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 link to the Long’s position and the Mawson station web cam are reporting winds under 20 knots.
The latest article on the BBC website here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25557017 is duplicitous. It claims “morale is high” yet also describes how the Russian crew are adversely affected by reports of bombings in Russia. I hope the scientists aren’t ignoring the plight of their crew.
The first sentence of the report is the most hilarious, though: “Morale among the scientists and research volunteers – or tourists – of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013 is surprisingly high.” Yes, it genuinely says “or tourists”. So can we now call all climate scientists “tourists”? It would help us get through the dark winter nights….
Felix says:
December 31, 2013 at 6:32 am
Alan Robertson says:
December 30, 2013 at 9:53 pm
Felix says:
December 30, 2013 at 9:17 pm
Does any of this refute data, actual measurements, showing that the Southern Ocean is warming?
___________________________
What data showing the Southern Ocean warming?
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=8239
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1844/1657/F1.expansion.html
_______________________
The very chart you posted from the Royal Society shows that there is currently no “warming”. You might notice that the trend is temperature decreasing.
Furthermore, due to the manipulation of temperature data, there has been much controversy over reported warming around Antarctica, even from organizations which should know better than to play politics instead of science.
There’s really one simple question which undermines the entire southern warming meme… if the Southern Ocean is warming, why does sea ice increase every year?
Rob Ricket says:
December 31, 2013 at 6:41 am
Xue Long is underway and making 3.6 knots. Captain Wang is smart enough to hold on station without getting trapped by sea ice.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:144.4792/centery:-66.72189/zoom:8/mmsi:412863000
__________________________
They’ve backed away a couple of klicks, so likely won’t get caught.
From their News page:
– – – – – – – – – – –
Polar Star News
DEEP FREEZE 2014!
POLAR STAR departed December 3rd for Operation Deep Freeze. Coming out of their three year reactivation period they embarked on Ice Trials this past summer and are now en route to McMurdo Station in Antarctica to help resupply their research station.
– – – – – – – – – –
From this link off their news page: http://www.uscgnews.com/go/doc/4007/1994906/#
News Release
Date: Dec. 03, 2013
U.S. icebreaker deploys to McMurdo, Antarctica
Picture: Two tugboats escort Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, a 399-foot Polar Class Icebreaker homeported in Seattle, through Elliott Bay after the cutter got underway from Coast Guard Base Seattle, Dec. 3, 2013. – See more at:
SEATTLE – Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star departed Coast Guard Base Seattle for Antarctica, Tuesday, in support of Operation Deep Freeze for the first time since 2006 with the task of resupplying the National Science Foundation Scientific Research Station in McMurdo.
For more than 50 years, Coast Guard icebreaker crews have deployed to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze. They will assist by creating a navigable shipping lane through the layers of ice in McMurdo Sound. Approximately eight million gallons of U.S. fuel will be sent to McMurdo residents through the channel and be delivered to Winter Quarters Bay. This fuel allows the Station to remain manned and ready during the freezing winter months.
This past summer, CGC Polar Star conducted sea trials in the Arctic to test all of the ship’s equipment and train the crew prior to embarking to Antarctica this winter. During the summer trip, CGC Polar Star spent weeks in the Beaufort Sea north of Barrow, Alaska, testing propulsion machinery, conducting emergency drills, and qualifying crewmembers in individual watchstations.
In preparation for CGC Polar Star’s Deep Freeze Deployment, the crew overhauled many pieces of equipment from the bridge to the engine room and successfully completed a number of assessments to achieve their fully reactivated status.
Polar Star is a 399-foot Polar Class Icebreaker with a 140-person crew, homeported in Seattle. The cutter is recently out of a three-year, $90 million overhaul, which is part of the Coast Guard’s plan to reactivate the heavy icebreaker.
– See more at: http://www.uscgnews.com/go/doc/4007/1994906/#sthash.3RzAtP43.dpuf
They need this guy..
JimH says: @ur momisugly December 31, 2013 at 3:11 am
…. I wonder how many worms of doubt are currently eating their way into their brains?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You are making the bad assumption that the peddlers of
GloBULL WarmingerrrClimate Changeerrr Weather Weirding (is that the latest term or did it morph again) actually believe the propaganda they are spewing.From Climategate 2.0 Michael Mann shows that climate alarmism is a ’cause’ and not science:
http://expeditionsonline.com/tour-44/spirit-of-mawson-akademik-shokalskiy
“Given that we are closing in on the South Magnetic Pole we may see the lights of the Aurora Australis”
Actually, with a bit of luck they may in fact be the lights in the piano bar of the Aurora Australis
damn, they _knew_ all this was going to happen before they set out 😉
Tenuc says:
December 31, 2013 at 3:54 am
I feel really sorry for those who have been suckered into believing the CAGW meme. Perhaps their experience will help change their views?
Sadly, most probably not. Regardless of how they came to their CAGW beliefs, there is a will to Believe which takes over rational thought. The curious response of True Believers, in the face of facts and reality contradicting their beliefs is to Believe even harder. They become even more irrational, in other words.
I wouldn’t feel sorry for them though. They made their beds.
“Stupid is as stupid does, Mrs. Blue.”
-Forest Gump
I noted the following comment at Bishop Hill:
Comment at the Graun by lmxly1:
“… I have heard from friends on board that the captain saw the weather coming and wanted to get out ASAP while the ship was only 2 miles from open water. But the scientists fumbled their gear on return and took much longer, hence this fiasco! And it reminds me of the old Antarctic maxim – Hurry up….or wait!!”
So it appears that Turney probably is responsible for this. He’s certainly got some ‘splaining to do….
BTW, I meant Public Affairs OFFICER, not office.
Don
Alan Robertson: “There’s really one simple question which undermines the entire southern warming meme… if the Southern Ocean is warming, why does sea ice increase every year?”
It’s simple: because global warming !
Hotter = AGW, cooler = AGW.
Less ice and snow = AGW; more ice and snow = AGW.
It must be obvious to anyone but those in the pay of Suzanne Goldbergs billion dollar dunial industry that whatever happens it’s the result of AGW as predictied by climate science and GCMs.
Now if you will just sign over all your personal wealth, that of your children and grandchildren and sign your whole familily into bondage for the next three generations , perhaps we can finally make some progress on saving the planet BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
It doesn’t add up… says: “So it appears that Turney probably is responsible for this.”
Prof Chris(mas) Turkey will be spending his time stuck in the ice concocting his excuses. He’s already suggested how global warming causes more ice, so he’s well on his way.
negrum says:
December 31, 2013 at 5:09 am
“If everybody involved in this crisis is not very careful, this could be heading for a worst case scenario nightmare version of:”
The last pic where the big green crane seems to topple over looks totally fake. They took the crane from the pic before and rotated it. Wheels and perspective look identical; the four head lamps look all botched up because the rotation caused interpolated pixel values.
There is only one molecule, albeit within a short range, expands as it cools. This $Q will launch the next wave of research. Too funny…
I see the BBC not only refuses to acknowledge that the tourists are climate scientists, but they have NOT allowed any commentary, on any of their story coverage. Still trying to control the story and divert criticism. Reality will not bend to the spin. GK
Valuable comments on Tallbloke and paper cite. Thanks.
Chinese rescue ship stuck in the ice too????? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25558276#
DirkH says:
December 31, 2013 at 7:37 am:
“The last pic where the big green crane seems to topple over looks totally fake”
—–
Thanks. I didn’t pick up on that one. You are quite right – should have checked with snopes: http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/crane.asp. The last picture is photoshopped in. The first eight seem genuine and they probably should have left it at that – the message would still be clear.
REMF’s out at sea caught in their own lies by ice.
Front line men on Polar Star will go unnamed and if they tell the truth of what they find early retirment and or no promotions.
The ice knows, we know, the msm will lie to their ice bound end.
It is all about power and taxes to run the machine.
Not be deterred by reality Grauiad gets 2014 off to a flying start with “at least 4C by 2100”.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/31/planet-will-warm-4c-2100-climate
5C .. do I hear 5C? 5C at the back, do I hear 6C?
It’s now official: Chris Turney is unequivocal in blaming the 20 miles of ice surrounding the Shokalskiy on Climate Change. From the Guardian:
“The event is likely to be a result of long-term climate change that is happening in this part of the world. ”
Article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/31/antarctic-rescue-helicopter-to-evacuate-passengers-from-trapped-ship
Extract showing full quote:
“There’s a misconception here – 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 re-mobilised. It was attached to another part of the continent and has broken out and, with the south-easterly winds we’ve had, has pushed it up against the coast … and pinned us in.”
The event is likely to be a result of long-term climate change that is happening in this part of the world. When the 120km-long iceberg, B09B, came through the area a few years ago it knocked the tongue off the nearby Mertz glacier, which itself is 120km long. The iceberg grounded on the sea bed in Commonwealth Bay causing the sea around it to lock up with ice attached to the continent.
“There’s no Mertz glacier tongue to hold back the sea ice that broke out in the past weeks,” said Turney. “Because there’s ice in Commonwealth Bay, where we’re near, that old ice couldn’t go anywhere apart from here. It’s unfortunate circumstances.”
This explanation is the same one as he has given in his Spirit of Mawson website blog post yesterday, 30th December 2013, after a sudden 3-day posting hiatus when the most important events were unfolding:
http://www.spiritofmawson.com/blog/
Turney’s blog post shows before and after satellite pictures of the area (20th and 27th Dec) and these are used supposedly to explain the fact that all the sea ice had broken away from fast ice the other side of the Mertz Glacier and had nowhere to go but into Commonwealth bay. I suspect that some ice did break off and contributed to the situation. However I think I can see spin here just like everywhere else.
The 10-day-old satellite pictures that had apparently only just arrived on the day of the posting are quite difficult to interpret. They don’t show exactly the same area of Commonwealth Bay in both pictures and they are low resolution so you can’t see the labelling or the legend. Turney’s explanation is unhelpful and there is no link to the source at ACE CRC. So I went to the site myself, linked below, and found it rather lacking- certainly no satellite data page.
http://seaice.acecrc.org.au
I’m left with a distinct impression that the details of Turney’s line of argument in this explanation-via-Global-Warming is untenable. I therefore think it’s worthy of an in-depth investigation at WUWT to root out the truth behind the ice break-out and where it went, perhaps using satellite data that is full resolution and clearly shows the whole area of Commonwealth Bay in both photos. I think we may find that they were simply sailing into denser and denser floating ice which then closed around them with a change of wind direction. The breakout ice might have just added to the periphery of this mass- after all, the ‘after’ satellite photo is from the 27th December, not from the 24th when they were iced in. Why show the situation 3 days later and not at the time or one day later? And why not show all of Commonwealth Bay in the ‘before’ picture.
If WUWT doesn’t knock this right on the head, Turney or others will be presenting it as science fact, possibly as soon as early March 2014 at The International Glaciogical Society (IGS) 4th sea ice symposium in Hobart, Tasmania from (10-14 March 2014). That is, if they can get to Tasmania before March.
Scute
The Master of the Akademik Shokalskiy is probably too embarrassed to update his location. The last received position is 8th December leaving Bluff, NZ.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/index/ships/all/page:1/shipname:Akademik%20Shokalskiy
USCGC Polar Star departed Honolulu en route to service US bases in Antarctica on 18th December.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/7367471/vessel:POLAR_STAR
Xue Long is trolling back & forth. http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/index/ships/all/page:1/shipname:XUE%20LONG
Aurora Australis is also reticent about its current position.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/index/ships/all/page:1/shipname:AURORA%20AUSTRALIS
“We just have no idea what the weather will do,” expedition leader Chris Turney told ABC News via Skype. Another priceless quote from a Bishop of CAGW. We can’t predict the weather for the next day but let us tell you about climate.