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)
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Advice to expedition leader Chris Turkey: whatever you do, don’t go for an outdoor pee
[snip – this Youtube video is pointless -mod]
When interviewed a few days ago Turney said they had two weeks of food before they had to go to rations.
If I was a penguin I’d move away. After a few weeks grilled penguin will start looking nice even to a greenie.
Thanks for that Dr Norman Page and …
Guardian video producer Laurence Topham posts a short diary account of how he and his colleague Alok Jha are passing the time on board the Akademik Shokalskiy, which is trapped in heavy sea ice off the coast of Antarctica awaiting rescue by the Autralian icebreaker Aurora Australis
Reminiscent of Sgt. Pinback’s video logs on Dark Star!
I do not like the men on this spaceship. They are uncouth and fail to appreciate my better qualities. I have something of value to contribute to this mission if they would only recognize it. Today over lunch I tried to improve morale and build a sense of camaraderie among the men by holding a humorous, round-robin discussion of the early days of the mission. My overtures were brutally rejected. These men do not want a happy ship. They are deeply sick and try to compensate by making me feel miserable. Last week was my birthday. Nobody even said “happy birthday” to me. Someday this tape will be played and then they’ll feel sorry.
“It’s fantastic – I love it when the ice wins and we don’t,” said expedition marine ecologist Tracy Rogers. “It reminds you that as humans, we don’t control everything and that the natural world – it’s the winner here. We’ve got several penguins watching us, thinking ‘what the hell are you doing stuck in our ice?’. The sky is a beautiful grey – it looks like it wants to have a bit of a snow. It’s the perfect Christmas, really.”
I love it when nature wins too. But, unfortunately, she still has a way to go to beat these jokers arrogance.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25519059
Assuming temperature symmetry between the hemispheres, I’m wondering what implications this might have on Arctic ice growth this coming summer.
Are we seeing ice expansion in the Antarctic in December?? Wouldn’t that be unprecedented?
Geoff -if anything happens to them I’ll start a one-man shaming campaign against UEA who are after all morally responsible for much of the alarmism
Too bad the ‘Mighty Mac, is no longer in service. Built in 1944, the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw broke ice across the Great Lakes until its retirement in 2006, and a formidable but friendly beast it was. At 290 feet long it had a substantial girth of 74 feet with which to clear lanes through the ice on Lake Superior, Michigan, and others, so the massive ore ships could get through. It used no less than six 10 cylinder Fairbanks Morse Diesel engines. These 2 cycle Diesel engines used 2 opposed pistons in each cylinder, each operating a crankshaft throw at both the top and bottom of each engine; the two crankshafts geared together. Each pair of engines was in its own watertight compartment, and each pair produced 3,500 hp: total power; 10,500. The engines turned generators and the three propellers (two stern, one bow) were driven by electric motors. Among the icebreakers on the Lakes the most capable ones had bow propellers and the Mighty Mac had one. The bow propeller could be used, in reverse to make a pressure wave to break up forward ice, or, to assist the ship in its forward motion. With a top, open water speed of a respectable 18.7 knots it’s even possible the Mighty Mac could get through the St. Lawrence Seaway and down to Antarctica in time to rescue these foolish, hubris infected, irresponsible people. A testimony to its capabilities was its continuous 62 years of wintertime service on the Great Lakes, one of which was considered threatening enough to inspire Gordon Lightfood’s lyrics; “Superior it’s said, never gives up her dead.”
I wonder if that picture of the folks holding the flag with “theguardian” printed over a map of Antarctica explains this…
http://climatesanity.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/the-guardian-removes-my-simple-comment/
Michael Ronayne says:
December 30, 2013 at 10:47 am
Question:
What do you call a ship load of trapped Global Cooling Deniers who are in danger of freezing to death?
Answer:
A good start!
_______________________________
Q: What do you need if you find a shipload of Climate Numpties, stuck in the ice?
A: More ice.
The Antarctic does not suffer fools easily. The conditions there can change so quickly and are never less than deadly. These happy idiots are a liability and have achieved a very high nuisance value. Some other poor coot will have to put his life at risk to get them out of their ill-conceived, ill-planned and ill-informed predicament. At least they have plenty of ice for the drinks, while the bar has supplies.
Reblogged this on Public Secrets and commented:
The climate change movement is falling apart and ending in farce, as this “scientific expedition” shows. BTW, click through for photos of ships sunk in the Antarctic in recent years. Maybe we should worry about the ecological damage incompetent visitors are doing.
Good post…I was going to write up something in those lines but this says it all. This is Spring Break by some who never grew up. They think they’re so cool and hip, when actually they’ve made a mockery of the scientific industry. They took a 50 million dollar vessel and are now on the verge of trashing it like out-of-control brats at a Project X party.
“The @GdnAntarctica winter men’s clothing catalogue has just arrived …”
But it’s summer down there!
This must have been the best entertainment that Penguins and Seals have seen in a long time.
Too foggy today for the one helicopter from the Xue Lang – which cannot land on the deck of the Aurora Australis. They may have to wait another day or two. The cost of the rescue is expected to be in the “multi-millions” by SMH. Looks like a skeleton crew of 17 will be left on board after the tourists/pilgrims are taken off.
“When the rescue does take place, Shokolskiy passengers would likely be taken by the Xue Long’s helicopter to the Chinese icebreaker. The Aurora’s barge would then move passengers from the Xue Long to the Australian icebreaker”. — SMH.
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/akademik-shokolskiy-rescue-delayed-by-bad-weather-20131231-303i3.html#ixzz2ozG3fT2H
Had a quick glance at SkS to see how they were dealing with it. Wonderful – a cartoon of a ship sailing towards an iceberg, followed by all is well, no problem, the iceberg has melted! How not apposite! Congratulations, SkS on your impeccable timing! Yes I know it was meant to be the Arctic Ocean – you know, the one that became completely ice-free this year, but even so …
Mark Steyn is sitting in for brother Rush today, and he was concerned they might be stuck in the ice for years, especially if our efforts at preventing global warming begin to take effect. What would they do for food? Who would be the first on the menu? The tourists, the Gruniad reporters, or the climate scientists?
The R.S. Donner Passkiya.
The Chinese icebreaker is stuck. What are the Chinese doing with an icebreaker? Maybe the Russians will send an icebreaker to free the Australian icebreaker that is on the way to free the Chinese icebreaker that was on the way to free the Russian vessel.
Penguins to warmists:
“Wait a minute. You mean you didn’t bring ‘The Desolation of Smaug’? Then what the hell use are you?”
In his Indiegogo video, Turney says (at about 5:35) that Commonwealth Bay has been badly clogged with sea ice limiting access for the last 3 years. Funny, that is about where they are stuck, off Commonwealth Bay.
They know but they do not understand, their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. They bow down to a block of wood.
From the previous article comments:
Steve McIntyre says:
December 30, 2013 at 9:47 am
Together with Joelle Gergis, Turney was also co-leader of the AUS contribution to the PAGES2K climate reconstruction. Turney was one of the coauthors of Gergis et al, discussed last year at Climate Audit.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/29/saving-the-antarctic-scientists-er-media-er-activists-er-tourists-trapped-by-sea-ice/#comment-1517734
You have to read the Spirit of Mawson blog to understand what a bunch of clowns these guys really are.
I liked the reference to collecting a large number of seal blubber samples – how do you do that without killing the seals? These guys are supposed to be greenies, they can’t kill seals.
Anthony
How about WUWT offering a donation towards their rescue?
tonyb
Why is it such a surprise the people who routinely ignore real world observation are stuck in a real world observation. I’m sure their models said the ice wasn’t there
Global Warming Scientists Still Trapped In Record-Level Antarctic Ice http://bit.ly/1bxvuQl
The penguins in the first photo appear to be photoshopped in. I am not sure there would be a bunch of penguins right at the location at which the ship is stuck, unless they were just having a good laugh. (I will look at later pictures for a sad polar bear, just in case the biologists aboard are as competent as the “climate scientists.”)