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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I don’t know if anyone else has already covered but this expedition has already been done for the same reasons and they also could not reach Mawson’s site
“An important theme of the expedition was climate change and its effect on the ice mass of Antarctica. vW Maps sourced free satellite imagery acquired only months earlier, helping to keep the pubilsher’s costs down, while providing an incomparable and beautiful base for the map of Mawson’s ill-fated trip across two dangerous glaciers.
One limitation of the journey’s recreation was the inaccessibility of Mawson’s landing site, which meant that Jarvis and his team had to recreate the original expedition in a different part of Antarctica. vW Maps, using incomplete GPS tracks, visualized data in a way that made it clear that the new expedition covered the same distance to the pole as the Mawson’s group”.
http://www.vwmaps.com/2010/09/23/mawson/
So what just was the real reason for this trip?
Do they have timber or steel so they can brace inside of hull? helicopters may not be able to fly but is it possible to parachute in supplies? If hull collapses, personnel may have to live on ice.
How will the MSM decide to report this story? Who calls the shots?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIevazPIPzU
Glenn says:
January 1, 2014 at 11:50 am
Mr. Watts, as someone who has actually been on a research expedition (to Greenland) I find your ignorance on these matters quite surprising for someone who holds themselves up as a strong critic of climate science.
*****************************************************************************************************************
This is the new tactic of these trolls – to claim that they have done something which we are ridiculing. I don’t think “Glenn” has ever been near Greenland.
Climateace “claimed” he was an ex farmer and recently on the thread about the young scientist at NCAR a well know troll “claimed” he once worked at NCAR. Just be aware of this new tactic guys.
The most important angle of the story for the average viewer and voter – there could well be some climate change in next fall’s elections –
The most important angle is the subliminal one.
White.
Lots and lots of white.
That’s for both this rescue story and for Jeanne Moos’s superb Greenpeace Santa story.
http://tinyurl.com/k5yrrdn
It didn’t melt. In spite of all those years of apocalyptic
“climate scientists tell us that…”.
There’s an endless expanse of ice in the background.
It looks like the Polar Star may be diverting south.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/7367471/vessel:POLAR_STAR
By the way of the ship’s name, the Russian academician (akademik), professor Shokalskiy did research on the big Arctic meltdown in the 1920’s to 1940’s, which climatologists now try to hide.
http://mclean.ch/climate/Arctic_1920_40.htm
http://judithcurry.com/2013/04/10/historic-variations-in-arctic-sea-ice-part-ii-1920-1950/
The media angle belongs to no one. The embedded reporters were meant to provide live 24/7 coverage of the climate change discovered (= melting + penguin carcasses due to melting), but were now silenced to the occasional milk shake report. They will likely not be able to write books on what really happened either.
As far as media goes, it’s all about passengers of a Russian ship trying to be rescued by a Chinese icebreaker.
Which is why the story is filed under “Asia.”
See, it’s all about some Asians helping some Euroasians. End of the story. Move along.
Who? Me? Climate change? What?
J. Herbst said on January 1, 2014 at 1:10 am:
Thank you for the correction J. Herbst. I withdraw my comment about dendrologists going to Antarctica. However, I would like to highlight the following from the blog entry by Umberto Binetti dated December 4, 2013, as it is not in keeping with the general theme of unprecedented warming:
Treelines are aggregators of climatic conditions. They represent the integral of climate over a given period. The fact that treelines are found in many places in the world either farther north or at higher elevations than current vegetation would seem to indicate that we are not presently in a period of “unprecedented warmth.”
hi Glenn
yes. I am referring to actual children. (Robbie and Cara ??)
children of the expedition leader, Chris Turney
My apologies if someone above has mentioned this. It’s getting to be a chore to scroll through all the activity here! (grins)
From Janet Rice-http://www.janetrice.com.au/?e=98
(After 1 am on December 24)
“The ship is making very slow progress through pack ice. There is a narrow channel that we are inching our way along – it of course is pretty frozen in itself. There are icebergs on either side of us, some kilometres away – hard to tell exactly how far. We oscillate between hardly moving to suddenly being jolted sideways with a crunch as the ship bashes and barges its way through.”
***
“We were out in similar conditions this afternoon. Somewhat brighter – in fact there was blue sky and sunshine for some periods. The weather has been better than the forecast blizzard, so that was good.”
***
“The third drama of the day is the one which is still unfolding. Because of the Argo mishap we got off late, and had one less vehicle to ferry people to and fro. I’m told the Captain was becoming rather definite late in the afternoon that we needed to get everyone back on board ASAP because of the coming weather and the ice closing in. As I write we are continuing to make extremely slow progress through what looks like a winter alpine snow field – it’s yet another surreal part of this journey that we are in a ship trying to barge our way through here! I’m sure the Captain would have been much happier if we had got away a few hours earlier. Maybe we would have made it through the worst before it consolidated as much as it has with the very cold south- easterly winds blowing the ice away from the coast, around and behind us as well as ahead.
We’ll see where we are in the morning – it may be a very white Christmas Eve!
PS. 9.30am 24/12. We have moved less than a kilometre over night, and are now stationary in a sea of ice. The word is that we are not stuck, merely waiting for a weather change. It seems to me that we are having the quintessential Antarctic experience.J Stay tuned.”
*******************************************************
THE CAPTAIN and PASSENGERS knew that bad weather and ice were coming on Dec 23-that a “blizzard had been forecast”. The Captain made it clear to them more than once, because he “became rather definite” later that they needed to get OUT of that area ASAP.
As of 1 am on December 24th, they were already progressing through “ice pack” that caused the ship to “bash and barge” it’s way through the ice! Need more evidence of how stupid these people are?
On the 21st, Turney blogged about their trip to the Mawson camp on the 19/20th. Trying to find the LEAST hazardous way to access the Commonwealth Bay area, they decided to move the ship up the coast-farther away, but with access to better ice to drive across. He says this-
“A timely reminder was during the evening we relocated. The Shokalskiy suddenly found it was in a mass breakout of ice. In just half an hour, an extensive area of ice (some of which we had been using for the Hangout on Air earlier that day) had broken up and was moving away from Commonwealth Bay with haste. Large pieces of ice, in the shape of shattered glass fragments – albeit large pieces – surrounded our vessel. There was no danger to the ship but it was a timely reminder how quickly things can change in this environment. You can never take anything for granted in the Antarctic!”
After experiencing the ship being surrounded by breakout ice on the 18th or 18th of December in just HALF AN HOUR, they stayed in that area, moved slightly up the coast and with an incoming blizzard and MORE ice on the way, they went onshore and forced the boat to wait for their return. THEN they got stuck.
For Chris Turney to then go on TELEVISION and act shocked that all this ice just mysteriously appeared and hemmed them in without any warning, is stunning. If the Captain gets sued for damages, I hope he takes every penny Chris Turney and the University of New South Wales will ever have in the future.
_Jim says: @ur momisugly December 31, 2013 at 8:35 pm
I am now wondering what part alcohol and an open bar might have played all around in the bad decision made to ‘challenge the ice’; probably none. Still, the thought persists …
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Good observation.
The problem of drunk driving is so bad in Russia, that on board videos are routinely used to prove innocence. A lot of the accidents are posted on the net according to my husband.
I wonder if there was anyone sober on board?
Oh, and MIKE…I love the poem!
Aphan says:
January 1, 2014 at 5:13 pm
_______________________
That’s really quite an indictment, but it won’t matter much to the man on the street, who will never get wind of the truth, at least not from the MSM.
Rest assured that there is already a small army of lawyers and PR types working together around the world, formulating a strategy going beyond damage control. They’re in this war to win it and they will try to make philosophical profit from this incident, expanding on the whole climate change meme.This incident is far more important to the warmunists than the event itself, as it continues to unfold.
Dave R.-
Can I get a link to where Turney changed the description of the trip? (If it’s true, what a weasel because as the “organizer” he and his university are probably liable) I’d just like proof.
Glenn-
You ARE the “Mr. Glenn” who posted on the Newsbusters site regarding this same ship aren’t you? Because that “Mr. Glenn” had the exact same attitude and said something almost exactly like: “One ship stuck in the ice does not negate global warming”. You know, kind of like a pre-conceived notion /strawman argument designed to make people who are questioning the intelligence of the people who organized this little voyage look like idiots rather than having a legitimate point about the situation these people are in.
I mean what are the odds that TWO men with the name “Glenn” would show up in two different sites talking about this incident and say almost the exact same thing? If it IS you, then YOU personally dropped into two forums that are very well known for questioning everything related to climate science-not because they deny warming or cooling or human influence at all-but because there is so much evidence now of science fraud and lies, that anyone with even half a brain SHOULD question everything that gets published and put out there. It’s called COMMON SENSE.
So did you just stumble innocently into two forums in which your accusations were greeted with hostility (can’t imagine why anyone would react with coldness to insinuations about their intelligence or credibility) or did you come post on both with a chip on your shoulder looking for a fight?
This forum is filled with HIGHLY intelligent, well educated, and well respected scientists and others who have taken their climate hobbies to heights some professors could only hope to attain. These people do their homework. They read everything published (not just the abstracts) and they don’t rely on anyone else’s evaluations of those papers. They form their own. They listen. They research. They DIG. They actually want to know the truth, WHATEVER it ends up being, because the TRUTH about this planet and how it works really IS their goal.
So maybe hang out. Read. Watch. And give this forum another chance. Because I assure you that the impression you seem to have gotten before your first post, is not an accurate one. And I’m sure they”ll give you another shot. But be warned, they don’t suffer fools lightly. 🙂
Wow lots to get to, so I’ll do my best and stick to the more serious posters.
I’ll just start by using this post to clarify that I did not intend to be a bomb thrower, so on second look I would tone down my original post a bit. I appreciate any genuine discussion. If you think I am being a dick, call me out on it. I am not advocating for any particular climate policy (despite what one poster seemed to think earlier). My position is more that I think too many people assume the field of Climate Science itself is tied completely to “man-made” climate change, and many of the critics of the science are simply ignorant of the field and the underlying math and science itself. That charge isn’t directed at everybody here of course. I just reacted negatively to the idea that appeared to be pushed on this site that one ship stuck in the ice in Antarctica supposedly discredits the entire field of climate science.
So on to some of your posts….
Now we know where the so called “green” jobs are coming from. Rescuing scientists er tourists from Antarcta
If their spirits are so high and all is well, then they won’t mind hiking out to the waiting rescue ships 20 km out instead of using jet fuel in helicopters for the ride. They are creating a larger carbon footprint with all of this fun and high spirits. Al Gore would have just flown over and called it done.
I want them all to be safely rescued, by Fulton lift.
Glenn says:
January 1, 2014 at 6:07 pm
” I just reacted negatively to the idea that appeared to be pushed on this site that one ship stuck in the ice in Antarctica supposedly discredits the entire field of climate science.”
“If you think I am being a dick, call me out on it. ”
______________________________
You still are pointing fingers at us. Do you make similar accusations against those climate scientists who claim that each and every weather event constitutes proof of their warmunist agenda?
Philip Tomas (@BadScience) says:
January 1, 2014 at 6:20 pm
I want them all to be safely rescued, by Fulton lift.
—————————————————-
But it’s only used on dummies, or in real emergencies………………Oh……….I get it.
Aphan-
You said “Um…first of all, THESE scientists are stuck in Antarctica, NOT the Arctic. And you seem to not know that a “plot with a timescale from September-December of this year” would NOT be heading into winter in Antarctica, it would be heading OUT OF winter and into Spring/Summer there.”
I was referring to this post under the Update 2 section: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/29/saving-the-antarctic-scientists-er-media-er-activists-er-tourists-trapped-by-sea-ice/ In which we get both plots of Arctic sea Ice and Antarctic sea ice. I was referring to the Arctic plot. Arctic sea ice has been on the decline. This past year being a blip. If you don’t believe me, check with the US Navy, Russia, China, European Union, etc. who are all scrambling to adapt to the changes in the Arctic Ocean and what that may lead to.
You also said: “The irony is that they want us to BELIEVE that it’s getting warm enough to melt the fast ice/ice shelves while at the same time being COLD ENOUGH to then refreeze the water it JUST MELTED around their ship! ”
It’s a bit more complex than that. I don’t know if they are right or wrong, but to refute this you have to factor in Southern Ocean currents which circle the continent. It is conceivable that melt coming in from different points along the Antarctic coast is getting carried around and freezing only in certain localized areas where the conditions are ideal, and not freezing elsewhere. I don’t know if this is happening but it is not as ridiculous a hypothesis as you are assuming.
Glenn says:
January 1, 2014 at 6:37 pm
“It is conceivable that melt coming in from different points along the Antarctic coast is getting carried around and freezing only in certain localized areas where the conditions are ideal, and not freezing elsewhere. I don’t know if this is happening but it is not as ridiculous a hypothesis as you are assuming.”
——————–
LOL It’s January 1st, not April 1st. Thanks for having us on. We needed a little humor to relive the stress of the rescue effort.
OLD DATA –
You guessed it, there were 0 media members on the research vessel when I was in Greenland. However, one of the professors and one of his post docs had been on separate expeditions where a media group had paid to have someone tag along to work on a story, and the circumstances differed. The media people were not there to influence the actual data collection mission. I have also heard of other cases where regular “civilians” for the lack of a better term, paid to tag along or spend a few days transiting with a ship and then getting off and flying home.
” I just reacted negatively to the idea that appeared to be pushed on this site that one ship stuck in the ice in Antarctica supposedly discredits the entire field of climate science.”
No one ship is just the tip of the ice berg, so to speak.
” I just reacted negatively to the idea that appeared to be pushed on this site that one ship stuck in the ice in Antarctica supposedly discredits the entire field of climate science.”
Of course it doesn’t. The climate models finished that job a long time ago.