9.30am AEDT Saturday 04 January 2014
Aurora Australis released from tasking in Antarctica
Xue Long’s attempt to manoeuvre through the ice early this morning was unsuccessful. Xue Long has confirmed to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) it is beset by ice.
The Master of Xue Long has confirmed to AMSA that the ship is safe, it is not in distress and does not require assistance at this time. There is no immediate danger to personnel on board the Xue Long. The Xue Long has advised AMSA it has food supplies for several weeks. The Aurora Australis was placed on standby by AMSA’s Rescue Coordination Centre Australia (RCC Australia) last night to remain in open water in the area as a precautionary measure.
The Masters of both Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long agree that further assistance from Aurora Australis is no longer required and they will be able to provide mutual support to each other. The Aurora Australis has been released from search and rescue tasking by RCC Australia early this morning and continues to make its passage to the Casey base to complete a resupply. It will then continue to Hobart. RCC Australia will maintain regular contact with the Xue Long and Akademik Shokalskiy.
The trapped ship is just one example of cooling in the southern hemisphere. On the other side of the Antarctic, the positive phase of the PDO with its more frequent El Ninos caused the western peninsula area to be the only Antarctic region that experienced a loss of sea ice. Without insulating ice more heat was ventilated and winter temperatures there rose 5 times faster than the global average. CO2 advocates argued this was an example of things to come and the warming would spread to the rest of the continents. Advocates of natural cycles argued that as the PDO returned to its negative phase, more ice and colder temperatures would return to the western peninsula much like occurred in the Bering Sea. It looks like mother nature is voting for the natural cycle theory. A friend of mine who leads tours to Antarctica just wrote, “This year the Peninsula is having the heaviest early season sea ice in over a decade. Many companies have started bringing smaller less capable ships to the Antarctic. This year will weed the unproven ones out.”
Here are a couple of honorifics that apply to Turkey’s Troupe, as a reminder of their key role in this event:
The Dawdling Dozens
The Dawdling Doomsayers
Who now a sadder and a wiser man?:
rogerknights says:
January 3, 2014 at 8:43 pm
The Feet-dragging Fools
The Sluggish Pseudo-Scientists
The Rambling Rubber-necks
The Recalcitrant Responders
Sorry. These are off the top of my head. Bit early in the day to start drinking and really get the creative juices flowing 🙂
Santa Baby says:
January 3, 2014 at 7:35 pm
“DocMartyn says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Brain dead Republican Todd Palin has won the 2,031 miles Tesoro Iron Dog off-road snowmobile race across Alaska, four times.”
Distraction and off topic?
Don’t respond to this?
_____________
Doc didn’t think he needed a sarc tag. He was making fun of the incompetent lefties who can’t hit their butt with both hands, but continuously criticize people like Todd Palin.
#3: Turney’s Turkeys
Two, three, many ice-bound bounders!
The funding came predominantly through UNSW as the launderer and the major financial component was from the gillard-krudd regime.
Um, folks, I think the “brain dead” comment was a /sarc; The point being that the AGW supports had called such folks not so bright, yet they were clearly waaay smarter than the folks who sunk their Argos …. Yes, the comment needed some kind of tag or quotes or /sarc; to make that clear, but it’s the only way it made sense to me.
Mac the Knife says:
January 3, 2014 at 7:21 pm
___________________
Catch up.
Mack the Knife – well said!
I also have to agree with DirkH that those based in Antarctica are really just better organised versions of the rescued muppets.
Lew Skannen says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:29 pm
_________________
Visualize a sarc tag at end of Doc’s remark, than you’ll get it.
Are you kidding me? Don’t you know how this works yet? They’ll be feted as returning heroes. They’ll have to turn down prestigious dinner invitations in favor of even more prestigious ones. Their life of fame, and the attending fortune, is just beginning. They’ll spin this debacle like a top and make it all look like some huge success with escape from – DA DA DA DAAA – ~certain death~!
Really? You don’t get it? In their world – up is down, left is right, cold is warm….. The only place their folly will be called into question is places like this, outside their echo chamber. Please tell me you’re not that naive.
How do you nominate someone for a Darwin award?
With the idiots gone, Russian and Chinese professional crews are perfectly happy to fend for themselves.
and you would never guess in Australian news he is still saying all the ice will melt and we will will be flooded , I think he will Immigrate to ice land because he is a laughing stock here
This story finally made it into the Edmonton Journal on July 3. (Alberta, Canada)
http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/world/story.html?id=84bca404-7a28-4da6-bda3-1e55311d654a
The only sentence mentioning “global warming” was:
“While scientists expect and observe more extreme weather with man-made global warming, some say it’s not fair to blame the Antarctic blizzard that trapped the ship on climate change.”
Too bad the water dragon doesn’t breathe fire.
Fresh milk keeps 2 weeks max. Given that AS last re-provisioned around 10 Dec, they would not have been able to make a proper milkshake beyond 24 Dec. I think the AA has also been out to sea more than 2 weeks by the time Turney’s Turkeys arrived, so no milkshakes either.
I was amused to read the science objectives for SOM (http://www.spiritofmawson.com/the-science-case/)
“We are going south to:
1.gain new insights into the circulation of the Southern Ocean and its impact on the global carbon cycle
2.explore changes in ocean circulation caused by the growth of extensive fast ice and its impact on life in Commonwealth Bay
3.use the subantarctic islands as thermometers of climatic change by using trees, peats and lakes to explore the past
4.investigate the impact of changing climate on the ecology of the subantarctic islands
5.discover the environmental influence on seabird populations across the Southern Ocean and in Commonwealth Bay
6.understand changes in seal populations and their feeding patterns in the Southern Ocean and Commonwealth Bay
7.produce the first underwater surveys of life in the subantarctic islands and Commonwealth Bay
8.determine the extent to which human activity and pollution has directly impacted on this remote region of Antarctica
9.provide baseline data to improve the next generation of atmospheric, oceanic and ice sheet models to improve predictions for the future”
I wonder how much of that was done?
Alan Robertson says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:24 pm
Catch up.
Alan,
I’m not prescient or a ‘mind reader’. If Docs comment was offered as sarchasm
(Definition of sarchasm:. (sär’kăz’əm) 1. (n.) The abyss between the creator of witticisms and the intended recipient who does not find the humor in it.), then he ‘got me’. If that is the case, I highly advise use of the /sarc tag in the future, to prevent such misunderstandings. If not, I stand by my direct and measured response to a troll.
MtK
Most (if not all) of you have said what I want to say although in more restrained language, just one thing I’d like to add, if I see that infernal obviously set-up get together “sing-along” written by a participant in that tent ( which then may have been the only “accomplishment” of the trip. if recorded and TM’d) My TV/computer screen may be in serious danger of having to be replaced. And btw my hat off to Tod Palin.
‘The Chinese have had to cancel all their scientific programme, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out.’
Lets face it, there may be a little anger at the moment but when the chips are down all these guys will circle the wagons and cover for each other. They are all in it together and will need to show solidarity.
Remember that photo of the deck of the AA with “Green” written on it. These guys that have been rescued have have just been flown onto a whole ship load of like-minded people with everything to lose if the MSM start questioning global warming.
I doubt the people at Casey base will be terribly impolite to the buffoons from the frolic.
Perhaps cold shoulder them, but as these staff members tend towards professionals well used to dealing with cabin fever emotions, they’ll keep their emotions well in check.
Not that the Casey base staff members won’t use big words in complex sentences and talk over buffoon heads.
I believe the entire AS ice frolic team should get a full day interview with the Chinese, French, Australian and American Antarctic team chiefs. A little cold math before lunch is a good wake up.
“Greg says:
January 3, 2014 at 5:19 pm”
Given the fact that the ABC here in Australia is taxpayer funded and the BBC is funded via a tax by a different name (license fee), the University of NSW and the CCRC there Turney heads, I would hazzard a guess this “Australia’s largest Antarctic Expedition” was largely taxpayer funded, directly or indirectly, but taxpayer funded none the less.
DocMartyn says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Doc,
If your comment was intended as a juxtaposition form of sarcasm and not as political attack, I sincerely apologize. Please (Please!) use a \sarc tag after a comment like that in future communications.
Understand me: I live in the Environmental Socialist State of Seattle, where conservatives/skeptics/deniers are openly subjected to these kinds of ad hom attacks and I have no tolerance for it any more. When I experience it, I meet it ‘head on’.
MtK
Every one here at WUWT persistently misspells the expiation leaders name It is TurDney.