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?quality=83)
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)
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Related: Kook and Nuttercelli rotting people’s brains at SKShttp://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/kook-and-nuttercelli-rotting-peoples-brains-at-sks/
Jason Calley says:
December 30, 2013 at 7:13 am
“Someone help me out. Are they really trying to say that ocean currents move the South Pole (and perhaps the continent of Antarctica) around? Is Hank Johnson now working for National Geographic?”
Great find, Jason! Well, it should all become clear when I say, it’s the Dark Matter that dunnit!
‘The increase in sea ice has freshened the seawater below, so much so that you can almost drink it.’
Did they try living on that water?
Harry
NBC Newless two hours ago had this unDr. on live by skipe. He says, “very unusual weather and in fact it is old ice blown in on them”.
Best thing is the news item from NBC Newsless has an intro add by Larry the Cable Guy driving a huge 4-wheel drive truck with a huge CO2 gas motor doing circles to sell Prilosec.
The unDr. says “luckey for us the ice breaker Polar Star is “””nearby”””,, “we will not walk out”
This global warming tax and spend other people money is a very dangerous cult. To all man kind an for sure themselves now.
Since the “research vessel” is a Russian ship maybe the Russians should divert one of their big nuclear icebreakers from the arctic to rescue their ship.
This reminds me of the legendary Catlin Arctic Expedition from 2009 which also got stuck by “rotten ice.” The Guardian was deeply involved in that fiasco too, and they were all lucky not to freeze to death. Reminder : The “global warming” hysterics had gone to the “nearly ice-free” Arctic to prove it was doomed by man-made CO2. By the time those various evil CO2-producing machines had managed to rescue them, they were all 48-hours from officially being classed as starving.
Here’s the funny bit :
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/global-warming-expedition-to-prove-antarctic-ice-is-melting-trapped-by-ice/
“…there is an increasing body of evidence, including by the AAE members, that have identified parts of the East Antarctic which are highly susceptible to melting and collapse from ocean warming.
“One of the purposes of the expedition was to “determine the extent to which human activity and pollution has directly impacted on this remote region of Antarctica.”
How has that worked out for Tuney? The Antarctic ice was unaware that the science was settled… and settled in place instead trapping Tuney and his media Warmist allies in its Climate Change denier grip.
The metaphor just couldn’t be more fitting: desperate true believers of global warming/accelerating polar ice melt now find themselves trapped by thousands of square kilometers of summertime sea ice that wasn’t supposed to be there.
No picture could better symbolize and communicate the intellectual bankruptcy and disillusionment of a faithful group who refuse to believe they have been led astray. This has to be deeply embarrassing, if not outright humiliating.
It’s reported here that many of the climate science boatpeople are actually from renowned media outlets, like The Guardian, who we can safely assume were onboard hoping to capture dramatic images of vast areas of open sea water, or of calving ice sheets with hundreds of tons of ice breaking off and plunging into the sea hourly. And with a little luck, maybe even some photos of a couple of drowned penguins.
Nowadays true believers find themselves journeying to the extreme corners of the globe in a desperate search for signs of the coming climate catastrophe. Signs are getting tougher to come by.
And how is everybody on board dealing with all this global warming?
“…On Christmas Eve, a blizzard hit our ship with 50-knot winds – mild for these parts – that made it difficult to stand up straight on the deck … By Christmas morning, we were beset with ice. Our expedition was forced into a temporary pause, while we waited for the polar winds to be kind to us and blow the pack ice out of our way.
“Antarctica is not just cold, windy and wet. It is the extreme of all those things. Leave a hole in your armour – a glove not tucked into a sleeve, a gap around your neck where you forgot your scarf – and the weather will find and punish you fast. The cold starts off as stabbing, then it sears the skin and eventually sends the nerve-endings into a symphony of confusion. I took a glove off to type an email outside at one point and, after my fingers turned white and I lost the ability to move them, I swear they felt hot. Painful, boiling hot, as though I had just plunged them into a cup of coffee.”
Oh! Dear! Poor things!
Comfort yourselves with this choice CiF comment :
“Abandon ship, walk to Elephant Island carrying a small boat. Cross to South Georgia. Walk across South Georgia in 48 hours. Easy.”
*****
How long before the Guardian dubs them the “Antarctic 50”?
Bill Illis says:
December 30, 2013 at 7:42 am
Here is much higher quality video of the Mawson expedition landing in Commonwealth Bay on January 7, 1912. (note the Russian ship is stuck in 3 metre ice 65 kms away).
http://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/antarctic-pioneers/clip2/
===
Good film resource, Bill.
Interesting to see how much bare rock they came across. Not much of that in evidence this year.
Seems like it’s not just a bit of “old ice” blown in by a freak storm.
So, what is the carbon footprint of the rescue expeditions? Maybe Matt Damon can fly out on private jet and tell them how wasteful they are being.
Cue Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python ‘Giant Foot’ to create a Giant Carbon Footprint ice breaker, to a backing track of The Doors’ ‘Ship of Fools.’
It is all very Pythonesque – it’ll only be ‘a flesh wound’ to the AGW religionistas with their hypocrite media lap dogs promoting the religion while avoiding the scientific reality that AGW is a myth made up to explain a natural phenomenon that these people cannot scientifically understand nor do they want to.
DirkH says:
December 30, 2013 at 7:46 am
BLACK PEARL says:
December 30, 2013 at 6:21 am
“Bloody hell !
So how much do you get charged ?
Is it per house hold ?”
18 Euro or 25 USD a month per household. The enormous state media apparatus has in my opinion been created to keep Germany brainwashed, domesticated and quiet after 1945.
****
So about £195 per year … BBC is £145.50 not the six times the amount you quoted
Thought that was a bit steep.
Mary Wilbur says: “They are putting up a good front. I wonder how the sanitary conditions are.”
They are obviously full of shit. 🙂
Luke Warmist says:
December 29, 2013 at 3:06 pm
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”
——————–
Perhaps someone should tell the passengers on the ship of fools … Last I heard they were all singing and dancing oh and someone was giving everyone big hugs in the corridor, where there is no doubt a queue forming.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25547703
BBC and The Guardian – two cheeks of the same arse.
Aboard the MK Akademik Shokalskiy on 29 December 2013 Australian Green Party Senator-select Janet Rice has posted on her Facebook page the following:
“As I’ve written previously, the changes we are seeing on this trip can’t be attributed to global warming but they are just the sort of changes that will be expected to occur and occur more often as we continue to warm the planet.”
Right, let’s play that again.
These changes are not because of global warming but we can “expect” them to happen and happen more often as we continue to warm the globe.
No, still haven’t got it.
These changes are not global warming but are “just the sort” of thing global warming will do.
So global warming will do “just the sort of thing” that NOT global warming will do, and we should expect more of it.
Soooo….. global warming is the same as not global warming and it’s going to happen more often.
Yikes. It’s worse than we thought.
R. Shearer says:
December 29, 2013 at 3:20 pm
Not a good sign, the captain asked his first mate for his brown pants.
——————
If I were the first mate I would have told the captain to get his own because I would’ve been wearing them.
Greg says:
December 30, 2013 at 8:08 am
“Seems like it’s not just a bit of “old ice” blown in by a freak storm.”
If you watch the film the commentator says that this was one of the windiest places on Earth! Much more than they had expected. Constant 40+ mph winds with sustained periods of 90+ mph to boot!
So not a freak storm at all (for this area).
As reluctant as I know you all are to face the inevitable conclusion, we must be brave and face the cold hard facts. It’s time to call off the icebreakers as Gaia cannot take any more extreme sea ice disruption. You must all take some small comfort that these intrepid seekers after truth will understand implicitly the need for their supreme sacrifice in order to halt any further sea ice disruption. Lest we forget.
re: “I just hope no one is seriously injured, I suppose then jokes would have to stop.”
—————-
Well, re the BBC reports, they are claiming to have fun, so why can’t we ?
Downright balmy!
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/30/world/antarctic-ship-stuck/
Interesting that the best factual information is coming from Russian and Chinese sources, whereas the reporting from the anglosphere ranges from mediocre superficialities to atrocious spin.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25547703
This is going to degenerate into a TV reality show: I’m a climatologist , get me out of here!.
If they think fast and sell the rights, they may be able to pay for the ship they are about to loose.
Signs of depression and worry, they are starting to realise they are in the shit.
I wish them all safe passage but I hope Gaia slaps a bit of sense into them before she let’s them go.
Climate change denial still seems strong despite the slap in the face.
So they went there expecting receding ice from SUMMER so as to blame it on CAGW, but ended up being stuck in ice anyhow and now their best hope, ie. a good thing since it will save their hides, is more warming so that the ice breaks up. It’s irony stacked on top of more irony.
However, their situation is serious and I will hope for LOTS AND LOTS of warming to go their way so that they may make it out. The real sad part is that none of them will appreciate that warming is beneficial. Not one. But at least for a brief moment, climate alarmists are wishing for more warming. Actually, that’s doubly ironic too. I think they always wish for more warming and aren’t really happy that world catastrophe won’t happen.
Headline Polar Research vessel investigating melting icecaps caused by manmade Global Warming trapped in advancing sea ice.You got to be f–king Kidding
Well lets just hope they dont discover an Alien Space Ships under the ice with Evil Deadly Shape Shifting Aliens to add to their woes.
PS Just who is paying for their rescue vessel
Bwahahahahahhahahaha!
An excerpt from Wikipedia regarding the formation of sea ice and the affect it has on the salinity of the sea water below the ice:
In the freezing process, much of the salt in ocean water is squeezed out of the frozen crystal formations, though some remains frozen in the ice. THIS SALT BECOMES TRAPPED BENEATH THE SEA ICE, CREATING A HIGHER CONCENTRATION OF SALT IN THE WATER BENEATH ICE FLOES [emphasis mine]. This concentration of salt contributes to the salinated water’s density, and this cold, denser water sinks to the bottom of the ocean. This cold water moves along the ocean floor towards the equator, while warmer water on the ocean surface moves in the direction of the poles. This is referred to as “conveyor belt motion”, and is regularly occurring process.
My comment to the ice-stranded author of the message, “Drink Up”!