This will be a top “sticky” post for awhile since interest is high – new stories will appear below this one – Anthony
UPDATE: Josh channels the boat people
UPDATE2: Another irony is discovered, this one doubly deep. See update 2 below.
UPDATE4: AMSA: Helicopter rescue of Akademik Shokalskiy likely to commence shortly
(It’s off again, then now its on again, with report the helicopter has landed)
UPDATE5: All the passengers (tourists and scientists) are off the ship
UPDATE6: Tough questions need to be asked
UPDATE7: Trouble on the rescue ship – reaching open water not so easy
As we reported previously on WUWT here and here, the saga of the “climate scientists/tourists trapped in ice” continues to fascinate many. Now a second ship has given up on rescue, after the Chinese ship “Snow Dragon” gave up two days ago. The Aurora Australis has abandoned rescue of the trapped Russian “research”vessel in Antarctica and a helicopter evacuation in now being ordered. This episode has taken on a heightened comedic fiasco-like quality.
Now, with such a fantastic failure in full world view, questions are going to start being asked. For example, with advanced tools at their disposal (that Mawson never had) such as near real-time satellite imaging of Antarctic sea ice, GPS navigation, on-board Internet, radar, and satellite communications, one wonders how these folks managed to get themselves stuck at all. Was it simple incompetence of ignoring the signs and data at their disposal combined with “full steam ahead” fever? Even the captain of the Aurora Australis had the good sense to turn back knowing he’d reached the limits of the ship on his rescue attempt. Or, was it some sort of publicity stunt to draw attention? If it was the latter, it has backfired mightily.
One might argue that with photos like the one below, this whole “Spirit of Mawson” research expedition, is little more than a media stunt.
Source: [ http://twitter.com/GdnAntarctica/status/412977161323036672 ]
Even after the ship was trapped, these reporters still had a party like atmosphere going on:
Source: [ http://twitter.com/GdnAntarctica/status/416881634273525761/photo/1 ]
Yesterday, Andrew Revkin tweeted something that I agreed with, especially since so many of the people trapped in the ice on the ship seem to have a nonchalant, almost partly-like atmosphere going on.
Scientist on trapped Antarctic ship: "Fantastic-I love it when the ice wins & we don't." http://t.co/UsxA2tiV2i What about rescue risk/cost?
— Andrew Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ (@Revkin) December 29, 2013
Yes, the cost and risk is significant. These folks trapped on-board don’t seem to be cognizant of that issue, following the #spiritofmawson Twitter feed, it’s like watching reports (with pictures and video) from a high school class party.
And here’s the kicker. Even the public saw through the charade at the beginning. Trying to get crowd funding from the public for this trip failed miserably as this Indigogo campaign shows:
Source: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-us-return-to-mawson-s-antarctic-hut-the-home-of-the-blizzard
Maybe it had to do with the ridiculous image of Professor Chris Turney in full cold weather gear standing in the midst of a tropical forest.
Right after the ship got stuck and there was a realization that the world was watching, one scientist on-board, Dr. Chris Fogwill, of the University of New South Wales, decided that it would be an opportune time to hit the public for money again:
Source: http://www.spiritofmawson.com/
And again, the public has seen through this, and today, the campaign remains stuck at $1000 with just a few donors. People are realizing that there’s no real science being done on this trip, and that it seems to be little more than a chartered party boat for Antarctic enthusiasts and media.
Now, with the ship to be evacuated via helicopter, will the Akademik Shokalskiy join the list of recent ships that have been sunk in Antarctic waters?
Ships that have sunk in Antarctic waters in recent years (h/t to David Archibald)
The Brazilian yacht “Endless Sea” sank in Maxwell Bay, Ardley Cove on Saturday 7th April, 2012. It was used for “scientific and educational expeditions”.
The sunken remains of the 76-ft Mar Sem Fin, aka “Endless Sea”, which sunk on April 7, 2012, lies at a depth of about 9 meters (30 ft) in Ardley Cove, Antarctica.
In November 2007, the Linblad Explorer hit sea ice and sank.
In April 2013, the Chinese factory fishing ship Kai Xin caught fire and sank near Bransfield Strait at the Antarctic Peninsula.
And there are others, these are just a few recent ones.
With so much concern for the pristine environment of Antarctica, one wonders how much environmental damage these sinkings are doing.
And when the trip is nothing more than a party for your friends and media, disguised as a “scientific expedition”, one wonders if there shouldn’t be some moratorium on such trips.
Richard Tol summed it all up nicely with one sentence:
There has been a strong and statistically significant upward trend in climate-change-related public-relations disasters #spiritofmawson
— Richard Tol (@RichardTol) December 30, 2013
UPDATE:
The #spiritofmawson hashtag is now getting competition from the hashtag #ClitanicDisaster in honor of the trapped climate scientists that the MSM won’t mention as being climate scientists.
========================================================
UPDATE 2:
reader Aphan writes on 2013/12/31 at 7:16 pm
I don’t know if anyone was posted this yet, but the IRONY just gobsmacked me.
The British “explorers” on board the MV Explorer who were “commemorating the Spirit of Shackleton” found themselves repeating HIS adventure when their ship struck a piece of submerged ice and then SANK in the Antarctic in November of 2007! None of the passengers or crew were lost. But HOW AMAZING is it that both the “Spirit of Mawson” trip AND the “Spirit of Shackleton” cruise trips ended in disaster from sea ice?????
http://www.jamescairdsociety.com/shackleton-news-104519.htm
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/news/explorer-sinks-antarctica.html
I mean…come on. What are the odds?
============================================================
Related articles
- Saving the Antarctic scientists, er media, er, activists, er tourists trapped by sea ice (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Antarctic rescue mission fails to reach trapped ship (theguardian.com)
30 knot winds – hard to fly heli.
Aurora Australis can’t get close enough:
http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/documents/30122013_AkademikShokalskiyUpdate7_Media_Release.pdf
Anyone seen video of how an icebreaker actually works? They kind of surge up and then smash down onto the ice. Very slow progress to smash a channel through, and only then through a few feet.
clipe says: @ur momisugly December 30, 2013 at 3:07 pm
The SS CAGW challenges the Ice Dragon… and loses
Just posted the comment below on the ABC Lateline website, they covered the story before the boat sailed but I cannot see a link to the ship in it’s current state.
“Maybe you could do a follow up to the interview and ask why they were trapped by increasing ice and could not be reached by rescue icebreakers.
Interesting how Lawson sailed right in and the wooden boats made it in for 3 summers.
You could also ask who paid for the rescue and why after they got stuck the main stream media dropped all reference to Global Warming / Climate Change etc. They were just tourists on a ship stuck in the ice.
Just an idea.
I will be looking for a follow up to the expedition and the spin regarding how Global Warming has caused the ice to increase in Antarctica for the last 3 decades.
Regards, Richard
Teddi says: @ur momisugly December 30, 2013 at 2:58 pm
…Its becoming a internet joke – a global warming research group stuck in an ice field they didn’t believe existed – too funny :o)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Even better the timing could not be more perfect. People are at home inside relaxing between Christmas and the New Year and this is better than watching the soaps.
Peter Yates says: @ur momisugly December 30, 2013 at 3:16 pm
This is a classic case of the leaders of a hazardous….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You forgot one.
Make sure all of the members are competent both physically and mentally.
All too often you get tourists taken to places or put into situations they have no business being in.
Life is Lethal!
Okay. Thanks for the addition. … cheers.
Anthony,
Your story is incomplete without a link to the great archive film
Mawson in ice-free Commwealth Bay Antarctica in 1912
That’s where they are now.
It was ENTIRELY ICE FREE 100 years ago…
The whole point of their expedition was to show that, if 100 years ago there was no ice, now it’s all but a tropical beach.
But the climate change professor directing the expedition on Mawson’s steps
wasn’t aware that climate has changed.
The reporter from The Guardian embedded with the expedition, blogging about emissions melting ice, is now complaining loudly that he ran out of bananas….
In the climate models, he could pick fresh bananas there…
Turney’s Lament –
As I sailed the warming mare,
I met with ice that wasn’t there.
It wasn’t there again today –
I wish, I wish it’d go away!
(Apologies to William Hughes Mearns)
Maybe they will get a visit from the Greenpeace Santa, who is looking for ice
Love the typo. How appropriate. It is officially an exhibition.
It seems the “Polar Star” left Seattle on December 3rd for its own mission to Antarctica.
(recently out of a three year long refit)
http://www.marinelink.com/news/icebreaker-antarctica361666.aspx
Mervyn says:
December 30, 2013 at 6:20 pm
“The media are doing an atrocious job reporting the truth about this ‘expedition’ ”
You are doing them injustice. The media are doing a splendig job lying about this expedition.
You have to know the job description.
> Perhaps “climatanic”?
“Climydia”
A curious angle on the press coverage of this whole “expedition”. Namely, the captain and crew of the Akademik Shokalskiy are utterly missing from all reports from the ship (at least as far as I can find in my searches on the internet) and completely excluded from all pictures transmitted from the vessel (a former spy ship, incidentally–that odd factoid appearing in the caption to one of the Guardian’s Alok Jah articles). It’s almost as if the tacky, laboring, rude-mechanic, scut-work sailor-trash–to include the captain–whose trivial, on-board chores involve nothing more challenging than merely keeping the ship afloat and running, would spoil their privileged-white-dork betters’ saving-the-planet-for-the-kids, aren’t-we-beautiful? photos (“selfies” in the main) and jaunty twitters/blog-posts, if their scrofulous, riff-raff, low-rent, hireling butts were to be written of or seen.
Of similar curiosity, one notes that, even in the expedition’s current peril, the MSM has kept its focus on the improbable Professor Turney, rather than the master of the ship. The inertia, perhaps, of an agit-prop, PR campaign, originally intended to present Professor Turney to the world as a larger-than-life, supreme-smarty-pants, all-wise, father-figure hive-hero, vaguely derived from NK’s “Great Leader” model, as the basis upon which to further establish the good Professor as an unimpeachable-authority, Pythian-mouth-piece, media-genic, personality-cult-figure dispenser-deluxe of the hive’s related “memes”, “narratives”, flim-flam, and scare-boogers, scheduled for roll-out in the later, hype-exploitation phase of this whole, half-baked, potentially tragi-comic, Antarctic boondoggle-stunt, currently showing its ass, big-time?
But, then, who really knows what’s what with this doofus bunch of eco-retard fuck-ups, we’ve got running the hive nowadays.
climatereason says:
December 30, 2013 at 11:24 am
Anthony
How about WUWT offering a donation towards their rescue?
>>>>>
Great idea! Let’s all exhale to provide more CO2 to warm the seas.
There, I did my part….
Thanks for the link Scute showing Australian-Tax-Payer-Leech Turney’s comments:
“Meanwhile on board the Shokalskiy, moral remains good and the team are pulling together in an extraordinary way. Everyone is working hard to support one another. Take a look at the video diaries on the Intrepid Science YouTube Channel to see what we are up to. We are all keeping busy, with twice daily briefings outlining all the information we have to hand, alongside classes through the day (knot tying, languages, yoga, photography and many others) while the science programme has continued as best we can.
Thanks for all your support and we hope to see you all soon.”
Languages: Maybe penguin? Knot tying: mass suicide? We hope to see you soon: Hmmm! No comment on that one.
I think silver ralph’s comment is worth repeating (30th Dec 2:57). In it, he says,
“when i spoke to a professional weatherman, he did NOT know that Antarctic ice has been increasing for years. He believed the propaganda, which said that the ice was in full retreat, and did not read the small-print, which said this retreat was only on the Antarctic Peninsular.”
I couldn’t imagine how they could be so stupid as to try to retrace Mawson’s route knowing that Antarctic sea ice extent had been increasing for years and was way above average as they set sail. This meant it was a given that his route was up to 40 miles away across the ice. I am now coming to the realisation that they really didn’t know the ice extent. I wondered if it really could be possible but had dismissed the idea. But silver ralph’s point that the retreat was only on the Antarctic Peninsular explains it. Every scheming alarmist sexed that up to the point where everyone believed it applied to all Antarctic sea ice- including scientists.
I think this is quite important. If it’s true it would be quite astounding. It may be fruitful to see what the pre-expedition propaganda has to say. They certainly won’t admit to it after the fact.
And it is as well to remember that many, probably most, delegates at Doha earlier this year didn’t know that the globe hadn’t warmed for 16 years. So there is a precedent.
Reminds me of the story of the little old lady who swallowed a fly and then a spider…
The Specter of Suspicion
From http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/saunders/article/Global-warming-researcher-gets-stuck-in-ice-5102720.php
He [Geographer, “Dr.” Chris Turney] pushes a framework of science being data-driven and free from politics. And yet it’s hard to escape the suspicion that whatever the icebound researchers experience, they will frame it as proof that climate change is unassailable.
Nobel Laureate Physicist Alan Boyle of the BBC “Stellar Institute of Anthropogenic and Human Global Warming” explains
“Icebreakers are indispensable for traffic through polar seas, but they’re not invincible.”
“AMSA’s Rescue Coordination Center said in a statement. ‘The helicopter is unable to fly in the current weather conditions, and will hold off on rescue until conditions improve.'”
Another Call For Help Go To … America’s Icebreakers?
“The Polar Star is just returning to service after a years-long, $90 million overhaul. It’s designed to get through a 6-foot-thick (2-meter-thick) layer of ice when it’s sailing at 3.5 mph — and when it’s in its backing-up-and-ramming mode, it’s capable of handling ice that’s up to 21 feet (6.5 meters) thick.”
Really. Loose a propeller then where are you at? Answer: A worked of hurt!
“The expedition leader on the Shokalskiy, Chris Turney, told TODAY that the Polar Star could “definitely get us out” — but that wasn’t in the cards. Pellissiere said his ship was between Honolulu and Sydney, and would require a week or so to sail to Antarctic if needed.”
Ah Ha! Politics enters by the mouth of the Geographer [a variant of the bacillus Foot N Mouth].
“The expedition leader on the Shokalskiy, Chris Turney, told TODAY that the Polar Star could “definitely get us out” — but that wasn’t in the cards. Pellissiere said his ship was between Honolulu and Sydney, and would require a week or so to sail to Antarctic if needed.”
Not So Fast Nobel Laureate Academician Geographer Turney
“”As of right now Australia is coordinating the rescue operations,” Coast Guard spokeswoman Allyson Conroy said in a statement. “The nearest U.S. Coast Guard asset is more than 3,000 nautical miles away. We are communicating with Australia and standing by if our assistance is indeed needed.”
Not even sacrifices onboard of the Akademik Shokalskiy to the God of The Anthropocene can beat Physics!
Physics Wins!
If I was on that ship, I would commandeer an Ice augur and a tent along with some fishing equipment and be ice fishing for the duration.
The “Way Back Machine” needs to capture all they did and said prior.
Most likely they are on the delet buttons now 24/7.
Jo Nova has succinctly commented on this whole “Scientific Expedition” which has now been retitled as”tourist cruise” by theses MSM which deign to report it. The whole fiasco has been funded by in part the University of NSW and of course underwritten by the Australian Taxpayer. One of the last acts of the previous government prior to the election. See Jo Nova’s site for more details. At least now the Prime Minister’s chief business adviser has come out in The Australian Newspaper today with some very caustic comments on the whole IPCC Climate change Global Warming hysteria and its effects on Australian economy. Thankfully more people are waking up and soon this rubbish will be given the heave ho. Meanwhile I think the fools down on the ship in Antarctica would be left there to contemplate the true meaning of weather and ice and snow and perhaps just occasionally a helicopter should drop some rations down to them to keep them from starving – say for another 6 months or so.
Maybe by then they will recant?
cheers
I cannot comment beyond all that was done prior.
All I can do it share……
The irony is immense.
If I were on that ship right now, I’d be doing fifty press-ups and fifty squats a day, eating my fish ‘n veg and declining the chips, mince pies and booze. Seriously, it could be a life-saver a week from now.
A little off topic, but does anyone know why the DMI Arctic temps (N80) haven’t been updated for the past 3 weeks?
I sent an e-mail to DMI inquiring about this and got an auto reply advising they’ll reply to within 2 weeks…
andrewmharding says:
December 30, 2013 at 10:50 am
One question I would like an answer to is how did the icebreaker that went to rescue them only get to seven miles from them? Presumably they would have plotted the shortest ice-free route, there must be at least 49 square miles of ice several yards thick!!
Why don’t they get out and walk the seven miles to the rescue ship?