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.
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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?
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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)
Josh will be busy for months on this there is just so much there that can and will be used to poke fun at them.
Talk about making a rod for your own back, but doing it in a way that puts others lives at risk for your own reasons is bad very bad.
I’m with
charles the moderator says:
December 31, 2013 at 1:52 am
Anthony, maybe we should create a reference page for AGW propaganda expedition fails.
Now that would be a long list.
James Bull
My fervent wish is that the egregious Geoffrey Lean, the Enviro Correspondent on the Daily Telegraph (UK) is on board. Although lean by name but fat by nature, he could certainly provide Andean-style nourishment for the rest if the stores give out…
BBC FORGETS BBC CORRESPONDENT
The BBC link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25558276
is very interesting.
In the middle of a very dramatic rescue.
(the Chinese ship, which has the rescue helicopter, is now itself caught in thick ice)
The BBC forgot that there is a BBC correspondent on board.
This must be a first in media history, since ancient Greece.
Remember those “Our correspondent reports…”
Only 5 days ago they were reporting proudly:
Science continues for trapped Australasian Antarctic expedition
By Andrew Luck-Baker
BBC World Service Discovery, East Antarctica
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25519059
ICE MORE SOLID THAN ICEBREAKER DECK.
DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING
[Expedition organizer, professor of climate change] Turney also responded to speculation from climate sceptics who have taken to social media sites in recent days to attack the scientific consensus on climate change, pointing out the apparent incongruity of there being so much sea ice around the Shokalskiy in the middle of the Antarctic summer.
“we are not trapped in new ice that’s been created because its cold,” said Turney. “This is very old, thick ice that’s been remobilized.”
versus, a few lines away
‘AAE members will be picked up on the ice next to the Shokalskiy and dropped off on a similar landing pad next to the Aurora Australis. The Chinese helicopter that will be used is too heavy to land on the Australian vessel’s deck.’
The ice, thus, is more solidly fused together than an ice breaker.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/31/antarctic-rescue-helicopter-to-evacuate-passengers-from-trapped-ship?commentpage=1
BBC reports that the scientists on board thought the ice was much thicker than usual for this time of year.
cynical_scientist says:
December 30, 2013 at 6:55 pm
Speaking from the Akademik Shokalskiy, exhibition leader Chris Turney told ONE News morale among the passengers was holding up despite news earlier this morning that the latest rescue attempt was unsuccessful.
Love the typo. How appropriate. It is officially an exhibition.
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Funny, I say “exhibition” three times and I can’t remember that other word that sounds like it…
I’m waiting for the group to be interviewed by the MSM when they hit land in Australia.
Even odds they’ll complain the rescue boats didn’t serve vegan ala the Greenpeace guy recently released by the Russians.
“we are not trapped in new ice that’s been created because its cold,” said Turney. “This is very old, thick ice that’s been remobilized.”
——
Satirising this becomes superfluous. I nominate “remobilized” as word of the month.
“This is very old, thick ice that’s been remobilized.”
So it’s not a weather event , this is “very” old thick ice. It must be due to climate change then.
Now which sort of climate change makes “very old thick ice”? Just asking Prof. Turney , just asking.
nebgrum says:
December 31, 2013 at 2:43 am
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I suppose it must be comforting, in some way, to know you are not being squashed by new ice that was not created by cold.
Go out for a trip with Prof Chris(mas) Turkey and you are likely to find you’re stuffed.
After a few stiff Martinis the party revellers were reported to be shaken but not stirred.
Laurence Topham says he’s sick of Slush Puppyies and wants real milkshake. Bless !
Mike Jowsey says:
December 30, 2013 at 7:35 pm
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?
Because the ice is unstable and rather than being like ice on an ice rink it is actually moving and it would be extremely dangerous to walk on.
Mann’s hockey on ice?
byz says:
The BBC are unsurprisingly not allowing comments on the story that the Chinese icebreaker is stuck, I wonder why?
They’ve also started filing articles under “Asia” rather than “SciEnvironment”.
So, now apparently they do not see this “scientific” mission getting trapped by climate as “SciEnvironment”, it’s some quiet corner of international news.
Obviously viewers/readers wanting an update will know to go straight to the “Asia” section of their website. Chinese helicopter, init?
I do hope everyone gets out OK, particularly the crew who didn’t have a vested interest in trying to prove an ideological point with this voyage.
But I will be fascinated to see what effect this has on the participants if they survive – how will they be able to square the circle of Global Warming vs nearly being killed in a summer ice sheet? I wonder how many worms of doubt are currently eating their way into their brains?
The saga of the HHS INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Believe it or not there was an item on BBC News 24 this morning. Apparently “there is a ‘Russian Flagged ship’ stuck in Antarctic ice”. By some amazing coincidence “there is a BBC science correspondent” who (by all accounts) just happens to be on board.
The news item is short on two things, facts and truth.
The strange thing is he said that conditions on board were good, yet the bit of film showed him in a tent? The film wasn’t quite up to normal BBC quality but I think you could still make out the egg on his face.
Guardian censoring comments like crazy. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh!
OLD DATA says:
December 31, 2013 at 2:33 am
“BBC reports that the scientists on board thought the ice was much thicker than usual for this time of year.”
There ya go! That proves it! Global warming strikes again.
Posted by Chris Turney, December 30, 2013
“The thick chaotic surface we see around the Shokalskiy is consistent with the idea that this ice is several years old and is considerably more difficult to break through by icebreaker than single year ice…..”
I get the impression he thinks that this multi-year ice wasn’t there last year.
Think this might come back to haunt!
” Initially there were few applicants, so Chris Turney re-versioned Ernest Shackleton’s apocryphal advertisement:
“Wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition assured.”
” I always loved that advert.”
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3899674.htm
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.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3898858.htm
Chris Turney is leading the team of scientists, meteorologists, marine ecologists, oceanographers, ice-core and tree-ring specialists.
Professor Turney says the hundreds of thousands of measurements made by Mawson have become critical to charting signs of global warming.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-28/chinese-icebreaker-unable-to-reach-stuck-ship/5176938
Harry Passfield says:
December 31, 2013 at 2:21 am
My fervent wish is that the egregious Geoffrey Lean, the Enviro Correspondent on the Daily Telegraph (UK) is on board. Although lean by name but fat by nature, he could certainly provide Andean-style nourishment for the rest if the stores give out…
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If he is there, he will almost certainly be accompanied by his ‘colleague’, Loopy Lou (Louise Grey to the uninitiated). With nothing else to do, who knows what they might get up to. He could claim that it’s a survival technique – the more energy he expends, the thinner he gets and therefore less inviting he becomes to their hungry shipmates.
Oh dear, I’m now having trouble getting that thouight out of my head …
For those coming late to this story, it all started when Chris Turney decided he wanted to retrace the steps of an Antarctic exhibition mounted by the great Australian explorer Douglas Mawson a century previously.
The intention was to document modern day changes over those conditions seen a century previously.
Here is a book on Mawson’s original expedition which enables comparison to be drawn between the great explorers of the past and the modern day researchers.(H/T Climate4all)
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/mawson/douglas/home/complete.html
Having said that, celebrity exploration of the poles is nothing new . In the 1920’s and 1930’s our ancestors thrilled to the exploits of Bill Bartlett on the Morrissey as he took celebrities to the arctic to gawp at the huge amount of warming. I wrote about that notable episode of climate change here;
http://judithcurry.com/2013/04/10/historic-variations-in-arctic-sea-ice-part-ii-1920-1950/
There is nothing new under the sun, the depressing thing being that many of the polar changes in the last century were very well documented. Bartlett made a career as a movie star by appearing on Pathe news reel film in cinemas about his arctic exploits, some of his journeys being funded by National Geographic..
tonyb
Hope that the crew on US icebreaker Polar Star, which is on its way for rescue, didn´t forget to bring 85 hockey sticks for the trapped research team.
Searching for the weather in the area gave this page, which shows a rather windy forecast for the next few days:
http://www.meteoexploration.com/expeditions/CapeDenison/