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)
@scute:
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sfc_daily.php?plot=ssd&inv=0&t=cur
shows -2 C water around Antarctica… so either it’s frozen naturally, or that “below zero” part of the map is wrong.
Turney said it was fresh water, after all, so ought to freeze at -2C…
7.15am Wednesday 1st NZT
National Radio reports that Xue Long has radioed it is trapped in ice.
It appears doubtful that Aurora will attempt to break a passage to Xue Long, now waiting on Polar Star to arrive in approximately 10 – 12 days.
The stupidity of some people defies belief.
E.M.Smith, “Turney said it was fresh water”?
Turney has shown no expertise that would indicate he could identify fresh water. He’s a climate scientist. He deals in theoretical models. But water is a physical material.
Physical materials are all listed under the bracket of “not model”.
Like backsides and arm joints.
They had better rescue Christmas Turnkey, Grant Hose & all the media whores from the bar before the rising seas submerge them.
What they need is the A(gw) Team Who can build a bow mounted greenhouse and feed that huge CO2 funnel away from the sky into the greenhouse. The ice will be gone in a day.
Who knows who carries the responsibility for cruising into this ice? The captain? Professor Turney?
The University of NSW for trip planning? Do they pay the expenses?
The good thing is half that of the guests are paying members, picking up half of the final check, we can assume.
Revkin’s Dot earth blog at http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/rescue-effort-for-trapped-antarctic-voyage-disrupts-serious-science/?_r=0 has a good column with Email notes from someone directly impacted by the Aurora Australis’ interrupted unload to go rescue the Spirit of Mawson exhibition. The ship was only 1/3 unloaded when the call came in.
The window of access in the Antarctic is small, I’m sure this fiasco will have major impact for the rest of the summer.
eddi says:
December 31, 2013 at 9:41 am
“..It’s still not “ok” in civil discourse to call out the AGW movement as a lie and those who foster its underpinnings as liars”
—–
I understand your frustration, but calling someone a liar is an ad hominem and detracts from your argument. It belongs in the political and legal arena (plenty of sites for that) and not in scientific discussion. One reason for this is that lying is very difficult to prove – due to weaselling – and another is that the term is too easy to misuse. it is better to focus on reasoned debate and at least a minimum of courtesy.
There are plenty of deluded followers and calling them liars will only confirm them in their faith, since technically they are not lying, they are merely mistaken (in our skeptical opinion) and your accusation would be false and counter-productive. Someone lying to themself is not a crime and criminalising it brings us very quickly to Orwell’s 1984 🙂
@weltklima, Those paying their own tab will sue. Then those on governments’ tab will sue. Finally those who rescued the tourists will sue. Perhaps everybody should be named sue?
I wonder who is tasked with censoring all outgoing comm transmissions. With a dedicated media center it would be natural to interview the Capitan now and then.
Clay Marley says:
December 31, 2013 at 9:48 am
Just one, as far as I know, the son of Chris Turney. Robbie seems pretty sensible, some of his writing is at http://www.spiritofmawson.com/blog/ . I suspect he’ll do okay.
“The @GdnAntarctica winter men’s clothing catalogue has just arrived…”
And if you don’t find what you’re looking for there, try the J. Peterman catalog:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_feKCUOgjz_M/TPgFAxEUSZI/AAAAAAAACV8/47Ymot8qpsM/s1600/George_Costanza_Hat.jpg
A bit of balanced reporting beginning to creep in now….
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/12/31/global_warming_researcher_gets_stuck_in_ice_121091.html
I have still not, as of yet, sat through watching James Cameron’s Titanic…but I’ll bet that a crucial scene is missing:
The captain has a drink sitting at the helm. The iceberg is growing in the distance. He glances at his drink, in which the ice is 1/8 above the surface.
He then steals a glance at the iceberg.
Back to the drink.
Back again to the iceberg.
The captain shrugs, fails to add 2 and 2, and rushes headlong into disaster.
But, as Anthony mentions, he wasn’t availed of all of the tools these chuckleheads have.
And yet – they’re stuck in ice that, according to their manifestos, simply shouldn’t exist.
I just hope these latte swilling, short sighted, idiot-savants and their respective employers/organizations bear the full fiscal responsibility for their rescue. Most likely though, the “grey men” behind the project will dip into their ill gotten gains to bail out the expedition/exhibition, and also not onlytry to suppress the PR disaster but spin it into a CAGW victory.
I suspect that the editorial staff and policy shapers at the sponsering media organizations are having some sleepless nights, one can only imagine the back room e-mail and phone calls. The comments at the Guardian are hilarious, they give me hope.
@EM Smith. Thanks for the link!
@warren in New Zealand. Thanks for the radio reports which seem to be ahead of all the other media.
@Alan Watt. Thanks for the Polar Star info. I’ll doubtless be referring to that in 12 days’ time….or will it be 16 days? At 21 mph she will need all her fuel to get there and back to the US and have nothing left for rescue operations, if protracted. At 15mph she will manage her fuel OK. Or do we now need a fifth rescue ship with additional fuel supplies? And a sixth with food supplies (don’t forget the bananas and milkshakes!) for 54 climate refugees crowded onto ships with food for crew only? Those research station supply ships/breakers will be departing in the opposite direction to home when they extricate themselves- to do their day job of supplying. The refugees will be plying the Southern Ocean for nearly a month before arriving home.
Turney’s mission was to see how the climate has changed at Commonwealth Bay since Mawson landed there almost exactly 101 years ago.
Well, he got his answer didn’t he.
There is no way to spin it without sounding like a nutbar.
Sometimes it takes a major disaster to bring people back from la-la land. This may be that disaster. If it is then they will become the martyrs that saved the world from the return of communism and economic ruin.
So he brought his Children? Shocking irresponsibility!
@jim
>On position reports: Some of these vessels may be equipped with VHF-band only radio position transmitters (vs Inmarsat satellite), and this requires a land-based station/infrastructure to receive the position report and forward that info to data aggregaters for display on various websites.
Lost? Unlikely in the sense that they can easily report where they are and there is a high likelihood listeners would by following them, considering the circumstances. They would set out to sea with equipment down to the 40 metre band as they would want to be able to talk to ships in their vicinity (a radius of 2000 km). Medical mayday’s are often put out on 20 and 15m bands because they are most likely to pick up amateur traffic there. I am sure head office knows where they are.
If the Chinese are stuck in the ice, that was a heck of a risk to take and the con$equence$ are mighty. The Australians have also found a really inconvenient s’truth: It was a lot warmer 100 years ago.
RockyRoad says:
The vast majority of oil producers support the Global Warming meme–they certainly don’t fund the likes of WUWT or anybody else opposed to such folly.
And now you have one of the reasons why.
Oil co’s support AGW for one reason, PROFIT. Search on Shell oil for some real scum.
Confirmation of Warren’s report. I was wrong concerning the status of the Xue Long.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/232243/stranded-passengers-wait-for-break-in-weather
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/232243/stranded-passengers-wait-for-break-in-weather
BBC radio producer Andrew Luck-Baker, who is on the ship, says he has been told the nearby Chinese ice-breaker ship Xue Long with a helicopter on board has been stuck in ice for the last day.
He says the Australian ice breaking ship Aurora Australis may now need to rescue the Chinese ship.
Mr Luck-Baker says there is a degree of uncertainty about when, or if, those on board the ship will be helicoptered out.
Earlier passengers and crew rang in the New Year with dinner, drinks and song, congregating in the bar they sang a song about their adventures.
Lets recap
Akademie begat the Xue Long, which begat the Astrolabe which begat the Aurora which begat the Polar Star.
Will the Chinese Pacific Fleet be next? Which Ice Breaker is bigger than the Polar Star? Will the “tourists” arrive home in time for Nth Summer?
Stephen Richards says:
December 31, 2013 at 11:31 am
“And now you have one of the reasons why.
Oil co’s support AGW for one reason, PROFIT. Search on Shell oil for some real scum.”
Now, wait, there are a few clarifications necessary.
Profit is not immoral. Without profit, you get the USSR. Companies were legal in the USSR; only profit was illegal. See how well that worked for the common man.
Second. Supporting the AGW meme is not leading to warming. So while the Oilcos might HOPE the AGW scientists are right, and position themselves to gain oil in the arctic, this is just a bet. They don’t support AGW science to make it warm in the arctic.
The real reason for supporting the AGW meme is that they hoped to be able to kill rival coal as that contains more carbon. Coal producers are far less concentrated economically as the barriers to entry are lower, the technology to produce it is simpler and cheaper. The Oilcos are an oligopole, the coal producers are not; an oligopole can more easily form a cartel and drive up prices.
At this point, it looks like summer time may be their best hope for beneficial warming. I know the irony is already as thick as the Antarctic ice, but that global warming alarmists are in dire need of this warming that they claim is detrimental… is critical to their survival (and those of the rescuers) is a tour de force.
It is interesting to see the BBC make references to the USCGC Polar Star as a potential solution to the mess we are watching unfold. They speak if as if they have advance knowledge of a tasking for that ship, yet there is no mention of one (that I know of) by USCG officials. If it were to occur, it surely would provide some extra drama to flesh out the ending of my proposed screenplay and eventual movie. 😉
Seriously though, the Polar Star has it’s own mission to complete at McMurdo. Three other research/resupply ships have been diverted from real-world (as opposed to tourism) missions too long already. The Polar Star is fresh off a three year heavy overhaul. Although it has the capability to break through to the Russian ship, the question is would the USCG risk it? It would be a lot of time, fuel and additional maintenance demands for very little gain, imho.