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)
The whole episode reminds me of the excellent novel by W.E. Bowman: “The Ascent of Rum Doodle”. One of the funniest books you’ll ever read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Rum_Doodle
Arrogance plus ignorance……….priceless!
One can only hope the Guardian gets to foot the bill for the rescue.
Gail Combs says: “…shipmaster Igor Kiselyov told Itar-Tass on Monday…”
My prayers are with Shipmaster Kiselyov and his crew. I hope they will be home soon and safely.
r murphy says: @ur momisugly December 30, 2013 at 8:06 pm
…. I am forming the opinion that it is the climate scientists that are the useful idiots and those that control the media are the ones who control the future, we should do our best to discover and reveal.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Already did that see comment – looking at the board of directors and owners gives you the answers.
Also peer-reviewed paper The Network of Global Corporate Control “We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions…. we find that only 737 top holders accumulate 80% of the control over the value of all TNCs …” (TNCs = transnational corporations)
@Gail Combs,
Yr: 30 December 7:38 p. m. comment
Thank you, Gail, for the link to that article–finally I have the skipper’s name. Strange that the names of the ship captains of the “rescue” vessels are all readily available, but not the name of the Akademik Shokalskiy’s master.
And your link strikes me as a further confirmation that the press coverage of this whole Antarctic, expedition fiasco is being carefully “managed.” In the story you link, some gutsy crew-members of the Adademik Shokalskiy volunteered to stay with their ship in hopes of salvaging her. All that decided at a meeting of the captain and crew on Monday. Pretty compelling human interest material, there, I would say.
But the above aspect of “story” is ignored in Western media in favor of the far more (sarc) compelling story of a bunch of eco-worthies, in-over-their head, trying to get their anxious-butts clear of the looming disaster, just as fast as some other gutsy types–Chinese, chopper pilots–can haul them out.
Heroics abound in this unfolding, Akademik Shokalskiy misadventure, I can see, but the MSM apparently wants nothing to do with such “things”. Not sure exactly why, but suspect that coverage of the real heroism in this story would take the lime-light away from the hive-picked cast of characters being groomed and promoted to flog the hype-exploitation, CAGW flim-flam to follow–and our betters wouldn’t want that to happen. Time will tell.
Aagain, thanks for the link, Gail.
In the meantime, my admiration is for the crew of the Akademik Shokalskiy and the Chinese pilots steeling themselves for the real challenges ahead. Wish more coverage were given these brave men (and women?). But not gonna happen, I think, for reasons previously given.
The media running dead on this reminds me of this quote – They are complicit in the fraud
“And it has been clear from the start that the media have understood exactly how bad Obama has been because they have known with precision exactly what parts of what Obama has done or said that have required their cover. Obama has had to lie over Benghazi and so they have covered for him to the maximum extent they could. Obama tells producers “you didn’t build that” and the media runs dead with the quote so that it never really becomes as significant as it ought to be. They know exactly how dreadful Obama has been, and cannot even manufacture a greater good, that their lies and distortions have protected the community from having to do without, had Obama lost the election in spite of every service they rendered in defence of his reputation and image.” Steve Kates Quadrant 9/11/2012
Teddi says: What does penguin taste like ?
Janice says: Chicken, of course.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Nah, Mud duck – yuck!
As a retired Sailor I can tell you that comments regarding false bravado and putting up a good front are spot on. It seems to be a natural psychological response to fear. The smell of fear is a tangible thing. In the confines of close quarters; one not easily forgotten. We can hardly expect the expedition leader to roll over and cry like a baby. Once out of danger, a good leader will accept responsibility for his actions.
Having said that, I believe several emergency options are available to cast and crew, including an overland trek to the modern Mawson huts. Antarctic ice will recede for at least another month and I’ll take bets the ship will survive. For those interested, the Spirit of Mawson objectives (albeit weak) are outlined in bulleted format on the expedition web site. One objective is to examine the cause of the increased Antarctic sea ice extent. Methinks, the expidention was launched to find a suitable excuse for this inconvenient truth.
200 tons of fuel plus hydrolic oil may kill a substantial part of the wild life over there, including the curious and adorable penguins
And the reason for the desaster would be a tax payer funded so called scientific mission to study the effects of global warming and diminishing sea ice, despite Antarctica has seen 30 years of cooling, increasing and even record sea ice..
Tax payer money should never have been spent here and those responsible for funding should be held accountable.
Leo G says:
Have I got this right? A pair of Australian professors whose names sound like Christmas Turkey and Fogwilly use research funds to organise a tourist trip PR stunt in Antarctica by chartering a ship with a name that sounds like MV Academic Shocks-are-likely. A bipolar expedition?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
ROTFLMAO
If a real journalist wanted to write a story on this he could start off with that line.
Gunga Din says: “Maybe he’s trying to reinvent Pykrete?”
Oh, yeah. I remember Pyke. He was a bit of a nutter, too. He was going to make torpedo-proof rafts of frozen ice/sawdust to cross the Atlantic. They might have actually worked.
the BBC guy on board, being described on BBC as a news producer, or simply BBC’s Andrew Luck-baker. can’t bear to look for the interviews they do with him, cos he always claims he doesn’t want to get out of the situation – it’s so beautfiul & all that:
4 Nov 2012: Nature & Science by Andrew Luck-Baker
Ocean Acidification, Corals and Ken Caldeira
This is a spin-off post from the radio series for the BBC World Service I am currently producing, Discovery: The Age We Made. Presented by science writer Gaia Vince, it consists four programmes looking at the notion that humans have launched a new geological time period on the planet, the Anthropocene.
Further down, I have posted the audio of a great interview we did with leading climatologist Ken Caldeira on the seemingly likely fate of the world’s coral reefs, because of the geologically extraordinary alterations we are making to the Earth’s atmosphere…
http://natureandscience-alb.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/ocean-acifidication-corals-and-ken.html
BBC Discovery 2008
For these two editions of Discovery Andrew Luck-Baker visits the Pacific Islands of Palau – home to one of the greatest coral reef systems on the planet yet the reefs are not immune from pressures such as fishing, pollution and climate change…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/948_discovery_2008/page28.shtml
can’t even find the following on BBC website, & the comments suggest people don’t have a clue what this is about, but love how ABL is “there”!
27 Dec: Facebook: BBC World Have Your Say
A Chinese icebreaker is on its way to help a research ship that’s trapped in ice in Antarctica. It has been there for two days now…
The BBC World Service’s science producer, Andrew Luck-Baker is there and will take your questions about the expedition. What would you like to ask him?
https://www.facebook.com/worldhaveyoursay/posts/10151881887269150
Gail Combs says:
December 30, 2013 at 7:38 pm
mike says:
December 30, 2013 at 7:02 pm
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…
>>>>>
Not all reports shipmaster Igor Kiselyov told Itar-Tass on Monday….
———————
Thanks Gail – that was an interesting take…
The Captain saying “I want to point out that they all are volunteers and they all will continue to work to a victorious end” is in stark contrast to the Turney comments.
Gail Combs says: “These are not a bunch of innocent befuddled tourists but a bunch of campaigning activists who combined with their brethren have cause food riots in over 60 countries (2008 biofuel -food crisis) the real deaths of thousands in the UK (fuel poverty), not to mention undermining the economies of several nations and potentially causing the suffering and early deaths of not thousands but millions.”
I have mixed emotions about them, sort of like a guy who’s just been mugged watching the mugger get hit by a car as he runs away. On the one hand, it’s sad; on the other hand, it’s karmageddon.
You’re killing me Gail!
Following on from David Archibald’s log of lost ships:
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/grounded-ship-authorities-race-oil-spread-on-great-barrier-reef-20100404-rlfr.html
Different “pristine environment”, different “cargo”, different set of priorities…
Love the renaming of the ship.
mike says: @ur momisugly December 30, 2013 at 8:26 pm
Thank you, Gail, for the link to that article–finally I have the skipper’s name….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
One of the worst aspects of this is shipmaster Igor Kiselyov will probably never be allowed to command a ship again.
His name may be left out for just that reason, he will be the one to take all the blame so the media do not want readers to become familiar with him. (The are de-humanizing him)
This is of course a SWAG, so we will see how it plays out.
“Adventure is just bad planning” Roald Amundsen
I don’t see these people as enemies… just wrong thinking. The ice? Well, it was there and someone made a mistake. I don’t really care how they want to spin this when it’s over. I would just like to see them all safe. Ignorant and safe is …okay. Truth will win out in the end.
Okay, I know they are money-grubbing, lying mud-sucking watermelons but I always hold out hope for redemption.
A video from Erik Van Sebille 12/31/2013.
Erik says that he was writing a paper on the trip that he could have written in his office in the University in Sydney (but it is quieter on the boat)*. And he is waiting to be evacuated at some point in the near future.
*Australian tax payers may wish to inquire as to why they got to pay for a no-doubt pointless piece of paper writing on an ice bound boat in Antarctica and in an office in Sydney. (Or perhaps they just have too much money in Australia).
Does any of this refute data, actual measurements, showing that the Southern Ocean is warming?
Penguin probably tastes like chicken as does everything else in that category. Exceptions are duck, goose and many game birds. Many think that alligators also taste like chicken, but although many of the flavor elements are similar, those that are more discriminating find significant flavor profiles exist that are different from the impressions of occasional eaters. Eat more penguin and become an expert. That’ll probably drive PETA nuts. But if it walks, flies , swims or crawls, you can probably eat it. And many of them will eat you if given the opportunity. Myself, I would aim for a Chinese twice cooked affair. Take a penguin breast. Slow simmer it for 40 minutes with about 10 ginger slices and a couple of smashed cloves of garlic. Cool and slice into 1″ x 2″ pieces 1/8″ thick. Stir fry it with home made or commercial kimchee. Serve over rice or rice noodles. Or you could make it into spring rolls. Or you could take thin slices of the raw breast, Marinate them in fish sauce, garlic, a little lemon or lime juice and chopped shallots or scallions, grill them and roll them in rice paper with a cucumber slice, peanut sauce mint leaves and cilantro. Don’t have that fancy stuff on board? Then cut it into small chunks, saute it and make your favorite chilli from memory. I would imagine that grilled penguin breast, medium rare could be a classic with those who don’t mind the probable background fish flavor. Some of you will laugh at me, but if you are trapped and must eat what’s available, why not make it as palatable as possible?
BTW On Jan. 12 We’re leaving on a Quark expedition to the other side of Antartica. Planned and paid for before I discovered and started spending three hours or so daily on this website. I will eat whatever nature throws at me. My choice. Just hope it doesn’t screw up the kayaking among the icebergs we paid for. Spent all summer practicing for that.
At least they are making themselves useful with classes through the day in knot tying, languages, yoga and photography. Excellent projects to get out of mortal danger.