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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Glenn says: January 3, 2014 at 1:04 pm
My position is that humans are contributing to the climate, but the full ramifications are not known.
I agree, I just have not seen any evidence that human generated CO2 has been a major contributor to the recent climate, and have no confidence in wild predictions about what Earth’s climate may look like 86 years from now.
For the record I do not advocate for the United States to go out on its own and impose harsh regulations
Why do we need “harsh” regulations at all? What we need to figure out is how to transfer environmental awareness and environmentally friendly technology/processes to the 2nd and 3rd world so that they can impose fair and reasonable regulations in order to help prevent pollution and associated health issues and environmental destruction. It doesn’t make sense for the US to spend huge sums trying to get rid of the last microgram of power plant mercury out of our air;
http://www.epa.gov/mats/powerplants.html
when the biggest mercury risk to the average American is a broken florescent bulb;
http://www2.epa.gov/cfl/cleaning-broken-cfl
which we are all now compelled buy due to a “harsh” regulation.
I never meant to imply there isn’t room for legit scientific critiques, or that anybody who disagrees with the majority scientific opinion have absolutely no valid points.
Have I made any invalid points? 🙂
A friend of mine who is a post-doctorate in Applied Mathematics, focusing on atmospheric and ocean science, often tells people that those scientists who disagree with human-influenced climate change could still end up being more right in the end
Sounds like a smart friend, they even throw in the “more” to help people flex their minds and see the grey. You should send them this link to the WUWT Reference Pages;
http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/
they might mind it useful or have a suggestion of additional data or data sources that we should add to the pages.
I’ve come to realize how many people on both the right and left seem so sure of themselves, but simply don’t know what they don’t know.
When it comes to Earth’s climate, there is so much to know, and there is so much that we don’t know. It is thus better to accept that we know very little, then to delude ourselves into thinking that we know it all.
I try to come across as fair and open-minded, but looking back on how I chose to enter this forum two days ago, the posters who tried to label me a troll were not as far off as I wanted to believe. I would have to admit I was probably hoping to stir things up a bit, which is generally a trollish thing to do. I also should not have used as much of a sneering tone right off the bat.
There’s nothing wrong with stirring things up, on occasion I have been know to do so on other forums as well, but a sneering tone can invite and encourage certain kinds of responses. I prefer a respectful tone with doses of humor and dripping sarcasm as needed. 🙂
Glenn says:
January 3, 2014 at 1:04 pm
Negrum
—–
Thank you for clearing up point 4. I wiill get get back to you on that when I have worked through all the arguments.
I am very pleased that you have expressed yourself so well. Some commentators are over-eager, but I think they have a lot of insight into the CAGW issue and are worth a fair hearing. Take time to read some of the older threads; you might find a lot of useful info in there.There is also a process of troll-weeding, which you seem to have survived. WUWT is not a popular site with the mainstream media (possibly because it is doing the work they are supposed to do and on a non-existing budget as well) so from time to time well-meaning and not so well-meaning posters try to derail discussions here.
One thing that I do recommend is that you add citations (time consuming, but worth it – you can see that the serious posters here usually do it) to statements such as: “My objection was that no one is claiming that the Arctic ice disappears as we head into January, just that the seasonal volumes have been on a general downward trend.” This enables posters to determine whom you consider authorities on the specific subject and the validity of those authorities can then be discussed. It tends to move the discussion away from personal attacks (it can of course be misused.) If two parties clearly don’t agree on the authorities, pointless wrangling (as entertaining as it might be) is normally shut down.
Also, and I cannot stress it enough, do not accuse the host of this site of improper behaviour unless you have very good evidence, since the commentators won’t be kind to you and your stay will be less than happy.
Glenn:
I write to second the post from Aphan addressed to you at January 3, 2014 at 2:05 pm.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/30/the-antarctic-research-fiasco-would-you-could-you-in-a-boat/#comment-1523348
And I very strongly commend the advice that negrum has given you at January 4, 2014 at 2:18 am
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/30/the-antarctic-research-fiasco-would-you-could-you-in-a-boat/#comment-1523880
You made an unfortunate start but that is past. There is now no reason for you to have other than an enjoyable time in this forum which shares a diversity of views so we all have something to learn from each other.
Richard
Gail Combs says:
January 1, 2014 at 5:18 pm
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.
Gail if I correctly understood the dash-cam videos were started in Russia as a way to ensure against insurance scammers.
One side effect of this were the accident videos. Liveleak is full of such and it may be a good way to educate people to drive safer.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8bc_1388925087
And many other side effect as the meteor videos we all enjoyed:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=152_1360906606