Neatness will not be graded, but the math will be.
Gentlemen, start your slide rules. Oops, giving away my age — I mean calculators.
News 20 minutes ago:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-30/bad-weather-holds-off-antarctic-rescue/5177928
The Aurora Australis is stalled in a blizzard 20 nautical miles from the Akademik Shokalskiy.
Still, no worries, eh?
Not convinced that it is actively breaking the ice, looking at the cam 4 and 8 hours ago it looks more like it is in thin/broken ice currently. The weather also looks bad with poor visibility.
http://www.camscape.com/Other/World/Aurora-Australis-Antarctic-Icebreaker-34894.php
We’ve had a good laugh (you’d need a heart of stone not too…) but seriously. Going into high southern latitudes, let alone within the ice line is a hazardous activity. Was there actually serious consideration given to balancing the value of the “research” against the risks to the participants, and indeed to any third party who might get sucked into dragging their sorry ass back to safety.
I’m happy to level the same criticism against the recent royal/celebrity South Pole dash stunt. The celebrity participants could have all donated more directly than the publicity stunt could raise from wider “awareness” . and it avoids the risk that third parties have to put their lives at risk to save yours, when there is no actual need for you to be there.
As we used to say at high school when someone farted badly – it stinks at -20°C
My high school was before AGW, hence, this one stinks even at -40°C … or less
@Luke Warmist
Sliderule is broken.
Guess: 2800 tons of CO2 for whole fiasco, including detours for 3 ice breakers and hot air spewed from propagandist Guardian reporters and tax-funded BBC reporters.
“I just hope no one is seriously injured, I suppose then jokes would have to stop.”
I’ll only match their attitude shown to me when I expressed my dismay to them (Guardian) about the 33000 who died in the cold in the UK last year.
“…just old people and undesirables ” I was told.
I have no pity for this ship of fools I only feel for the rescuers tasked to haul their butts out of there and the pollution that would result if this ship gets crushed and sinks.
They are the architect of their own misfortunes based on a huge lie that’s harming us all.
For a day-to-day stirep
Yes they are in epic stir but I think you meant sitrep.
Let me see if I can code that correctly.
For a day-to-day stirep
Yes they are in epic stir but I think you meant sitrep.
[For those not NAVSEA/MMS-fluent, a SITREP is a “situation report” – A highly stylized all-capitalized government-bureaucrazy-enabled pre-formatted daily (or hourly) report about the ship and what has happened, will happen, might happen next. Mod]
I’m not seeing that. Mon 30 Dec 2013 02:30 am. (sic)
When these chaps set off they obviously didn’t think they would get stuck. This leads me to think they sadly believed in the very expensive propaganda, propagated by them. They must be laughing among themselves at the irony and wondering how to spin stuck in ice to global warming. Never fret, Dana will soon be along to explain how the missing deeeeeeeep heat pops up once in a while to slow down the melting of THAT area of ocean. 🙂
This statement puts spin doctors to shame.
RACookPE1978 says:
December 29, 2013 at 3:48 pm
Pamela Gray says:
December 29, 2013 at 1:17 pm
I knew they would say this. Any change in anything, heck a run in my stockings, is meant to point to dangerous heavy breathing.
Pamela, “any“ combination of you, stockings, and holes in said stockings leads to points of heavy breathing …. 8<) (Ducks incoming dangerous points…)
_______________
She's a redhead, so you might be asking for it. In one sense or another.
I note they claim that the increased sea ice has freshened the water below. I’m assuming they mean it’s become more like fresh water than sea water?? I’m puzzled as to how this happens. I though the opposite would be true as sea ice is sea water sans the sea salt.
Not to mention that they claim that disappearing sea ice generally is bad but in their area increasing sea ice is bad.
It seems with the global warming crowd it’s heads they win, tails you loose (thus the new newspeak tag ‘climate change’).
To quote a runner up of the Bulwer Lytton contest of www: As the sun dropped below the horizon, the safari guide confirmed the approaching cape buffaloes were herbivores, which calmed everyone in the group, except for Herb, of course. — Ron D Smith, Louisville, KY
I would hate to see a Greentard die from their own ignorance. May they survive and be forever ridiculed…
Laughter is, after all, the best medicine.
Was their ship running on biodiesel? If not then please stop telling us “we must act now!”
Congrats to the Aurora Australis who’s webcam is now the number one viewed webcam on camscape.
And another from a winner of a dishonorable mention: This was going to be a science fiction novel until I realized that you actually have to know some real science for it to work well, so I changed it to a fantasy novel instead, because that way I can just make up the rules as I go, unhampered by the laws of physics or chemistry, as if you knew what they were anyway. — Thor F. Carden, Madison, TN
“I just hope no one is seriously injured, I suppose then jokes would have to stop.”
Jokes? Nothing about these people or what they are trying to do is funny.. If it was a junior high class out looking for Bigfoot we would save the jokes for later.. These people and the people they represent want to enslave you to a harsh green lifestyle based on a computer model.. Trust me they are not looking for Bigfoot.. They found their monster in a computer lab and its good enough for them..
Meanwhile the weather forecast is not looking good and the ship of fools is listing about 10 degrees.
That is a VERY serious list. Add in:
“……The ship’s shell plating was ruptured on the starboard, 1.8 meters above the waterline.
And I’d say that they are in very serious trouble. Especially in a storm. The list will make any kind of helicopter rescue dangerous even if the chopper doesn’t set down on the ship.
The Ship of Stools (sp? – no I spelled it right) is in great if not immediate danger. In a military ship they would shore up the break in the hull and begin pumping or counter flooding. I doubt if they are equipped for counter flooding and I have no idea if they have the requisite shoring material in stores.
They say schadenfreude is a dish best served cold.
Some are asking how they could get themselves into this fix. I think it’s a simple case of all followers, no leaders. Prancing along after the CAGW Pied Piper, but there is no piper, just the prancers. Afterwards they will wonder who was supposed to be the leader. Ship of fools, indeed.
Latest BBC News: No progress made by Aurora Australis for to hours.
That’s two hours of course. Sorry for the typo.
Captain Ahab on the Pequod narrowly escaped ensnarement in Antarctic ice while hunting for the white whale Moby Dick.
The Akademik Shokalskiy was not so luck, becoming frozen fast while carrying out the errand for the BBC/Guardian White Elephant.
Joe says:
“Seriously, can’t they just be left there until the ice does melt?”
YES!! Thank you for voicing what we all think should happen.
So this is why climatologists no longer do field work. I’ve wondered about that. And I wonder if they know there is a very good chance they may all be dead in a few days. This is a very serious problem and the mirthful responses should probably be toned down until their fate is known.
Other_Andy says:
December 29, 2013 at 4:01 pm
“…..but in the event of a crisis we need to think about their welfare. ”
They come second place to the welfare of the crewmembers on the ships send to rescue those propaganda peddlers.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
My thoughts exactly.
I really do not care if people who wish me and others to live short, nasty brutal lives end up earning Darwin Awards. However I do care if those who went to the rescue of these idiots are hurt.
Cam shot definitely shows the ship making way with visible screw (propeller) wash astern and a visible field of broken ice astern. The character of the wash indicates the engines are (at the time of the last photo) not working that hard. Perhaps the ship is trying to maintain what little bit of penetration it has made and hold the surrounding ice at bay.
R. de Haan says:
[Latest BBC News: No progress made by Aurora Australis for two hours.]
Have you got a URL for that ?
Latest position for Aurora Australis puts her very near the coast SE of the Russian ship.
See map on my top blog post.
A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler).
Perhaps, by November 2014 …
“The increase in sea ice has freshened the seawater below, so much so that you can almost drink it. This change will have impacts on the deep ocean circulation.”
I believe that when salt water freezes it expels salt thus leaving dense water that then sinks and forms the basis of thermohaline overturning circulation. The fresher tasting water would be the result of melting sea ice as you would expect this time of year.
Latest AA webcam is nowhere near current – that is a shot of them en-route.
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora
The best thing that can come out of this debacle is that all persons on the “research” ship are rescued and then, once they return, are subsequently embarrased to the point of ridicule for doing something so supremely stupid…
A commenter over at :
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/y2kyoto-trapped.html#comments
Linked to this funny video, it regards pickup trucks but the idea is the same.
A 10 degree list is only mildly inconvenient. I was on a ship that ran aground in a fiord in Norway. When the tide receded, we pitched over 30 degrees and remained so for nearly three days. To sleep, we would tuck our blankets under the mattress to keep us from rolling out of our racks.
The link for the stern cam on the Aurora Australis has disappeared for me. It defaults to the bow cam as before but the stern and port links that were below the bow picture are gone.
Hi Scute
Nah, I can still get to it..
Try [refresh]?
Bugger….the reload too…
richcar1225 says:
December 29, 2013 at 5:40 pm
“The increase in sea ice has freshened the seawater below, so much so that you can almost drink it. This change will have impacts on the deep ocean circulation.”
I believe that when salt water freezes it expels salt thus leaving dense water that then sinks and forms the basis of thermohaline overturning circulation. The fresher tasting water would be the result of melting sea ice as you would expect this time of year.
________
That’s right.
They had it bass- ackwards from reality. What else is new from “Climate Scientists”.
———————————-
Rob Ricket says:
December 29, 2013 at 5:47 pm
A 10 degree list is only mildly inconvenient. I was on a ship that ran aground in a fiord in Norway. When the tide receded…
______________
They aren’t listing because they’ve settled on shallow bottom, as in your anecdote.
If their ship is listing it means:
a) They’ve been holed below waterline and have taken on water
b) The ice has jacked up one side and might be capable of ripping into the hull, below the water line
These people are in peril. If the ship sinks, they will have to remain in place on the ice, waiting for air or sea rescue, which has failed so far. If they try to walk out, they face the danger of incapacitation due to injury on uneven ice, or of slipping into the sea, when even if pulled out quickly, they would die from hypothermia.
theN!!!
Ahh never mind…..you know what I mean….
Yup…perhaps someone took issue with the green message written in ice.
The AA stern cam shows they are in open water.
Did they try backing up a bit and then gunning it?
On a stupid note…….
I once had my buddy tow my car with a garden hose. That’s all we had.
We doubled it up and away we went.
All went well until we came to a busy street and my buddy pulled out, turning left, without enough room and time in the traffic gap for me.
So I hit the breaks and he just drove off.
The hose stretched a remarkable distance with all of the traffic stopped, and watching, until it snapped.
By buddy said he wasn’t aware of any trouble until he saw the hose shoot out from under his car in front of him. “LOL” was invented then
Yep, I tried refresh and clicked out and back in before commenting. However, on trying again, the other two cams did reappear. Funny thing is, the bow cam showed the old 9:00 picture. When I had problems it was the 9:30 pic. Now it’s changed to the 10AM pic.
It’s also showing a clear sea to the stern and heading WSW. Was SE. Are they trekking round to a different angle of attack I wonder?
Steve Oregon says:
December 29, 2013 at 6:10 pm
Did they try backing up a bit and then gunning it?
__________________________
There are a lot of icebreaker films on YouTube. Your suggested technique is valid and widely practiced, even by the largest ice breakers.
Correction…a happy redhead with a really great boyfriend! Cuz when the redhead is happy, EVERYBODY is happy!!!
Pamela Gray says:
December 29, 2013 at 6:17 pm
Correction…a happy redhead with a really great boyfriend! Cuz when the redhead is happy, EVERYBODY is happy!!!
__________________________
And you’re a really great sport and can take our ornery teasing when we’re poking you in the ribs. We appreciate having you around.
Did these geniuses not realise when they encountered ice 100KM from their destination that it wasn’t going to happen? They have a GPS – they know how much further it is to the Bay. How does this end in the call “lets keep going as planned 100km deep into the ice-field, I’m sure we’ll be fine.
Anyhow, assuming it ends in helicopter rescue and then the ship being left to break up, these envirocriminals should like Exxon after the Valdez oil spill. They should face jail, and penalties should extend to the people that put them up to this. Guardian, ABC, universities – every warmist who paid for the Ship of Fools to commit their environmental crimes should be held to account. Equal before the law – whether you intended to ship a tanker full or oil or recreate Mawson’s mission to highlight cAGW, you are equally culpable, right?
Icebergs easily move through sea ice. With drafts that can exceed a couple thousand feet and made of frozen fresh water, bergs treat 4 meters of pack ice like tissue paper. But one would no doubt ground before reaching the intrepid explorers.
Travel across even stable pack ice can be extremely difficult, even without considering weather and ice movement. Looking at some of the folks involved, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Finally, don’t think of pack ice as the stuff you put in your drink – think of it as concrete. Moving concrete that can turn that ship into a pretzel. I seriously doubt that ship’s hull is shaped like the Fram, designed to lift up when the ice starts to squeeze.
Well, from all the media reports that I have seen, the tourists/activists/ media are having the time of their lives.
What could be more relaxing and gratifying than being trapped by sea ice, knowing that you won’t reach your goal, and the rescue ships are having great difficulty reaching you?
Yahoo, maybe a helicopter ride at the end of it all, Hopefully before the Donner family bar-b-q starts.
dp says:
December 29, 2013 at 5:32 pm
So this is why climatologists no longer do field work. I’ve wondered about that. And I wonder if they know there is a very good chance they may all be dead in a few days. This is a very serious problem and the mirthful responses should probably be toned down until their fate is known.
*********************************************************************************************
Why?????
The SS CAGW…
What a fitting metaphore for the sorry state of the now disconfirmed CAGW hypothesis; stranded, screaming for rescue while being surrounded by evidence of its own demise….
“It’s worse than we thought.” TM….. not so much….
What do you call a shipload of true-believing, global warming geniuses trapped in a summer icepack?
Howling, knee-slapping funny! But only if they live to tell the tale.
Thinking this has the makings of a great screenplay. Before filming begins, selection of superb actors/actresses that can portray crew/activists/reporters/tourists is important. I am volunteering myself as a hapless tourist/scientific assistant. (I can do hapless well.) Also, recommending to the producers Anthony Watts portray himself. 😉
Seriously, thanks to all the commenters the last few days. Have learned a lot about Antartica, ice conditions, resupply missions and icebreakers (real ones and wannabes).
While looking around today found an interesting report on the dismal state of U.S. polar operations. Interesting to note the comment in there stating that Antarctic operations have become more difficult necessitating a standby icebreaker as a rescue vessel. “Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization”, July 24, 2013. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL34391.pdf
bobl says:
December 29, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Yes Vukcevik,
We should keep some perspective, these activists are in some peril, although I’d imagine they’ll be safe with 3 rescue ships in the area. I see the jokes as fair game for the moment, but in the event of a crisis we need to think about their welfare. I would hope though that the Australian Government would take a good hard look at how it came to pass that a bunch of activist idiots managed to spend several million dollars from three governments treasuries, without so much as a “by your leave”.
——————-
To use a Biblical reference:
“Is there no-one left to condemn you? Then neither do I condemn you. [BUT] Go and sin no more.”
No more grants.
@vikcevuk;
voracious, please! Vowels are not interchangeable.
That AGW zealots touting the demise of polar sea ice get their ship stuck in Southern Ocean sea ice during a voyage to establish their beliefs is definitely ironic. That they asked to be rescued by fossil fuel burning behemoths is more than ironic, it’s carbonic.
It appears i did not post earlier……
My comment was relating to the salinity reference under the update2 yellow highlight.
So,,,,,, water now gets less salty with ice forming in the area? They could almost drink it?
Really?
“The increase in sea ice has freshened the water below, so much that you could almost drink it?/
Just sayin,,, what?
Some of us are reasonable and intelligent people who know when a line should not be crossed in debate. Wishing one’s opponents dead crosses that line. If you agree then your question makes no sense. If you don’t agree, your question is of no consequence. You have no winning position in this conversation.
What goes around comes around as long as your not ice bound.
Hope they are not a gun free zone to just on th off chance a polar bear comes by a bit hungry.
That and they might lower themselves to hunt for food.
5pm Monday NZT radio news here
Aurora stalled in snow and high wind, approx 20 nautical miles from the Ship of Fools. It maybe 24 hours till further attempt will be made to reach Akademie.
What do you call 55 CAGW idiots trapped in ice?
Not enough idiots
Hopefully it will end well, then the recriminations will be interesting to hear.
Nah; I have the Webb telescope build webcam linked on my desktop. Much more interesting than watching ice melt; and they’re darn slow building the telescope.
I watched the greeniad groniad’s video showing the ship of fools. Sure looks like Alok Jha’s hat uses real fur.
Surely this statement should live in infamy. And be brought out to uproarious laughter every time any of these fools try to pontificate about the climate or seek funding or sell the
carbonscarecarbonscape services.These fools will continue to spout falsehoods even while freezing solid. In one article they comment that the temperature is warm and the ice is softening endangering those walking around… Ice feet thick is soft? To what, an asteroid hitting it?
Oh c’mon; can’t we just all face north and send a more powerful GHG (methane) south to save them? It should help with their summer, by summer.
Let’s see, stay on the ship and freeze, ride a tiny helicopter in possibly bad weather, or c: walk a short distance across the ice, say 15-20 kilometers? Why not start out now? Then they can be picked up as soon as the Aurora gets close enough.
I hope they tweet trek photos!
I hope somebody tweets them about the required New Year celebrating with a nekkid polar bear swim!
Now about that redhead’s stocking run? No wonder she’s on a WUWT vacation…
I keep some perspective alright.
Can a whole ships company be given a Darwin Award?
The rescuers and the trapped ship’s crew get my sympathy and financial support if needed.
The activists and their backers need to pony up compensation, pay back every dollar spent on attempting to rescue them from the 4m of global warming they are encased in.
However I doubt any of them will even have the decency to apologize to their rescuers, for putting their lives in danger, let alone compensate those who dropped their own tasks to rescue a ship of fools.
Tis very hard to not make mocking sardonic jests when viewing stupidity of this level, however it turns out.
great pic and a video from Nicole de Losa:
29 Dec: NBC: Bad weather threatens rescue of stranded Antarctica ship
One of three rescue vessels involved in the mission, China’s Snow Dragon, sent a helicopter Sunday over the Shokalskiy, a Russian-flagged ship, to assess the ice condition.
“From the air, only a very tiny glint of the deep blue sea water is visible,” Xinhua News Agency journalist Zhang Jiangzhong reported. “The whole area around was covered with ice.
“The Russian ship is somewhat tilting on one side. Many people were standing on the area on the right of the ship, waving,” the report continued. “After checking all sides of the ship, the helicopter returned. The captain considered that the ship and passengers are safe but the ice situation still extremely serious and still beyond the Snow Dragon’s ice-breaking ability.”…
Spirits on the ship appeared high, with several members of the team posting video diaries on YouTube.
“We’re all having a good time here. The morale on the boat’s excellent,” Nicole de Losa said in one, adding that there would be dancing and singing on the ice later.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/29/22096342-bad-weather-threatens-rescue-of-stranded-antarctica-ship
add Google to the media mix involved in this trip! no wonder google has barely carried the story on its “news” page:
21 Nov:Daily Telegraph: Rohan Smith: Hornsby student Olivia Kong’s Brain Matter design Google’s favourite
The 15-year-old’s design was deemed the very best of thousands of entries from across the country in the Doodle for Google competition.
It will now be splashed across the Australian landing page of the world’s biggest search engine operator, Google…
For her award-winning design, Olivia wins a Chromebook and $10,000 worth of technology for her school.
***Her teacher, Nicole De Losa, wins an expedition to Antarctica to bring knowledge back to her students…
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/the-hills/hornsby-student-olivia-kongs-brain-matter-design-googles-favourite/story-fngr8i1f-1226757525133
——————————————————————————–
For heaven’s sake! The icebreakers will be FRACKING (fracturing) the ice. This MUST BE STOPPED at once! /sarc.
There are 76 people on board. The two lifeboats don’t look like they could hold 38 each.
Brian H says:
December 29, 2013 at 7:07 pm
vukcevic says:
December 29, 2013 at 11:44 am
It would be wise for the local penguins to keep their distance, even a starving greenie could turn into a veracious carnivore!
@vikcevuk;
voracious, please! Vowels are not interchangeable.
——————————————————————————
Well, actually he may have meant veracious………..
ve·ra·cious (v-rshs)
adj.
1. Honest; truthful.
2. Accurate; precise.
NZ Willy says
‘just the prancers’
~~~~~~~
They’ll haveto wait some time for Donner und Blitzen.
Let’s all face due south and [trimmed]. That contribution of carbon dioxide will surely help.
[Unwarranted. Cut it out. Mod]
I think the ship was relying on IPCC models, but someone forgot to check reality.
From http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/9562935/Icebreaker-abandons-rescue-attempt :
“Icebreaker abandons rescue attempt
The Aurora Australis has abandoned its first attempt to cut through the ice surrounding the stranded Akademik Shokalskiy after moving just two nautical miles. “
The scientist and other tourists can be helicoptered out. Machinist mates will be stuck with their captain until:
1) ice breaks up, either naturally or through outside help;
2) ship’s listing due to ice pressure makes capsizing imminent;
3) Hull integrity is breached, making a sinking a real probability.
Walking out is not an option.
@ fobdangerclose: 8:03 pm
Hope they are not a gun free zone to just on th[e] off chance a polar bear comes by a bit hungry.
That and they might lower themselves to hunt for food.
No poly bears down here digger……the great whites, orca’s, 5m salt water crocs, funnel-webs, stone fish, etc; drove them out before they could get this far.
The latest news otherwise New Years Eve Celebrations have taken over the news columns. MSM has lost interest. Maybe we can all ask, “Somebody trapped where?”
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/20534563/icebreaker-battles-to-reach-antarctic-ship/
December 29, 2013 at 7:43 pm
Steve B says:
December 29, 2013 at 6:33 pm
Why????
Some of us are reasonable and intelligent people who know when a line should not be crossed in debate. Wishing one’s opponents dead crosses that line. If you agree then your question makes no sense. If you don’t agree, your question is of no consequence. You have no winning position in this conversation.
*************************************************************************************************
Oh I dunno about that. Bet you would have gone to the gladiator fights in Roman times.
This is just the beginning a the climate doom that is descending on the Southern Hemisphere. Much worse is yet to come. See more here… 😉
http://climatesanity.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/time-to-recognize-approaching-southern-hemisphere-disaster/
Steve B says:
December 29, 2013 at 9:22 pm
Oh I dunno about that. Bet you would have gone to the gladiator fights in Roman times.
Well it would’ve been warmer!
/sarc
dp says:
December 29, 2013 at 7:43 pm
Steve B says:
December 29, 2013 at 6:33 pm
Why????
Some of us are reasonable and intelligent people who know when a line should not be crossed in debate. Wishing one’s opponents dead crosses that line. If you agree then your question makes no sense. If you don’t agree, your question is of no consequence. You have no winning position in this conversation.
**********************************************************************************************************
As one poster said earlier in this thread, these are the contributors of thousands of deaths due to energy poverty which would not exist if it was not for this terrible scam. Retribution is warranted especially when mother nature herself dishes it out. No sympathy here. Unfortunately they will get off scott free and spin the whole thing.
[Ease up. NOBODY representing this site wishes harm come to ANYBODY. ANYWHERE. Mod]
What gets me about all this, had it been a heatwave, bushfire, ‘extreme weather’ or such, it would have been front page news with big scary pics.. This gets buried on about page 20 with about 5 lines.
Thank you, Mods – sorry to have you dragged into this. I know Anthony to be a superb and decent fellow and would surely not wish harm on anyone from the opposition. Not everyone on our team is so self-directed.
Why have they taken tree ring specialists with them?Are they looking for a forest?Or is this a free trip for there mates.
Didn’t Al Gore arrange for a trip to Commonwealth Bay in January 2012 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Mawson expedition?
The ice is in denial.
3 Things to report.
Chris Turney tweets, “It’s so warm. it’s actually raining!” 8 min ago
This just in SMH reports,”Aurora Australis abandons attempt to save Akademik Shokalskiy in Antarctica”
smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/aurora-australis-abandons-attempt-to-save-akademik-shokalskiy-in-antarctica-20131230-302na.html
Images from the stern of the Aurora Australis………… Someone got out on the deck and wrote into the snow……’GREEN’….
Not sure what that means.
Was it a deckhand making fun of the green movement?
Was it one of the media members on board letting us know GREEN is to the rescue?
either way, we got Chris twisting in the wind.. literally, and all he can do is say that’ its so warm its raining’, while the boat to save them has to turn back because the skipper is afraid of being stuck himself.
You cant make this crap up.
Paul Carter –
the writer – Fairfax Media’s Nicky Phillips, is on the Aurora Australia.
note the end of the article:
The Xue Long, which has been waiting near the Mertz Glacier since Boxing Day, was also making its way back to open water.
“They’re trying to make it back into open water so they’re not trapped as well,” Captain Doyle said.
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/aurora-australis-abandons-attempt-to-save-akademik-shokalskiy-in-antarctica-20131230-302na.html
Anyone can dig up information on how this presumably “first privately funded expedition” is in fact paid for? How much second-sourced taxpayer money is in it (TV license money, for example)?
Scientific expedition, or just plain Tourism?
Would you believe it? Now that the Aurora Australis had to turn back, the “Scienific Expedition” has suddenly mutated into plain, ordinary tourism – see http://www.smh.com, or http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/aurora-australis-abandons-attempt-to-save-akademik-shokalskiy-in-antarctica-20131230-302na.html :
“Aussie icebreaker abandons rescue
Nicky Phillips 3:48pm
The tourist boat Akademik Shokalskiy remains stranded in Antarctica
as Aurora Australis turns back. ”
What a hypocrisy
Captain Doyle had informed Shiokalskiy by email and radio of the current situation.
“They’re OK at the moment, they’ve got no problems,” he said.
The captain planned to wait until the weather cleared before it deciding whether to cut another path through the ice.
The icebreak was designed to cut through ice floes of about 1.35 metres, not the thick ice, some of which had grown over several years, that had built up in Watt Bay.
“It wasn’t all multi-year ice, there was some first year ice, which can be thick especially if it’s old first year ice,” he said.
Now first-year ice is thick? Must be because it’s in the Antarctic. I could have sworn first-year ice in the Arctic is considered thin and fragile.
Outstanding. Only in narcissistic Guardian land is this possible.
Whilst the crews of four vessels are now worrying themselves sick and putting their lives at risk to save them, the passengers tweet about how they have set up a “media hub”. No, really:
https://twitter.com/GdnAntarctica/status/417541894525030402/photo/1
Trying, and failing, to resist feeling schadenfreude.
In case you missed it:
“30 Dec: SMH: Nicky Phillips: Aurora Australis abandons attempt to save Akademik Shokalskiy in Antarctica
The Aurora Australis has abandoned its first attempt to cut through the ice surrounding the stranded Akademik Shokalskiy in Antarctica after moving just two nautical miles.
About 6am, the Aurora’s captain, Murray Doyle, began to manoeuvre the icebreaker through thick wedges of consolidated sea ice.
But by 9am [midday Sydney time], the master made the call to turn the ship around and move back into open water.
“The ice became too thick for us to penetrate. Some of the floes are up to two metres of ice with a metre of snow on top and very compact…
“There was just nowhere for us to go.”
Captain Doyle also feared that the 55-kilometre south-easterly wind running up the ship’s stern would blow ice in and around the back of the vessel.
“It was pushing those same types of floes in behind us,” he said.
“If we got into that compact stuff it would have sealed us in, we would have lost our manoeuvreability and we wouldn’t have been much use to anybody.
“Having been caught in ice before, I know by experience when to get out. I didn’t want to add to the drama, instead of being part of the solution,” he said.
A low-hanging fog also hampered rescue efforts.
“We had no visibility so we couldn’t really see if there was a way through.”…
“We also can’t use the helicopter at the moment because there is no visibility,” he said.
“The helicopter wouldn’t be able to differentiate the horizon from the ice.”
Captain Doyle had informed Shiokalskiy by email and radio of the situation…
The Xue Long, which has been waiting near the Mertz Glacier since Boxing Day, was also making its way back to open water.
“They’re trying to make it back into open water so they’re not trapped as well,” Captain Doyle said.
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/aurora-australis-abandons-attempt-to-save-akademik-shokalskiy-in-antarctica-20131230-302na.html
Wow! Now they are moaning about the poor penguins that might suffer due to TOO MUCH ICE.
(min 2:30 on the Guardian video).
Global Worming is a bitch.
“Kaboom says:
December 29, 2013 at 10:33 pm”
You have to do a bit of digging but from the ABC link below (From update II in the other thread by reader “pat”) you find “CHRIS TURNEY, CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH CENTRE, UNSW”. The CCRC at UNSW is funded by the Australian research council’s National Competitive Grants Program. The UNSW itself is funded by taxpayers. This trip is costsing AU$1.5mil, according to the ABC article. In anyone’s English, that’s a taxpayer funded junket. I have a feeling, as expressed by others, this will not read well if the MSM continue to call it a research trip by Chris Turney of the UNSW. Although tonight on the news, there was talk of abandoning the Russian “passenger ship”, no longer a reaserch vessel. Hummm….
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3898858.htm
With regard to comments about how icebreakers actually break ice, be advised that “backing and ramming” is standard practice to create a channel, however temporary, through multi-meter thick ice. The channel must then be maintained by churning back through it at regular intervals so it doesn’t freeze up. It helps to have two vessels that can split those tasks.
Icebreaking is not quick work in thick ice.
I served on U.S.C.G.C. Northwind from 1976 -1978. I did an AWE cruise (Arctic Winter East) up into Baffin Bay, the annual Antarctic resupply to McMurdo, and finished off with an unexpected winter in the Great Lakes of North America.
I was a quartermaster and participated quite directly as a helmsman.
As I recall, breaking some 20-30 kilometers into McMurdo took us about three weeks in January 1977, with a lot of backing and ramming. Some four-hour watches saw us not even go the ship’s length (269 feet). Things moved more quickly when a second icebreaker arrived.
I would imagine that the Russian vessel is ice-strengthened, in which case it should be alright until an icebreaker gets in.
Unless, of course, that gash in the hull has comprised the ship’s hull integrity.
This is the latest from the BBC, it has some really great pictures in it, including penguins and lots of thick ice. However, the irony of the situation is still being ignored by the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25546462
… and it’s Perihelion in just 4 or 5 days time … too.
Will the ice or the ship do a ‘Comet ISON?’
In Norway “green” also means, from before the enviro’s invented the word for them, that someone is as intelligent as an vegetable.
Simply that someone is as stupid/dumb as it is possible to get.
I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard and so long in tears, after reading so many of the comments on this thread.
As far as harm coming to the trapped idiots – while no one wants to see them die as miserably as they might if they can’t be rescued (and they surely will if they aren’t rescued before the Antarctic winter sets in), if they do survive they surely must be held liable for every cent of the costs of rescuing them, including liability for deaths or injuries suffered by their own ship’s crew and the crews of rescue ships and aircraft in the process.
These people do not need or deserve to be treated gently – their actions, and the actions of their fellow AGW believers, are directly responsible for thousands and thousands of deaths from hypothermia and starvation – and may well also be responsible for losses from the BBC pension fund as a result of investments in failed green projects and financial instruments..
They also should be criminally prosecuted for defrauding the Australian government, and likely for any number of other criminal offenses they have committed on the process. And if Chris Turney is to retain his university teaching position after this, it would be rather a travesty, methinks.
@Louis – I do wonder how the Womann-named-Sue is taking this punch in the nose to her so-called theories? I can’t imagine that she wouldn’t be highly discomfited.
@Santa
I hope you had those Greens on your naughty list
They are blaming the weather for first failure of the Aurora Australis to get through the ice, the clip at this link seems to show that it is actually ‘whether’ the Aurora Australis can break the ice.
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/aurora-australis-abandons-attempt-to-save-akademik-shokalskiy-in-antarctica-20131230-302na.html
“I think the ship was relying on IPCC models, but someone forgot to check reality.”
According the political decided climate convention, UNFCCC from 1992, this area should now be ice free in the summer.
The purpose of this journey is UNFCCC based and funded so turning back earlier would politically be a denialist action?
Update 3 with film from original Douglas Mawson expedition shows clear open water.
The current expedition’s aim was to retrace his steps to see how “climate change” has affected the area in the last 100 years.
Looks like they got their answer.
I’m sure they are not wasting their time marooned on the ice. They will be having desperate brainstorming sessions about how present this as being due to “global warming”.
You know, the usual “more is less”, increased precipitation caused by global warming, cold snap caused by global warming, “extreme weather” caused by global warming, In short it’s WEIRD, so it must be due to human induced climate change.
Of course, unlike the Sandy and the recent catastrophic typhoon in the Philippines, this will not be an indication of global climate , just local variability.
AAE: “Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change , but here it’s piling up”
Hey guys, ice fields are nature’s way of telling you you’ve got your head up your butt.
Pretty sure climate martyrdom is not on the list of options, even for true believers as these. They’re lucky the Chinese have a helicopter on their ice breaker, they’d be pickled it one had to be hauled down from Hobart to get them off the ship.
We shouldn’t rescue them until the climate changes.:]
Hell hath no fury like Antarctica scorned………
Chris Turkeys latest tweet said it is so warm it is raining
AAE: “Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change , but here it’s piling up”
Those who deny climate change should be put before Nuremberg style tribunals 😉
Sunspot,
You point is germane. The ABC news here in Hobart has reported that the Aurora can handle ice 1.5m thick, but this is 3-4m. They are in serious trouble. They have fresh food for another two weeks, and freeze-dried for another two. The question is how the hull of the ship will take the conditions – and when and whether they ferry to people off by the one helicopter available on the Chinese vessel. L’Astrolabe usually carries a vey small one, but the Aurora does not appear to have one on board. If anything happens quickly, there could be a catastrophe.
There is much irony and stupidity on display here, but let’s not lose track of the potential human tragedy.
Meanwhile one of these trapped faux scientists has a ‘Eureka’ moment how to get off of the ice, Using one of his ever wonderful super accurate computer models that he relies on so much it calculates for him exactly out how to make good his escape!.
Denier ice! You should be melted!
Re the stuck-in-the-ice people: for the first time in their lives they really are victims. Government funded counselling and compensation will follow, plus a big “sorry” on behalf of us all for what Mother Nature has done to them and their cause. Finally, they can sue WUWT for hurting their feelings and get even more compensation.
Here you go – enjoy the scientific explanations from Dr Karl – I used to respect this man
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/20533411/dr-karl-explains-antarctica-mission/
“They are in serious trouble.”
I agree. The ship is probably already a write-off if there has really been a hull breach, even if it is above the waterline. In that case she is unlikely to make it back to Bluff (the nearest harbour) across 3000 kilometers of the stormiest seas in the World. I’ve been in a sister ship in these very waters and she rolled more than 30 degrees.
A helicopter evacuation won’t be easy. These ships don’t have a helipad so they will have to prepare a landing ground on the ice, which is apparently covered by thick wet snow. And landing a helo on snow-covered ground is very treacherous in anything but good weather. Trekking any appreciable distance to one of the rescue ships across the ice will be very difficult without skies (and I imagine australians aren’t very good skiers, though the russian crew might be).
The media hub thing is funny too. You would think that they would have realised that the media would be burying this story because it doesn’t fit the alarmist narrative.
What a waste of fossil fuel this ice breaking business is. The scientists on board should be left to collect data until the ice melts ( it is summer after all ) – maybe lessons will quietly be learned?
OK . I am wondering if anyone can answer a thought.
The location of the Akademik Shokalskiy, based on the GPS locator that Chris Turney is using, is being updated on the Live Tracker embedded on the SpiritofMawson website.
Based on those coordinates, the stranded ship has drifted northwest by about 5 nautical miles.
Since that time, three different ships have attempted to reach them.
One particular time, the Snowdragon was said to have got within 6 nautical miles before backing out.
Then just recently, the Aurora Australis had came within 10 nautical miles before having to back out.
Now knowing that the Australis has better ice-breaking capabilities than the Snow Dragon, then I can only presume that there must be more ice-pack than there was just a few days ago.
Based on this information, The ice-pack must be growing in size, not reducing in size, during a time when it should be melting, due to the upcoming Southern Hemisphere sea ice minimum.
Since the Akademik Shokalskiy is drifing Northwest and the latest attempt to rescue them was farther out than the previous attempt, then it stands to reason that ice cover is larger than it was a week ago.
By my calculations, sea ice extent is greater than 85%, and extends nearly 16 or more nautical miles more than it had before the ship got stranded.
Yet, using Cryosphere Todays 30-day animation of SH Sea-Ice Extent, the location where the attempted rescue is taking place shows no such anomaly. At no time does the data at Cryosphere Today show any sea ice growth taking place. Each image since 11/22 shows only a reduction.
Now supposedly, the data is representative of sea ice above 15% cover or more.
So, either Cryosphere Today can’t tell the difference between 10% cover and 85% cover, or can’t measure sea-ice cover in distances less than 20miles.
Or there is some other reason for this discrepency.
Can anyone help me out with this.
Media hub picture is a hoot. They have been rearranging their deckchairs!