There are a lot of news items in major media starting to appear about the folly of Professor Chris Turney’s tourism disguised as science expedition. Turney is now backpedaling on the idea that “climate change” caused them to get stuck. Perhaps the laughter has finally reached him. A roundup and video follows.
First, from the NYT:
Stranded Antarctic Ship Story, Like the Ice, Will Not Let Go
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
A team of rescuers from a Chinese icebreaker may need to be rescued themselves, soon after they plucked dozens of people from the Antarctic ice aboard a ship that had been stranded for more than a week.
Chris Turney, a leader of the expedition whose members were evacuated by the Chinese vessel Xue Long’s helicopter on Thursday, shared more photographs of the mission and then an update on Twitter about the unexpected turn of events in the rescue ordeal.
Full story here: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/stranded-antarctic-ship-story-like-the-ice-will-not-let-go/
Here is a video of the rescue operation in progress:
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From the Guardian, authored by Turney himself, who links to WUWT in the article:
Antarctic expedition: ‘This wasn’t a tourist trip. It was all about science – and it was worth it’
Chris Turney, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, says his critics are wrong: the team was prepared, the risks were known, and much was achieved
The last 24 hours have been sobering. I am sitting in the comfort of a cabin on board the Australian icebreaker the Aurora Australis, one day after evacuating the Australasian Antarctic Expedition from our Russian-crewed vessel, the MV Akademik Shokalskiy. After sleepless nights thinking about keeping everyone safe, it is a relief to know everyone is on board the Aurora and well.
There is relief, but there is also frustration over what appears to be a misrepresentation of the expedition in some news outlets and on the internet. We have been accused of being a tourist trip with little scientific value; of being ill-prepared for the conditions; putting our rescuers at risk; and making light of a dangerous situation. Others have remarked on what they describe as the “irony” of climate researchers stuck in unexpected ice.
…
Let’s be clear. Us becoming locked in ice was not caused by climate change. Instead it seems to have been an aftershock of the arrival of iceberg B09B which triggered a massive reconfiguration of sea ice in the area.
[See story below on the statement -Anthony]
Full story here: http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/2014/jan/04/antarctic-expedition-was-worth-it-chris-turney
Note: This bit of justification in the article from Turney (bold) about the cost is laughable, he’s only off by a factor of 5-6. So much for scientific precision.
The aim of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) is to lead a multidisciplinary research programme in one of the most scientifically exciting regions of our planet, straddling the Southern Ocean and East Antarctic. Using the latest in satellite technology, we are beaming images, movies and text in an attempt to excite the public about science and exploration, inspired by one of the most scientifically successful efforts in the Antarctic: the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914, led by British-born Sir Douglas Mawson. Starting out at the unbelievably young age of 28, Mawson managed to raise £39,000 in a year – equivalent to some $20-25m today. With this he kitted out an entire ship to discover what lay south of Australia.
Umm, I don’t know where Turney gets those numbers, but using the calculator provided by the Reserve Bank of Australia here: http://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html
I get:
$4.2 million is sure a long ways from $20-25 million, but I suppose when you are always using other people’s money, being accurate doesn’t matter.
The article with Turney’s calc is saved here as a PDF Turney-spiritofmawson-and it was worth it _ Science _ The Observer -Anthony
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Turney Backpedals! Now Says Getting Stuck In Sea Ice NOT Due To Climate Change”!
By P Gosselin on 4. Januar 2014
It appears that now even Professor Chris Turney admits blaming his expedition mishap on global warming was an astronomical stretch after all.
Yesterday I reported here, quoting flagship Swiss daily (NZZ), that his communication director Alvin Stone blamed global warming for the vessel getting trapped in ice. The whole world laughed.
I couldn’t believe it myself so I wrote an e-mail to Stone asking if they really believed this.
Stone answered circa 9 hours later:
Dear Pierre,
That is not quite the quote that I gave.
This is my understanding from talking to Chris and other glaciologists.
- The 120km long ice berg B09B that is grounded in Commonwealth Bay broke away from the continent three years ago, very likely as a result of climate change.
- B09B collided with the Mertz Glacier, smashing a large ice tongue that released the ice into that area.
- It was a mix of this ice that was blown across the path of the Shokalskiy, which led to it being trapped and explains why much of the ice surrounding the ship is old ice.
– See more at: http://notrickszone.com/2014/01/04/turney-backpedals-now-says-getting-stuck-in-sea-ice-not-due-to-climate-change/#sthash.rG7qwsHv.CeXyK3bZ.dpuf
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Australian taxpayers will pay $400,000 cost for climate scientist’s ship stuck in ice. Total cost “millions”.
The saga just keeps going. The Chinese Icebreaker is now also stuck, and has asked for help so the Aurora Australis with 52 extra passengers rescued from the Russian Charter boat have to stay nearby to help. Twenty two Russian sailors are still trapped on board the Russian boat — the Akademik Sholaskiy. Plus other scientists in Antarctica still don’t have their equipment. Costs for everyone involved are continuing to rise. Though there is a free-for-all on social media…
http://joannenova.com.au/2014/01/australian-taxpayers-will-pay-400000-cost-for-climate-scientists-ship-stuck-in-ice-total-cost-millions/
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Antarctic Debacle Probably Biggest Setback For Campaigners Since Climategate
- Date: 03/01/14 Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times
The debacle in the Antarctic ice is probably the largest setback for global warming campaigners since Climategate scandal in 2009.
When a Chinese helicopter rescued 52 passengers from a Russian climate-science cruise ship trapped in ice off Antarctica, it was a skilfully managed end to an ordeal that had begun on Christmas Eve. It was also a debacle for climate change activists. The 233-foot Akademik Shokalskiy, a Russian meteorological ship leased by the Australian tour outfit Aurora Expeditions, had been on a mission called the “Spirit of Mawson”. It aimed to replicate part of a gruelling voyage the explorer Douglas Mawson had made in 1912. The ship carried 22 scientists looking to perform various experiments, led by Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at the University of New South Wales. They were joined by 26 tourists paying for the adventure, along with journalists for The Guardian, BBC and The Sydney Morning Herald.
http://www.thegwpf.org/ft-antarctic-debacle-biggest-setback-campaigners-climategate/
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This speaks for itself, now the USA is involved:
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Even NYT’s Andrew Revkin, who has been on such expeditions himself, is calling it a fiasco:
A helpful update on several facets of the #spiritofmawson Antarctic fiasco from @RTCCnewswire: http://t.co/bdsY1Fn92Y
— Andrew Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ (@Revkin) January 2, 2014
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As are the French:
French Polar Chief slams SpiritofMawson fiasco
This really has been a PR debacle of amazing proportions. The ship stuck in ice has captured something larger than I would have expected. Methinks the timing must be apropos.
Good scientists are distancing themselves from the publicity hungry climate lightweights and commentators on both sides of the fence are agreeing in their criticism.
A third effect we are barely starting to see may ripple on for months — that’s when mass-media victims realize that the “Russian Tourist ship” was really a boat load of Australian and New Zealander scientists, paid for mostly by taxpayers and loaded and advised by supposedly “expert” climate scientists. This misinformation was despite the boat having BBC, and Guardian media on board, and Fairfax press in one of the rescue icebreakers. Today I see evidence of the first two effects.
From Skynews. The French chief of polar science calls the Spirit of Mawson trip “pseudo-scientific” and laments the effect it is having on real research.
The head of France’s polar science institute has voiced fury at the misadventures of a Russian ship trapped in Antarctic ice, deriding what he called a tourists’ trip that had diverted resources from real science.
More here: http://joannenova.com.au/2014/01/french-polar-chief-slams-spiritofmawson-fiasco/
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This animation is hilarious:
ACM on Chris Turney and the Akademik Shokalskiy fiasco
By Simon on 4 January, 2014
ACM on Chris Turney and the Akademik Shokalskiy fiasco
The Guardian media guy in the video says the rescue day has been “quite intense” – while behind him, at 0:16, one of his “scientific” colleagues is throwing a snowball. These guys are seriously comical!
This Mawson Commemoration news story is dated
21 December 2011. Did Professor Turner read it?:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jsLuFWeT9d3OjPabfqGObJwjbP3Q?docId=CNG.90305a194d4e14bb55be2d4504ac50c1.141
“Huge Antarctic iceberg foils centenary plans
By Amy Coopes (AFP) – Dec 21, 2011
SYDNEY — An iceberg nearly 100 kilometres (60 miles)
long was Wednesday preventing tourist ships from
reaching Antarctica to mark the centenary of an
Australian explorer’s epic polar voyage.
Douglas Mawson, among Antarctica’s earliest pioneers,
led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition between 1911
and 1914 — an ambitious scientific research trip that
laid Australia’s territorial claim and presence on the
icy continent.
He had been approached to join British adventurer Robert
Scott’s team in the race to the geographic South Pole
but Mawson declined.
Instead he set off from the city of Hobart on December
2, 1911 with his own men to pursue more scientific
goals.
Mawson landed at Commonwealth Bay on January 8, 1912,
building a complex of huts at Cape Denison that stand to
this day.
Three tourist ships that have been attempting to reach
the cape as part of 100-year commemorations of the
voyage had to ditch their plans due to rare conditions
caused by the mammoth iceberg, an official said.
“There is unusual ice conditions that’s affecting all
the tourist ships that are going down there because the
tourist ships don’t have icebreaking capabilities, and
they also don’t have choppers,” a spokeswoman from the
Australian government’s Antarctic division told AFP.
“So their ability to get anywhere near that Mawson’s
huts area is basically stopped.”
The B9B iceberg, which is about the size of Luxembourg,
is grounded at the cape’s entrance and preventing what
is known as fast ice — sea ice frozen along the coast
— from moving as freely as normal, the spokeswoman
said.
Calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in 1987, B9B made
headlines last year when it smashed into the Mertz
Glacier, creating a new iceberg which is so big it could
potentially affect Earth’s ocean currents and climate.
B9B is now in three major pieces and parts of it are
frozen fast to the seabed, meaning it could clog
Commonwealth Bay for years, with a build-up of heavy
“pack” or drifting ice compounding the problems.
“Since B9B has stranded there a whole bunch of sea ice
is actually piling up against it, so it’s in the way of
the usual drift,” said glaciologist Jan Lieser.
The iceberg had also created a sheltered environment
where fast ice could build quite easily, forming an ice
bridge between the coast and B9B, he added.
“You can walk across the bay if you want to,” said
Lieser.
Mawson’s original voyage battled thick pack ice, and Rob
Easther from the Mawson’s Huts Conservation Society said
the tourists were experiencing authentic conditions.
“We refer to it as the ‘A’ factor, the Antarctic factor,
it messes up a lot of people’s plans,” Easther told ABC
Radio. “That’s what it’s always done and it’ll always do
that. We’ll never outsmart it.
“It’s just part of operating in Antarctica and I know on
the tourist vessels they make this clear to their
passengers, even though they’ve paid lots of money to
go,” he added.
“A lot about Antarctica has not changed in the hundred
years (since Mawson).”
The government vessel Aurora Australis is due to head
for Cape Denison in early January for official
commemorations of Mawson’s voyage. It will be equipped
with helicopters to fly passengers over the ice pack.”
[END]
A $million research grant is climate small change to a dedicated Anthropophobic Gorebull Weirding rentseeker.
“Using the latest in satellite technology, we are beaming images, movies and text in an attempt to excite the public ”
QED – nothing really to do with science but just a media propaganda stunt. The technology in use is media technology not scientific research and measurement technology.
What a narcissistic TWERKER!
Bob Greene says January 4, 2014 at 12:40 pm;
First, under the international agreement on these things, each vessel coming to aid covers its own costs. Plain and simple, point blank. They do it for free.
Even if they could claim compensation – who would want to? Making sausage & Law is bad enough; the budget, funding & costing for these specialty vessels makes $1 wieners look like strawberries & cream.
… And Australia doesn’t even own Aurora Australis – Dubai does! (Don’t laugh, MV Akademik Shokalskiy!)
Second, the glowing, riveting PR benefits gained by those lucky enough to be in a position to respond could be costed at several orders of magnitude over their operational outlay – and it would still be dirt-cheap. This is one of those “money can’t buy” kinds of sweetheart deals.
This single episode will rival if not exceed all the intangibles that China hoped to gain from its moon-shot. Stone cold fact.
Third, scientists at Antarctic bases will also benefit, and they all know it. They live lives at the tawdry & frayed ends of a long priority-queue … but not in 2014! They are already planning & scheming how to deploy & employ the compensatory reaction that will flow to their long-suffering projects & programs.
Yeah, the bases & scientists will put on the proper long face for the reporters … but back in quarters, outa sight of the media, they’re whooping it up & high-fiving each other. Visions of sugar plum fairies fill their thoughts, and will enliven their step for years to come.
An honest accounting? Oh, I would certainly hope not. 😉
I give up.
My comments on the Guardian website article are always delayed and often censored.
Some have arrived but my support for Richard Tol is not turning up.
Is this worth censoring? Is this obscene? Or is this just offensive to creeping totalitarianism?
A “rebutter” of Richard Tol wrote this:
Steerpike13 04 January 2014 8:32pm
____
Richard Tol, you are still running this tired line – and from a Professor, no less.
As you very well know – or maybe not because you are an economics professor who adds a 100% discount to the economic impacts of future climate change and not an actual climate scientist – the team was organised for their skills.
It is not the region where they work that it is important, it is their scientific skill set and how they fit in with a team.
I’m sure if you ever organise an expedition yourself, you would consider the team make-up in the same way. This was after all a multidisciplinary voyage that required a wide skill set.
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Which I quoted in part and followed with, well this after the quote:
“Wow, the dendrologist must be a great guy. He must reallyfit in with the team.
Unless you think that Global Warming has caused reforestation of Antarctica”
Is that worth censoring? The Grauniad thinks so, these days.
Sigh.
GogogoStopSTOP says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:16 pm
This “trip,” this “expedition,” was to be a corporate publicity campaign for CARBONSCAPE. The Carbonscape website asks for investors! Do we all understand that? They ask, beg, suggest, “potential” investors to contact them. The chutzpah! They did this trip to raise money for Chris Turney’s corporation. UNCONSCIONABLE… unconscionable!
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Hucksterism at its finest.
I correct a discourtesy: I should have said Professor Turney, not ‘Professor Turner’
Now I’ve trashed the formatting.
Sorry. I’m clearly achieving nothing today.
Chris Turney says “If you put more carbon in the atmosphere, you’d expect the planet to warm, and basically that’s what you see…”
didn’t say they were expecting the ice to have melted though. But we know that’s what they were expecting according to BBC reporter Andrew Luck-Baker in his 2 Janurary article: Antarctic rescue of Akademik Shokalskiy ship completed: “One of the aims was to track how quickly the Antarctic’s sea ice was disappearing.”
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/professor-turkey-expected-less-sea-ice-not-more/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25573096
Poa says:
January 4, 2014 at 12:48 pm
So our modern day Titanic deliberately runs into icebergs named B00Bs ? And get trapped in B09B?
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Exactly. Amazing how those scientits got sucked in by the BooBs : ))
PS Chris Turney, Professor of Twerking it seems, co-opted the name of Mawson’s venture “Australasian Antarctic Expedition” for the purposes of this made for media selfie fest.
A rhetorical question arises. Can a compulsive twerker have any sense of shame?
I don’t like the part ‘it is a relief to know everyone is on board the Aurora and well.’
Carbon? The greenhouse effect depends on the tri-atomic shape of CO2 and H2O molecules, not carbon (as soot, dust, graphite, or diamonds). And it (plus H2O) I assume, shouldn’t be worth 65 kelvins:
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect :
If an ideal thermally conductive blackbody was the same distance from the Sun as the Earth is, it would have a temperature of about 5.3 °C. However, since the Earth reflects about 30%[5][6] of the incoming sunlight, this idealized planet’s effective temperature (the temperature of a blackbody that would emit the same amount of radiation) would be about −18 °C.[7][8] The surface temperature of this hypothetical planet is 33 °C below Earth’s actual surface temperature of approximately 14 °C.[9]
http://www.justfacts.com/globalwarming.asp :
* The greenhouse effect is a warming effect caused by certain gases that retain heat from sunlight.[9] Without such gases, the average surface temperature of the Earth would be below freezing, and as explained by the Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, “life, as we know it, would not exist.”[10] The global warming debate is centered upon whether added greenhouse gases released by human activity will overheat the Earth and cause harmful effects.[11]
10] Book: Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Edited by David E. Alexander and others. Kluwer, 1999. Topic: “Greenhouse Effect.” By Richard A. Houghton.
Page 303: “The natural greenhouse effect is not only real; it is a blessing. As a result of this effect, the Earth is about 33°C warmer than it would be without it. Without it, the average temperature of the Earth’s surface would be below 0°C, and life, as we know it, would not exist.”
There is a hilariously ironic blooper of a cartoon over at SKS. It involves a melting iceberg and ‘Titanic’ tourist ship. It was posted on Jan 29 before things in Commonwealth bay went really pear shaped. I guess that Messrs Cook and Co have faces as red as Prof. Turney’s – but it has been the hottest year in Oz after all.
Well worth a vist (and a laugh): http://www.skepticalscience.com/
To me this whole charade was one of those “priceless” moments that kept on giving and giving even more. And there is more yet to come. Priceless.
Was it worth it? Considering its Aussies’ money, sure! It is worth every penny.
I urge everyone to preserve every evidence for safekeeping. The white-out is inevitable, so why let the good story go to waste. That goes for IPCC too, as obviously the final report will have some further “adjustments” to look more sciency for the political moment.
More wonders on the way…
Lawrie, as an alum, I am thinking of lodging a formal request for investigation to UNSW about this fraud of a “scientist”, based on his clear conflict of interest, as well as the other joker (his colleauge) who recently published an article (timed to coincide) saying basically “I have produced a new model showing some of the other models are wrong, and the future will be worse”. Both are frauds against science. Any thoughts about the content of my letter? How do you get an academic fired for bringing the university into disrepute?
I misread Clitanic and was hoping to see a picture of suitably dressed women. Ah. Well.
The costs keep mounting? It doesn’t matter. Any amount is worth the valuable scientific data they got. Now they will hide that data, manipulate it into AGW spin, publish pal-review papers, and block anyone’s attempts to get the data or code to verify their “findings”. That’s easily worth billions, trillions, billions of trillions! They are saving the entire world!!!!!
(Do I really need to add /sarc ????)
M Courtney says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:24 pm
“My comments on the Guardian website article are always delayed and often censored.
Some have arrived but my support for Richard Tol is not turning up.
Is this worth censoring? Is this obscene? Or is this just offensive to creeping totalitarianism?”
You’re a leftist for how long and you notice now that Komment Macht Frei is a totalitarian re-education camp ????
Ric Werme says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:38 pm
Showing yet again that the more scientifically ignorant and irresponsible a person is, the better a Professor of Climate Change he will make.
http://www.christurney.com/
Best wishes to the crew of Polar Star from this former Coastie.
Le Monde also gives the figure, for each of the icebreakers involved (the French one also lost 7 days on Turney) of
$30 000/day for the French vessel and $100 000/day for each of the Chinese and Australian vessels, figures which do not include crew salaries.
The operating costs of the very big American and Russian icebreakers which are on a 3 weeks trip to save the Shokalskiy, are not mentioned.
http://tinyurl.com/qfa5pap
“Le coût d’une journée d’utilisation de l’Astrolabe s’élève à 20 000 euros, sans compter les salaires. Il est le triple pour le brise-glace chinois et l’australien.”
A fiasco that keeps on giving.
It seems about the only thing that Professor Turney hasn’t said is that it was their plan all along to get stuck in the ice.
But, like other religious pilgrims, he remains oblivious to facts. He’s relieved that everyone is safe. Really? There are two vessels with crew still stuck in the ice; they’re safe?
If these pilgrims were so well prepared, why did they manage to get themselves stuck in ice? Do you expect me to believe that one day the ocean and Commonwealth Bay were free of ice, and the next, they were overwhelmed by all that ice which appeared like magic. *poof* you’re in an ice field.
Professor Turney keeps on trying to justify their pathetic pilgrimage as being of value to science. How? By sending images of their conduct throughout the world via the internet? There are real scientists on Antarctica, conducting real science for months at a time in bitterly cold and dangerous conditions. They don’t go sending out music videos to the world; the real scientists trudge on in dedicated obscurity.
If he doesn’t want his venture to be dismissed as a tourist junket perhaps he needs to make that point with the rest of the media for obscuring the science of his mission. They’re the ones that keep making all the stories about the “passengers” as though this were just a cruise that went bad. But then, as bad as the media is, they do have enough savvy to know how making it about science will bring heaps of ridicule down on their belief system of climate change.
DirkH says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:58 pm
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Don’t ever die. The world needs you.