6.30am AEDT Sunday 05 January 2014
US Coast Guard ice breaker to assist ships beset in ice in Antarctica
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) has requested the US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker to assist the vessels MV Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long which are beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay.
The US Coast Guard has accepted this request and will make Polar Star available to assist.
The Polar Star has been en route to Antarctica since 3 December, 2013 – weeks prior to the MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay. The intended mission of the Polar Star is to clear a navigable shipping channel in McMurdo Sound to the National Science Foundation’s Scientific Research Station. Resupply ships use the channel to bring food, fuel and other goods to the station. The Polar Star will go on to undertake its mission once the search and rescue incident is resolved.
RCC Australia identified the Polar Star as a vessel capable of assisting the beset vessels following MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice overnight on 24 December, 2013. RCC Australia has been in discussion with the US Coast Guard this week to ascertain if the Polar Star was able to assist once it reaches Antarctica.
The request for the Polar Star to assist the beset vessels was made by RCC Australia to the US Coast Guard on 3 January, 2014. The US Coast Guard officially accepted this request and released the Polar Star to RCC Australia for search and rescue tasking at 8.30am on 4 January, 2014.
The Polar Star will leave Sydney today after taking on supplies prior to its voyage to Antarctica.
It is anticipated it will take approximately seven (7) days for the Polar Star to reach Commonwealth Bay, dependent on weather and ice conditions.
At 122 metres, the Polar Star is one of the largest ships in the US Coast Guard fleet. It has a range of 16,000 nautical miles at 18 knots. The Polar Star has a crew of 140 people.
The Polar Star is able to continuously break ice up to 1.8 metres (6ft) while travelling at three (3) knots and can break ice over six (21ft) metres thick.
RCC Australia will be in regular contact with the relevant US Coast Guard RCC at Alameda, California, and the Captain of the Polar Star during its journey to Antarctica.
Media Enquiries: 1300 624 633
www.amsa.gov.au/media
Related:
The ‘Clitanic’ Hot Sheet – News from the #SpiritofMawson fiasco
“The Polar Star is able to continuously break ice up to 1.8 metres (6ft) while travelling at three (3) knots and can break ice over six (21ft) metres thick.”
Now that is some impressive specs. Good luck and here is hoping that the crews on AS & XL all fare well for the next week.
Oh joy – now American taxpayers get whacked as well.
Blitherin’ fools!
Cue three hot choruses of, “The American Patrol”. I wonder if the Aussies will take the hint and acquire an ice-breaker man enough for the job? Apparently the ice-island being blamed for the pack-ice has been skulking around the coast since 1987-ish. That’s a long time unmelted in a supposedly warming Antarctic.
What will that add to the cost for a publicity stunt gone bad? Isn’t there a better use for taxpayer money than blowing it on hot-dogging scientists and journalists? They are hoist on their own petard.
What is the “Polar Stars” carbon footprint?
The Grauniad is not going to like this.
I previously posted this You Tube video over at SDA and someone posted it here a few days ago.
It is even more germane (and more funny) today. I do not know how to embed a You Tube video.
Corb Lund singing The Truck Got Stuck ☺ Silly, but fun.
http://youtu.be/pDY6bWT5oTM
So who is Guarding the Coast ?.
grumpyoldmanuk says at January 4, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Interesting. Do you have a reference or a that?
It was simply a matter of time before this whole global warming debacle ended up costing US Taxpayers.
Correction:
Do you have a reference or a link for that?
Sorry. Stubby finger syndrome.
Let’s not forget that the original bunch who got stuck were “Global Warming” nut jobs. Why now just let then sit there until “global warming” melts their stupid asses out of there?
All this expense caused by Global Warming fanatics that cannot accept their theories were based on faked data.
No doubt the tax payers of several nations are going to be stuck with the soaring cost of this fiasco. Beyond the direct costs, I fancy that I can hear the the anticipatory rubbing together of the hands of many legal eagles.
@Heraldo Ortega Nobody, Doncha know the US only has one ship! OMG!!!!!111
Does the Polar Star have deck guns? (A polar-class ice breaker doing intercept runs or picket duty along the coast? Riiiiight …)
.
Let Darwin rescue them.
Damn that Global Warming!
Canada’s ice breakers are overwhelmed working the heavy east coast ice – I have friends stranded for a week unable to get home due to ice and these morons tie up three ice breakers for a global warming lark? Plus the Russian ship and crew. Now the American taxpayers have to set up to the plate for those narcissists? This has passed being funny – I hope those idiots are fire, belittled, and roundly castigated for their arrogance. I have no sympathy for those fools.
Didn’t see it mentioned in the story, but it’s worth pointing out…
The ship stuck in the ice was on a “global warming” research mission.
I wonder what they found.
It is an academic mission to research global warming caused by man. Ahem… No comment that these recognized experts in anthropomorphism failed to correctly predict the ice immediately in their future, while they attempt to predict the ice quantity years out in front of them.
Will the media ever challenge these assertinions that the sky is falling, or is it just too much fun freaking people out that they will be the last persons ever to glimpse the natural beauty of the earth before it descends into chaos and pain.
The poor children will never know snow or ice and the poor polar bears will never be able to float around on chunks… Blah blah blah… There is more “change” than your “philosophy has ever dreamt of Horatio, get used to it.
And let’s not forget it’s still summertime down there…
Love the irony…..And will the NYT and NBC scream about the cost to taxpayers to save the global warmists in their failed attempt to send a report substantiating their (obviously false) claims about man made global warming melting the ice caps? Somehow I doubt it.
So a rescue ship for the rescue ship for the rescue ship. We could just leave them in the hopes that Global Warming saves them, but that would be like saying “I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies.
I confess to ignorance when it comes to breaking up ice however couldn’t it be either bombed or dynamited?
I knew it was to good to be true: that the ChiComs were going to foot the bill for rescuing these global warming idiots aboard this chartered ship. Yep, now the US taxpayer is going to get to foot the bill
This has been a major embarrassment for the climate cultists. And 2014 was supposed to be Obama’s big year for climate decrees. They have to get those ships out and stop the bleeding. I’m guessing that they will also “confirm” that the ice that trapped the ships was caused by global warming.
Note that the ice measurement
exceeds the US ship’s thickness rating.
I’m fine with Polar Star freeing the trapped ships. It was headed there anyway, and it’s one of those international-y neighborish things we tend to do.
If the Chris(tmas) Turkey Cult™ were still there, I’d say let ’em sit until the primary resupply mission is done.
_Jim says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:06 pm
(A polar-class ice breaker doing intercept runs or picket duty along the coast? …)
+++++++
With NASA’s aim now being to help the Muslims feel proud of themselves and Obama feting the MB for their contribution to freedom & progress, we expect EXACTLY that.
Yet another article on this that fails to mention that the mission was Global Warming! As for GLobal Warming “finally costing US taxpayers (per a comment), we have given over $7.5 BILLION to foreign governments to “fight global warming”!!! And this is just the start: Sec St Kerry is putting together a fund of $100 billion for other countries to tap into!!!
http://www.earthweek.com/2010/ew100305/ew100305c.html
Aw yes summertime in Antarctica.
If I may re-post a comment from earlier thread.
This whole incident spotlights the need for the U.S. to build more polar-class icebreakers. Whether for research, supply, or national security interests, or merely to conduct search and rescue operations, it would seem there is a need for more of these ships.
Stranded Vessel in Antarctica Illustrates Need for New U.S. Icebreaker Policy
http://blog.heritage.org/2013/12/31/stranded-vessel-antarctica-illustrates-need-new-u-s-icebreaker-policy/
The author, Brian Slattery, a foreign policy research assistant, has been calling for a strengthened U.S. coast guard presence in the arctic in order to “catch up with the other Arctic nations and field a presence that can legitimately protect U.S. sovereignty in the region.”
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/04/strengthen-the-us-coast-guard-in-the-arctic
The USCGC Polar Star and its twin the Polar Sea are ostensibly “able to break through ice up to 21 feet (6 m) thick and steam continuously through 6 feet (1.8 m) of ice at 3 knots (6 km/h),” (Wikipedia). It’s about 400 feet long and 80 feet wide, and it is able to accommodate two helicopters. These two ships are among the largest of U.S. coast guard ships, and along with a smaller ship, “The Healy”, apparently comprise the entire fleet of polar-capable U.S. icebreakers. The two former ships were built in the ’70′s, and are nearing the end of their natural service lives.
The distinction in vessel construction, and role of sovereign naval powers in the polar regions is certainly one of the more fascinating aspects of this story. Even though chances of armed conflict in the polar regions seems unlikely, it would be interesting to know more about the role these interesting ships play in maintaining national security and a balance of powers in these areas.
Interesting, too, the U.S. senators urging new shipbuilding.
In November 2013 four Senators proposed an amendment to the 2014 Defense Appropriations Act authorizing the construction of four new Polar class vessels, at a cost of $850 million each.[8][9][10] The four Senators sponsoring the amendment were Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, from Washington, and Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski, from Alaska. According to the Seattle Times the chances that the amendment will survive into the bill, as passed, are slim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar-class_icebreaker
on review, the Coast Guard ship can handle that thickness. So much for doing math in my head.
Russian Ice Breaker is much bigger than the USCG’s.Plus why the hell do we have to pay for this??
The idiots who started this trouble, were indeed on a mission, to show the devastation caused by….you guessed it, global warming. Instead, they found out something much more interesting, and relevant to our society. Global warming has NOT destroyed the ice at the poles, and CO2, has not had the effect on climate, that they thought it would. There…..the truth is out now. What on earth will they come out with, to keep this little tidbit of information, from becoming known worldwide? Those eco-nuts won’t give up easily. Agenda 21 is driving them on.
A bunch of global warming loonies who went to see the “melting” ice, against all rationality (oh, I forgot, the media’s hiding the inconvenient facts of this voyage) trapped in their own stupidity. I resent having to pay for their rescue. Send the bill to AlGore!
So maybe we could charge the Chinese about 30 Trillion to free their Ice Breaker Boat,
I was in Operation Deep Freeze in the early 60’s.My Ice breaker (USCGC Eastwind) was half the size and NEVER got stuck in 20 years of operating in the Antarctic..
M Courtney says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:02 pm
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-antarctic-magazine/2006-2010/issue-18-2010/glaciology/mertz-glacier-tongue-unhinged-by-giant-iceberg
Antarctica is not melting. The EAIS quit retreating over 3000 years ago.
The highest T ever recorded in Antarctica was in 1974. Most of the continent never gets above freezing, but the Peninsula has reached 59 F in the past.
Some times it is just too easy. I particularly liked the comment by Warren Dexter, who pondered about the AGW people not being able to predict ice that exists now. And , to Clive – Thank You Thank You Thank You. Lastly, a hat tip to someone on another article comment thread who introduced (at least to me) the term – applicable to the media, of whom, 98% omitted the Global Warming Cult aspect of this disaster – PRESSTITUTES. Gotta love.
This entire episode stinks. How hard is it to get an up-to-date satellite photo showing ICE where they were intending to go to point out there was no ice???How hard is it (just go out on the web and search?) to find the stills and movie footage of the original expedition showing NO ICE?
Everyone involved in setting this trip up should be held personally responsible for its cost and the cost of their rescue. Any “academic” involved should lose their job. AND they should be required to make an educational video to illustrate their cynical, dishonest bastardization of science.
Canada at one time had a plan to build serious icebreakers, but somehow became convinced that the Arctic would be largely ice free in a few decades, and so ordered ‘slush breakers’ instead.
We need an elaborate Global Warming Interview of Ron Burgundy helicoptering in to interview the global warming scientists on deck of their ice bound ship which is surrounded by other ice bound rescue ships.
THE ONLY PERSON MISSING FROM THIS HOT DOG GLOBAL WARMING MISSION IS AL GORE.
Yay!!!! The US is actually doing something good for our friends and allies. This is what we should be doing…not tapping Merkel’s cell, or sending drones out to kill innocents or taking out leaders of crappy countries so we can run our weapons through their cities.
Yay for the Coast Guard!!!
What a tremendous waste all around. The American taxpayer gets screwwwwed both for the rescue cost and for the global warming that these progressive “scientists” are preaching. The irony of this situation is wonderful.
There does not seem to be a lot of tools left in the tool box. As mentioned on WUWT in recent weeks, U.S. ice breaking capability is old, and limited in numbers. The only serviceable polar capable icebreaker, USCGC Polar Star, is fresh off a three year overhaul to extend it’s useful life for perhaps ten years. It’s sister ship, the decommissioned USCGC Polar Sea, was recently saved from scrapping, but would need an even more extensive overhaul than Polar Star completed to return to service. Recent proposals to fund and build three new polar capable icebreakers for the USCG are ten years too late.
So, now it is the U.S. researchers turn to endure delays in resupply and personnel rotation that will play havoc with their schedules. Hopefully, that is all they contend with, just a delay, and the coasties make quick work of this. My wife has been very patient (and not very interested) these past ten days as I moved our Cram’s world globe out of the corner and flipped it upside down to track this circus unfolding in Antarctica. (Furniture location is her purview, not mine.) After the evacuation of the AS, I mentioned that the XL was itself stuck, also. Her reply, “This is not going to end well.”
With increased Antarctic tourism, maybe an international icebreaker patrol should be mounted, financed with insurance funds. Chile, Argentina, the UK (Falklands & S. Georgia), South Africa, Australia & New Zealand might vie for basing contracts. Global cooling is underway, after all.
Go, Coasties!
(Thanks, Uncle Larry and cousin Ted!)
Speaking for this American taxpayer: We are so glad to be able to go to the rescue of our fellow human beings that we do not count the cost. It’s just part of being a good neighbor.
As for those whose recklessness or, at least, negligence, caused this fiasco, however…. watch out. America has more lawyers per capita than anywhere else in the world… . And a lot of them are currently very hungry for work. Bwah, ha, ha, ha, haaaaaaaaaaaa!
I don’t know why you are all so unsympathetic. It was an easy mistake to make. 🙂
http://www.winstoneball.plus.com/IMAGES/No%20Ice.jpg
Well, Mr. Harlani, welcome back, you’ve been missed. Glad to see that you are okay. Hope all is well. Janice
Is there any chance that we could demand that the cost of sending the Polar Star down there be taken out of the EPA’s budget? If the EPA’s shenanigans in support of the CAGW meme are going to cost us all money in “skyrocketing” utility bills, well, shouldn’t any and all (expletive deleted) expeditions in support of that meme cost the EPA money. A few layoffs should pay for it. What about the universities? A few layoffs there too, could help pick up the tab. And, as far as offsetting the fuel consumption (25,000 hp turbines slurp up the stuff), and thus carbon ‘pollution’ of the Polar Star, well, we could withhold a likewise quantity of fuel from Air Force 1.
The Polar Star was already enroute to the Ross Sea for “Operation Deepfreeze”., the annual resupply of McMuardo base. The ship had just pulled into Sydney for a 4 day layover which ended up as 1 day. The US Coast Guard only has 2 icebreakers capable of breaking polar ice. The Polar Star and USCCG Healy which is in Seattle after [spending] most of the Summer & Fall in the Arctic.
The US [government] needs more Arctic icebreakers as they only have 2 right now and the Polar Star just came out of the yards after being rebuilt.
Perhaps Mr Putin could swim over and free the ship? Sacasm vs reality…..it takes real strength and conviction to move humanity forward in a positive manner…not showmanship……too much on our continent too!!
Polar Star was on her way past Commonwealth Bay anyway, so the cost is a tiny part of her months long mission.
A crew of 140 !? That’s going to run the rescue bill up a bit.
Prof Turkey’s going to need to sell a lot of activated carbon granules and ‘bio-oil’ to pay this one.
Sadly he’s just gone on record as saying it’s not climate change. He should have said it was and put in a claim for UN Green Fund payola.
Milodonharlani @ 1:33 pm, with increased Antarctic tourism, let the companies doing the touring pay for it.
Y’all be careful now. Those global warming fellas have proven to be pretty bad luck.
M.Courtney @ 1.02. The story was on the blog, ” Not a Lot of People know About That” posted today. A follower of the blog sent in the original story which made the MSM plus supporting data.
They set out to save the planet- clearly, the planet had other ideas. Now this ship of dimwits and tourists needs rescued twice.
Leave them there till the ice melts this summer!
great picture but your link is broken — links with imbedded spaces do not fare well in posts the parser thinks the end of the link is the imbedded space.
Link should be : “http://www.winstoneball.plus.com/IMAGES/No%20Ice.jpg”
[Changed. Mod]
So I read through the comments and some I had to laugh at…Polar Class Icebreakers are armed with .50 caliber machine guns, M-16s, .40 caliber Sig Sauer Pistols and Remington 870 Shotguns. The National Science Foundation funds the Antarctic research trips called Deepfreeze. The Coast Guard currently has 3 Polar Icebreakers in inventory – POLAR STAR, POLAR SEA and HEALY. POLAR STAR and POLAR SEA are considered heavy icebreakers and are the only US Icebreakers capable of breaking Antarctic Ice. HEALY is a medium icebreaker and is intended for service in the Arctic. At once point in the Coast Guard’s history, the icebreakers in service were GLACIER, BURTON ISLAND, EDISTO, SOUTHWIND, WESTWIND, EASTWIND, NORTHWIND, all of these have been decomissioned, All of these icebreakers used to belong to the US Navy and were heavily armed until transferred to the US Coast Guard because the mission for these ships changed. POLAR SEA is currently in caretaker status and not in service. Over the last 3 years the Coast Guard has spent in excess of $90 million to get POLAR STAR operational because prior to that, it had been in caretaker status since 2006. It’s last Antarctic trip was a Search and Rescue to break a Russian Icebreaker out of an ice floe because of a mechanical failure. POLAR STAR and POLAR SEA are the world’s most powerful NON-NUCLEAR icebreakers. The Russians have nuclear icebreakers that are not permitted in the Antarctic due to International agreements…. I used to be stationed on POLAR STAR – during my Coast Guard career
So the world comes to an end every time a field of ice shows a crack in it. But ships can ram away with impunity amid the deafening silence from the climate science community. Got it.
I have a name for any unseasonably cold temps: Algre (pron: AL-grr). It is in recognition to Al Gore and the amazing and insightful work he has done helping us understand the Truth of Global Warming. “An Inconvenient Truth” has helped us understand the truth about climate and it’s impact. This is that scumbag whorez like Al Gore will lie about the climate and do anything possible to impact our pocketbooks for their own benefit. Thanks for the insight, Al. I hope you enjoy the Algre we’re having!
Guess who is going to get stuck next?….Polar Star and the US taxpayer….
The activists went on their true believer mystical pilgrimage to Antarctica and the crews and vessels keep increasing of those that are paying the price for that belief system.
Combine all the expenses and place a lien on all the activists and their sponsors.
Don apparently there still a LOT of tools left in the toolbox. Boatloads!
For our liberal and progressive American correspondents demanding the US build (more) icebreakers; if it’s such a good idea then you pony up (ah, wonderful mixed metaphor – all hat and no pony) the bucks. It is not government’s place to compete with private investments nor support them – that is what has given US a broken narrowly robust economy now broken.
N. N. Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder
Hey, the US started on the rescue at the end of December:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/31/wuwt-and-weatherbell-help-kusi-tv-with-a-weather-forecasting-request-from-ice-trapped-ship-in-antarctica-akademik-shokalskiy/
I don’t think Anthony Watts and Joe D’Aleo got enough news credit for this remarkable assistance provided to the Akademik Shokalskiy by them. To me, this is a much bigger story than it got credit for (a few minutes on KUSI TV). Here we have the evil arch-enemy of the of poor(?) criticized AGW scientists jumping into the breach when the ship called for help with weather forecasting in the vicinity of their ship. Someone with good media connections should get this story out now while the fiasco is still unfolding.
@Weeone – It is summer where they are. But those global warming idiots should be charged for their rescue.
The chinese ice breaker XL was not big enough, so they’ve now called on the american ship the XXL 😉
From the Seattle Times today:
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/01/seattle-based-icebreaker-heads-to-the-rescue-in-antarctic/?syndication=rss
Interesting tidbits of info:
A Chinese reporter aboard the Xue Long said late Saturday that an iceberg had appeared overnight and blocked the ship’s return route, but that the ship would again try to find a way out as early as Monday, according to The Associated Press.
The reporter, Zhang Jiansong, said the 101 crew members on board were safe and had plenty of supplies.
Now the news media is claiming it’s not ice causing the problem, but unstable water caused by global warming.
buckeyebubba says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Let’s not forget that the original bunch who got stuck were “Global Warming” nut jobs. Why now just let then sit there until “global warming” melts their stupid asses out of there?
++++++++++
I agree to some extent with the sentiment. I think we should get the Russian crew saved, and let the passengers wait it out. Let them study the melt until “local warming” sets them free.
Sure, we’ll rescue your sad pathetic arses, but first you have to come clean on the entire “Money Laundering Fiasco” known as Global Warming or now as you leftist brainiacks are calling it “Climate Change” If you tell the truth about this contrived scheme to steal monies from the West to give to those less fortunate then we will consider it. Also, you must be willing to pay via your Scientific “Grants” for the entire cost of the rescue mission! Do we have a deal me bucko’s?
A large vessel went to Antarctica on an ill-starred mission and got caught in the ice indefinitely.
Was it:
1. A ship containing global-warming researchers?
2. A flying saucer containing “The Thing”?
It’s utterly disgusting that these tree-hugger leftist liberal whacko’s on the antartic cruise ship aren’t footing the ENTIRE bill for their rescue. I don’t mean like the teeny tiny little bit like the Obama’s pay for their lavish safaris, I do mean the WHOLE bill!!! Why do I think it’s working responsible people who will get stuck with the tab??? Liberal twerps!!!
Australia is building a bigger ice breaker for an ice-free world:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/new-antarctic-icebreaker-on-its-way/story-fn3dxiwe-1226693614224
Russia is building a bigger ice breaker for an ice-free world:
http://rt.com/news/world-biggest-icebreaker-russia-275/
As noted above, America is as well:
http://tomnelson.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/question-if-obama-top-science-advisor.html
The global warming madness continues-
Australian ‘green’ politicians call for a carbon(sic) tax to stop hottest year ever http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/hottest-year-shows-need-for-carbon-tax-labor-greens-20140103-3096c.html WHILST said carbon(sic) tax is FAILS to STOP hottest year ever even as tax is in operation http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/senate-passes-carbon-tax-20111108-1n4p1.html . When will the carbon(sic) tax stop climate change?
The United States Coast Guard …..”Rescuing Idiots Since 1790″
Re. “six (21ft) metres thick”): 6 meters is 19.685 feet. Oh, I see the reason for the error. The Wikipedia article states it as “21 feet (6 meters),” which makes more sense.
USA!! USA!! USA!!
The rest of the story is told by Andrew Bolt here — the diversion of ships to this rescue which were using the window of summer to exchange crews, resupply Antarctic bases and bring in scientific equipment for legitimate ongoing research was derailed by these idiots — who for all their posturing about how prepared they were made some really obvious crappy choices in their trip planning.
Bill Turney and the tourists he scammed into this.
Only the US Coast Guard can break up global warming!
Just saw a tweet that Polar Star has left Sydney headed for Antarctica.
Tim Clancy (Ex-Coastie) says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:12 pm
The United States Coast Guard …..”Rescuing Idiots Since 1790″
Perfect!
The Global Warming con artists have seriously suggested that anyone that dares suggest that there isn’t Global Warming be deemed insane and involuntarily institutionalized. These people have the stench of totalitarianism all over them. Echoes of the brutal 20th century.
Oh so they radio in that they’re stuck in ice eh ? Reply, “You can’t possibly be stuck ! In fact there should be no ice where you are at all due to Global Warming. Either this is a prank or you are INSANE ! Over and out.”
So what do they call this? Climate changeback?
Janice Moore-
In the Navy, we used to rag on the Coasties.
Q. Why does the Coast Guard require all it’s personnel to be at least 6 feet tall?
A. So if the ship sinks, they can walk to shore.
There’s an old saying about the “Coasties”, “Ya’ gotta go out, but you don’t gotta come back.”
God bless the United States Coast Guard!
Send the bill to the Global Warmers.
Aussies get the russians stuck. Chinese go to help, they get stuck. Now USCG gets called in …. they get stuck . Russian nuke icebreakers get called in ….
Janice Moore says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:36 pm
Thanks. Have commented some under my real name, but mostly have been off line working in South America, in fact close to Antarctica.
RobertM says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:41 pm
Agree the companies should pay, through insurance, as I suggested. Or do as I do & fly rather than cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula in good WX only. I´m OK with leaving the rest of the continent (actually two under the ice) to the penguins & seals.
Interesting how most of the govt.\media complex will not mention that this was a “Global warming tour”. More ice than in 1912 and at the beginning of summer no less down south. These so called science pimps should be left there until the ice thaws.
How is ice even possible with all those Hiroshimas exploding every second in our ecosystem? 😎
The Polar Star was retired in 2006. Just refitted to extend useful life about 10 more years. The Polar Sea WAGB-11 is stil retired/out of service.(wikipedia)
These researchers got stuck searching for more bad global warming data that is proved to be wrong. I learned about global cooling in the 70s’ in school, then in the 80s’ when that proved wrong. The same people started the global warming research that became climate change when it proved wrong again for them.
This is about research grants, grants mean you don’t have to get a real job and do real work.
We need to stop spending $$ on grants and that is all grants from tax $$.
Send ’em a bill for the costs. If you ski out-of-bounds and need rescue, you will be billed for all charges and people involved in the rescue.
let them wait for the thaw.
This is starting to get stupid. Ah what the hell, I’m go’in in.
Well, despite the leftist media’s best efforts to hush up the fact that this entire episode is due to a bunch of Global Warming nut cases setting out to prove themselves right, which is not the way a true scientist is supposed to operate, it seems that there is a number of silver linings. The obvious is the Global Warming scam is getting exposed for what we knew all along. The globalist socialists of the UN behind this are clambering for stealing more tax dollars with even more apocalyptic lies, and this couldn’t have happened to a more fitting bunch. A rather expensive laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.
Finally, the man made CO2 cause of this phony global warming garbage is just that, garbage. They were allegedly following a route set back in 1913 by Antarctic explorers, but someone forgot to mention that they didn’t get stuck in the ice back in 1913. Strange how back in 1913 we didn’t have the industrialized world we have today that is supposedly the end all of end all doomsday worshipers nightmares. Then again, they didn’t have such CO2 issues back in the days of the dinosaur nor in medieval times either where science has shown the world was much warmer than it is today. Just don’t try to tell this to the Al Gore bunch. They’ll never understand.
In the mean time, the U.S. Coast Guard to the rescue! GO U.S.A.! :oD
I confess to ignorance when it comes to breaking up ice however couldn’t it be either bombed or dynamited?
First, ice six feet thick is enormously strong. You could drive a tank out onto it. Ice two or three feet thick is enormously strong. Now imagine yourself out in the middle of the ocean (if you’ve ever been on an ocean or the Great Lakes). No land visible in any direction. Flat water in all directions. Now transform that water all to ice 1 to 6 feet thick. Somewhere at or over the horizon there is a ship that is stuck — some 12 to 15 miles (of solid ice) away. You could, with enough dynamite or a powerful enough bomb, shatter the ice in front of you to create a hole packed with huge ice chunks, which will promptly refreeze into solid but chunky ice. However, to get your ship to the hole the hole has to be right at your ship’s bow, as otherwise you are back to breaking the ice, and it is a bad idea to set of dynamite right next to your hull. It would also take a LOT of dynamite — tons of it — to clear out even a single ship-wide mile.
So no, this is not feasible. Nor is setting a fire on top, or any other scheme. That’s why this situation is so serious. There is absolutely no guarantee that either of the stuck ships will be freed by natural melt before winter comes, and lots of bad things could happen first, not the least of which is that ice expands as it freezes and can literally crush the hull of a ship that is trapped in the freezing ocean. So that even if it DOES melt, you just sink. Or the crew could run out of fuel or have problems with their heating or electrical systems and run a serious risk of freezing to death in the Antarctic “summer”. Or a big storm could come up that did in fact break the ice — into millions of mini-icebergs, each of them massive enough to cave in a hull, being flung about by 10 meter high waves, with the ships unable to do anything to save themselves.
So far they’ve been lucky — the weather has been relatively benign, no real disasters have occurred, nobody has died. But the risk of death is still very high for everyone involved. An icebreaker is literally designed to power up over an ice pack and uses its weight and a specially reinforced bow to break the ice and thrust it up to the sides to create a “clear” channel for ships. If it can reach the stranded ships, then a few small charges can clear them of the ice that has them immediately trapped, and they can follow along behind the icebreaker as it clears a path for them to open water. This is the first vessel involved that sounds like it is truly “adequate” for the purpose of navigating dicey water with a high probability of a major freeze — the rest of them truly didn’t have any real business being there, from what I understand.
It is pretty silly to ignore the risk of the unexpected when navigating the ocean. It is enormously dangerous on a good day with nice weather, and one of the many risks is that one can NEVER predict how long nice weather itself will hold up — squalls can blow up out of nowhere in less than an hour. A good captain will not risk his ship or crew or cargo or passengers anywhere that he isn’t very confident in his ship’s ability to handle the unexpected. One wonders just how this one got himself trapped.
rgb
oldleprechaun says: January 4, 2014 at 2:21 pm “In the Navy, we used to rag on the Coasties.”
I live in a traditional home for USCG once the Lighthouse service. A neighbor passed a year or so ago at about 90 years old. She walked across the ice to her husbands duty station and there bore and reared five children, with only the assistant keeper and his wife.
Go Coast Guard “Semper Paratus” . The “Polar Star” just came from a major over haul this past Spring. She spent part of the summer in the Arctic and left Seattle 3 December 2013 bound toward McMurdo in the Antarctica. In ice breaking mode she develops 75000 horse power from 3 Pratt & Whitney turbines. The Polar Star has a sister ship the Polar Sea that with the same overhaul we would have 2 major ice breakers. Tell Washington to spend the money. Obama’s vacations this past year cost more than the over haul would. You will hear people talk about the Russian Nuke Ice Breakers. The only trouble is they can not leave the cold water of the Arctic. It has to do with the cooling systems for the Nuke Reactors.
I do not know the credibility of this website: http://what-when-how.com/military-weapons/coast-guard-ships-military-weapons/
It reports:
John
Had a similar scenario in ’72. A Japanese breaker was stuck in the ice south of South Africa, we were tasked to standby in case they needed us. (CGC Southwind; formery AGB 280 Atka. Our current location was Rio De Janerio. Spent 10 days or on Ipanema. Don’t remember if I met “the Girl” or not, but the sites were glorius.
This fiasco should have a good clever name that will stick, maybe become a new word in the oxford dictionary. Any poets out there? “The dispirit of Mawson”? Also Turney’s Journey for Climate Change ($). I don’t want this man to slip away from all this.
We should set up a contest to see who comes up with the best day and time this all ends. get out the calculators and figure in the knowns and unknowns. 🙂 I’ll hold the wagers….of course… 🙂
Best comment: MajorMike
The scientist’s ship will now be renamed ‘Gore’s Folly”
Also best comment: Buckeyebob’s.
Not only should the lead ship (the one with the “questionable scientists” and “questionable journalists”) be billed for the total U.S. Coast Guard costs but also for the entire “carbon footprint” that these misguided fools caused/created!
Might as well have some fun: Time to drill some cores and blast.
If I were Captain of the Polar Star I wouldn’t pick up the leftist scientists until they disavow their religion believe in AGW causing warming scam.. If it were up to the left we wouldn’t even have ice breakers as they would think we don’t need them.
I am fed up now being nice about this whole predicament so im gonna say the unspeakable. I hope the ice crushes the vessels, they sink and it truly becomes real to these absolute morons, cause as it stands just now there gonna come back spewing the same garbage.
Ha haw !!!, we have a New “” ICE JAIL “”” air drop MRE “””
Maybe God is just trying to kill them all.
Abandon Ship til Spring and save millions.
I hope the USCG sends a bill to these morons for their “rescue”. They’ll do it at the drop of a hat for small boat idiots that embark on “a voyage of a fool” that requires them to be rescued by the USCG. Let the morons eat the rescue costs.
The Russians get stuck, the Chinese and Australians can’t help?? Now the Americans have to show you how it’s done ?? God bless the USA, gitterdun.
97% of the news agencies are calling them explorers or tourists. When they are actually global warming nuts looking for signs of melting. To the globalist controlled media — we are waking up at a record pace. We won’t fall for your mind control anymore.
Robert Brown says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:32 pm
“A good captain will not risk his ship or crew or cargo or passengers anywhere that he isn’t very confident in his ship’s ability to handle the unexpected. One wonders just how this one got himself trapped.”
rgb: The captain wanted to go, as told by an Aussie MP (Green Party of course), but had to lose precious hours while a land party managed to sink one of their classy snowmobiles and delayed getting bck to the ship. Everyone else, including the BBC and Guardian journalists and photographer, were on message and not letting this critical information out, but the MP naively spilled the beans.
http://notrickszone.com/2014/01/02/delayed-departure-of-several-hours-likely-caused-doomed-vessel-to-lose-race-against-the-weather/
Great. I bunch of global warming idiots go out stupidly, get caught in ice they didn’t forsee because they don’t believe in ice, and now us taxpayers have to bail them out.
Some guys stuck in the ice waiting for the climate to change?
Well, no; the climate change guys got rescued and the crew got left behind to repair the ship and get it out, when the weather allows.
Of course, leaving a warmista behind would have been a crime, like leaving babies or old people out in the cold.
M Courtney
grumpyoldmanuk says at January 4, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Apparently the ice-island being blamed for the pack-ice has been skulking around the coast since 1987-ish.
Interesting. Do you have a reference or a that?
It was reported here.
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/turneys-iceberg-calved-in-1987/
God Bless the USCG..
WHEC Rush/Sherman. The USCG works hard all over the globe to help mariners in distress. I am proud to have been a COASTIE and a US sailor for 20+ years…
Again… God Bless the USA and USN
Would someone please have the U.S. or Canadian air forces drop napalm on this ice! Melt it and bust it up long enough for the ships to get out. Even regular bombs to break the ice.
– – – – – – – –
Gary Pearse,
TurneyGate
John
“I wonder if the Aussies will take the hint and acquire an ice-breaker man enough for the job?”
A new one is being built, but it is a bit difficult to persuade Australians that we really need ice-breakers. Ice is not much of a problem around the coasts of the mainland, or even Tasmania. And we frequently forget that we own a large chunk of Antarctica.
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/people-in-antarctica/who-owns-antarctica
(Not that everyone agrees.)
Robert Brown:
“lots of bad things could happen first, not the least of which is that ice expands as it freezes and can literally crush the hull of a ship that is trapped in the freezing ocean.”
That isn’t the problem. The dangerous thing is if the wind starts the icefield moving and forming compression ridges. The power of a few million tons of moving ice, even though it moves slowly can crush almost anything.
Also for all these amurrcan boys venting their spleen on “chicoms” and russians, please remember that the only reason the chinese are stuck in the icefield is that they went in there in order to rescue a bunch of western ecoloons with a helicopter that isn’t built for overwater operations, and that the russians are stuck there because they wouldn’t leave the some of the said ecoloons on the ice to face the consequences of their stupidity.
I think our next USCG Polar Icebreaker should be named the USCG Cutter Al Gore
A new Author is born; with a new book entitled Turney’s Torment.
It was only a few days ago that I read that they had been rescued and that it was all over. Ha! The debacle continues. When Mr. Turkey gets back he needs to undergo some heavy grilling (no pun intended.)
bwah….ha…ha….ha…..ha……ha…..Global Warming gone wild those wild and whacky brainiacs that just KNEW the polar bears were drowning from fatigue as the ice was melting away hey Al Whore that settled science you touted so much how’s it working our for yah…..
“following MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice overnight on 24 December, 2013.”
ERRrrr isn’t that a bit of fibbing, considering the MV Akademik Shokalskiy got stuck because Prof Chris(tmas) Turkey’s crew was late returning to the ship?
Sounds like a wee bit of a cover-up to me.
Those of us in the northern hemisphere, let us keep in mind that it is summertime down under! Imagine what it would be like if it were winter time! Incredible!
This story just gets more interesting. Thanks for the great coverage.
Oh my god… Global warming is real, just because there is one incidence of cold causing something to happen does not excuse evidence of hundreds of glaciers all over the world in massive decline. You people that keep talking about climate change as a myth are total nut jobs.
buckeyebubba says: @ January 4, 2014 at 1:02 pm
…..Why now just let then sit there until “global warming” melts their stupid asses out of there?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Because the nut jobs have already been “rescued” and now they are getting the ships crew out of trouble. The Russian inquiry into this should be quite interesting, so keep an eye on Pravda and the Voice of Russia.
This reminds me of this photo montage of a crane lifting another crane AND a car out of the ocean… remember this?:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/images/crane-tip6.jpg
Here is the full montage:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/two-crane-accident-photos.shtml
There is an eerie similarity here, except it is worse.
A Russian ship(1) freezes in the ice copying a previous voyage that resulted in a sunken ship(2). The Russian ship received a failed rescue attempt by one ship(3), then another ship which also got stuck in the ice(4), which is now being rescued by a 5th ship.
5 ships now involved in a recovery of a fake news story.
There needs to be a beer drinking song for this.
donbarcomejr says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:20 pm
Yet another article on this that fails to mention that the mission was Global Warming! As for GLobal Warming “finally costing US taxpayers (per a comment),
You are jumping into the middle of a whole series of articles about this CAGW fiasco on this site so by this time the obvious does not need to be stated. The context of most all comments should have made this clear.
I hadn’t seen the US Ice breaker mentioned for awhile. Hope they can get those two ships clear quickly.
If those scientist can’t be rescued, I wouldn’t worry. After all, they can always eat the penguins.
All the comments about the US paying for the rescue and US taxpayers getting stuck with the bill are overlooking an important consideration or two. First, the Polar Star has been out of commission since 2006. Probably few of the original crew have returned. The new crew needs all the practice and training we can give them. They have already had a few months training in the Arctic, but not enough. Here is the perfect mission for them. A real rescue in real thick ice and on the route they are taking. It would take two to three times the cost to set up a mock training session. They should be able to free both ships in one to two days if the ice doesn’t get too much thicker than the 13 ft reported a couple days ago. Breaking ice and rescuing ships is their mission. This is excellent training for the mission. And it will actually free somebody trapped in the ice. We can afford this. It beats giving money to the Palestinians.
The second thing this will do is give the US some good publicity if they rescue the trapped ships. God knows we need some good publicity. Obama is incapable of it. All he has done is give America an almost black body like tarnish. America is still a heroic country. Let’s us cheer the Coast Guard on to rescue those ships and bask a little in American glory. It’s been a while.
The Faboutlaws last comment was a most refreshing comment I have seen in a long time !!
No smash mouth just good common sense to win back credibility for the good ole USA
Of which we live in !! Look MOM “”” no spin or slant by media !!! Or B,,, Sh,, good call
He knows what going on,,,, no quessing about the situation. ! Keep up the good work
“Let them study the melt until “local warming” sets them free.”
(Mario Lento at 2:09pm, today)
Yes! (but, not those little Turkey kids). Yeah, someone pointed out that such a sentence would be cruelty to the feebleminded, but their “reduced capacity” isn’t THAT reduced. Let the new 2-story Turney’s Remedial Anthropogenicalism Studies Hall be where they all get their “2 hots and a cot” for the next….. oh, I don’t know…… when will the cooling trend of the past 6,000 (?) years end? ……….
Have fun guys, oh, and here’s a book for you, “600 Ways to Cook Penguin.” Cheers! (which, in Australian, as far as I can discern from comments on WUWT, usually means: “Crap happens!” said with a {GRIN})
This would be a fitting sentence for ALL Envirostalinists — all the windmill investors who slaughter birds and bats… all the ethanol fuel pushers ruining boat and car engines… all those who publish l1es and call it “science,” …. all those who spend BILLIONS on “green” scams while telling a little girl who needs a lung transplant, “some people live and some people die,” (K. Sibelius) …. and we could think of many more, I’m sure.
Is Al Gore the cabin boy on the Polar Star
So the US Coast Guard is going to rescue the Russian and apparently Chicom vessels which got stuck trying to rescue a Russian vessel that got stuck while carrying paying passengers in an effort to suck more Global Warming dollars out of the United States.
Meanwhile back in the USA many terribly wounded veterans of the war in Afghanistan are going without needed medical care because Obama would rather spend the money on social programs. The press never reminds us that almost 3/4 of the casualties in Afghanistan have been suffered under Obama.
Where are our priorities ….. We know where our President is – hiding
PS148:17 He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
It seems appropriate that now that the warmies have exercised their “oh save me…” and abandoned everyone to save their own skin, demonstrating their true yellow candy colors, that the USA, is going in to rescue the real men in all this…once again.
The Arctic farce was ALL about the science and nothing else. Furthermore, they were prepared and knew the risks. It’s true because I have just been told by Chris Turney in the Guardian below. Take a look:
But what do we have here?
Hmmmmmm! Turney did say: “This wasn’t a tourist trip. It was all about science”. Can you spot the number of scientists and compare them to the number of tourists? I betcha can.
Is Dr. Turkey being honest with himself?
PS 147:18 HE SENDETH OUT HIS WORD, AND MELTED THEM: HE CAUSETH HIS WIND TO BLOW, AND THE WATERS FLOW. They will get out when He says so!
Tim Clancy (Ex-Coastie) says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:12 pm
The United States Coast Guard …..”Rescuing Idiots Since 1790″
How about :
The United States Coast Guard …..”Thwarting Darwin since … before Darwin″
Dr. Brown asks “One wonders just how this one got himself trapped.”
The ship got stuck because Professor Chris(tmas) Turkey’s group did not return to the ship on time when the Captain demanded it. It was idiocy on the Warmists’ part but the Captain will have to pay for it.
It’s simple !!! When in Indian country ?? You look out for “” Indians “” when in Artic areas
You look out for “” ICE “”. That a Duh !! And did not listen to the Captain ?? Why do they
Call him That,,, another Duh ,,, it was Duh Boat !!!
Watch the real Americans as apposed to the imposters in D.C.
Dennis Beeson says:
January 4, 2014 at 4:25 pm
The Faboutlaws last comment was a most refreshing comment I have seen in a long time !!
I will second that!
You may recall ,in the last episode…..the evil Broke Yousayin OhBummmer…..aboard the American death star….had fired a freezing laser….at the Russian force…..sticking them in ICE forever……Then the CHINA forces rushed in…..and yet again…..Obama unleashed the ICE RAY….Now….he has Sent the COAST GUARD to the Rescue……Claiming ALL Help to His Imperial Self……….stay tuned !
How about a joke… What did the North Korean dictator say when the “RUSSIAN”, “CHINESE” and “AMERICAN” ice breakers all met up in Antarctica. Hmmm, maybe there is no punch line. I don’t buy the whole thing for one minute. The Russian ship getting stuck, unfortunate, and almost unbelievable – it’s that whole Siberia thing. But, nevertheless, convenient. The Chinese getting stuck and the Australians leaving both behind in favor of the US to come rescue. Kind of like the subplot in a James Bond movie, aye?
I wonder what Faboutlaws experience with the Polar Operations Program is. I agree that some of the crew may need training, but I can assure you the command of POLAR STAR is completely trained as well as a good number of senior enlisted.
@buckeyebubba @Gordon Oehler Corey @TresCool @Weeone @Mario Lento @ImaHippyBurning @B Cole @stevie & others
I share your sentiments but you have missed that the Turney “expedition” people who caused this whole rescue operation are long gone and safe onboard the Aurora Australis, discussing their splendid adventure over ice cream on their way to the Australian Casey station where the icebreaker was unloading supplies when called to rescue by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). The Turney, BBC and Guardian people were evacuated from their chartered Russian ship, the Akademik Shokalskiy (AS), by a helicopter from the now ice-bound Chinese icebreaker Xue Long (Snow Dragon) that was called to rescue by AMSA, just as now the USCGC Polar Star. Besides Aurora Australis and the Polar Star, the AMSA also called the French L’Astrolabe. All 3 icebreakers had to interrupt their respective summer supply missions to rush to rescue.
Igor Kiselev, the master of the chartered Russian AS may share some blame for not being forceful enough and allowing Chris Turney and his flock of sycophants, presstitudes and other assorted global warming courtiers and milkshake sippers to delay the ship’s departure when the weather turned and the ice started closing on them. It is now known that Kiselev wanted to get out in a hurry but Chris Turney’s sight-seeing onshore party delayed the ship’s departure.
The only thing we can do—now that they are safe—is to mock the Turney turkeys mercilessly, keep publishing real science based on data and facts, and hope that bad publicity surrounding this self-serving global warming junket may increase taxpayer awareness and bring some degree of sanity to the public funding of the international “climate science” juggernaut. But given the quickly adapting spin of the media coverage of this fiasco I am not holding my breath. Most WUWT people know you’d better be ready for a long, hard slog. There is no quick fix to this corrupt business other than what the taxpayers and voters will do.
P.S. Gail Combs said the same more succinctly before I finished my rant.
can we not bill the global warming idiots
tty says:
January 4, 2014 at 3:41 pm
Kamovs are built for over water. Russians designed them originally as ship-borne anti-submarine platforms.
Spent my first year in the USCG on Polar Star. She has since been mothballed, and recently recommissioned. Fair winds and following seas to her crew, and I sincerely hope she can get those AGW fools out of the ice…which is supposed to be melting…oops. Just to level set expectations, wind blown sheet ice may simply be too difficult and too regenerative to clear. Not everything is possible….
Helicopter Obama up there to the “Global Warming Investigative Ship” and the hot air out of his mouth should be more than enough to melt the ice.
I wondered how the Polar Star could get to antarctica as quick as it will. Turns out the ship travels from Seattle to open sea routes for antarctic research bases. Now that is a fishy deal, A ship that couldn’t possibly have an efficient long range hull travels nearly threequarters of the way from pole to pole.
One part of me hopes it is using some environmentally benign fuel, another part of me knows that would cost as much as air shipping everything those research bases need.
Might be time to unmothball the Polar Sea and lend it to one of the more local nations on that end of the earth. Now more than ever as the sea ice isn’t going away down there.
So more taxpayer money pi**ed away on global warming … Typical …
I am so lit I can’t count. It’s not 3 but 4 (four) icebreakers that were called to rescue: Xue Long, Aurora Australis, L’Astrolabe and Polar Star.
Agree strongly with your comments. The entire crew has a specific mission focus for the next few days as they approach the ice pack. The experienced crew has a tremendous opportunity to direct their attention to their primary mission and get them prepared for the job at hand. Opportunities like this need to be taken advantage of.
People often complain about incidental military missions like disaster relief and such but they always provide a training value that cannot be replicated in make believe training exercises. The real thing has a way of focusing your attention.
Although some of my former crew mates in the Navy were inclined to give the Coast Guard grief from time to time, they are a sister service and many seamen owe their lives to the CG — thumbs up to the Polar Star and her crew, show them how it is done!
….I share your sentiments but you have missed that the Turney “expedition” people who caused this whole rescue operation are long gone and safe onboard the Aurora …
Yep…”expeditioneers” suckin on cognac while real MEN scramble to pick up the pieces.
Send AlGore down there and let him blow his hot air on it.
You know what would be awesome to help pass the time while frozen down there in all that ice? A hockey stick..
@Bruce ryan – POLAR STAR was already on it’s way – it left Seattle on December 3, enroute to conduct Deepfreeze 14 and resupply McMurdo Station. This was not much of a reach for the ship to get there – the only thing in the trip down that was changed was the 4 day stay in Australia was shortened to 1 day for replenishment…
Let’em sit there and wait for their precious global warming to free them. The science is settled, they will be fine.
Prepare for warmer weather due to these enormous sea vessels spewing their earth killing pollution. Wouldn’t it be for the better good of the planet to allow these brave souls to sacrifice themselves for mother earth rather than doing more damage to her now with the rescue mission?Let them be martyrs.
I think we should bring them ice cream, fans, tank tops, safari hats, pool floats, flip flops, EZ-Ups, salt tablets, electrolyte drinks, beach umbrellas,……
It lives! This story has some legs on it. Is anyone taking bets which week, or month, they get these ships out? I hope for the crew’s sakes it’ll be soon but the “irony” of this is so acute. Who knew sea ice was so dangerous?! It’s supposed to retreat and cower like a vanquished enemy, not attack, parry and gore with major summer offensives … lol
Wonderful. The link of this article is carried by Drudge, together with a lot of other links about the horrible cold weather:
RECORD COLD CLOSES SCHOOLS IN MIDWEST…
MINNESOTA ‘WORST’ DEEP FREEZE IN 20 YEARS…
FROSTBITE IN MINUTES…
2010’S SET TO BECOME SNOWIEST DECADE ON RECORD FOR EAST COAST…
KILLER CHILLER MAP…
MAN BURNS DOWN HOUSE TRYING TO THAW PIPES WITH BLOW DRYER…
UPDATE: COAST GUARD TO ASSIST RESCUE SHIPS STUCK IN ANTARCTIC ICE…
HISTORIC FREEZE: WINDCHILLS 70 BELOW ZERO?
Now if Obama, Kerry and the EPA think AGW is real and punishing economic measures are needed I propose we send them our energy bills for this cold period in protest.
Maybe that will wake them up.
Anyhow I think it is a nice way to protest the Green Government Lunacy.
“Dave Kellems says: You will hear people talk about the Russian Nuke Ice Breakers. The only trouble is they can not leave the cold water of the Arctic. It has to do with the cooling systems for the Nuke Reactors.”
That is false. Nuke power plants can run just fine in tropical seas. Russia isn’t about to send one any time soon because doing so would be hilariously expensive, not because they can’t.
How do you think all the Nuke-powered aircraft carriers, submarines, etc operate anywhere they please? Cooling them is not a problem.
Why are we bailing out these silly “global warming” twits? They’re hoisted on their own pitards, where they belong. Man-made global warming is a fraud and hoax. These silly fools were down there trying to foist more lies on the rest of us. They suffer from Brain Freeze!
If it was up to me they would be wintering over……
I have a better idea!!! Let the darn boat sit there for 3 months and thaw out!!!
I can’t count and I can’t spell, either. The proper English term for Turney’s media fellow travelers is of course “presstitutes”, not “presstitudes”.
And another WUWT reader previously described the expeditioneers as “scientourists”.
Get a load of this. ? “”””” What if the POLAR STAR”” gets stuck ?? Then HELL freezes over
What if ?????
bruce ryan says:
January 4, 2014 at 4:40 pm
…One part of me hopes it is using some environmentally benign fuel,
I hear it is a renewable bio-fuel.
Whale oil.
JerryL says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:56 pm
Jerry, this is interesting–
>>>The Russians have nuclear icebreakers that are not permitted in the Antarctic due to International agreements….<<<
You mean that an international agreement requires ships with a huge rate of consumption of carbon-based fuel rather than clean-burning nuclear fuel in these times of global warming? What is the rationale for that? I'm guessing that the agreements date to an earlier time when the participants felt that it was PC for them to strike a blow against anything nuclear. So old obsessions now clash with newer ones.
bruce ryan says:
January 4, 2014 at 4:40 pm
…One part of me hopes it is using some environmentally benign fuel,
I hear it is a renewable bio-fuel.
Whale oil.
It’s actually DFM (NATO F-76) or JP-5 depending on where they fuelled.
Never say the USA doesn’t do anything for anyone. You’re welcome.
You’re welcome—USA.
@R. de Haan
Yes, the Drudge link is great. It brings readers here who have not been following the development of the Turney expedition fiasco closely or at all. More taxpayers and voters.
James Strom says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:07 pm
JerryL says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:56 pm
Jerry, this is interesting–
>>>The Russians have nuclear icebreakers that are not permitted in the Antarctic due to International agreements….<<<
You mean that an international agreement requires ships with a huge rate of consumption of carbon-based fuel rather than clean-burning nuclear fuel in these times of global warming? What is the rationale for that? I'm guessing that the agreements date to an earlier time when the participants felt that it was PC for them to strike a blow against anything nuclear. So old obsessions now clash with newer ones.
James, the agreement has been in place for a long long time. Just like the agreement to pack out the trash that is generated. Not too many years ago, the scientific bases were becoming large landfills and hazardous waste superfund sites. The countries that have permanent bases came together to restore Antarctica to a pristine environment.
The more foreign involvement the better ,it just makes it that much more difficult for the ecolunatics to get away with the pseudo scientific drivel they have been spouting for the last 30 years.
Dennis Beeson says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:10 pm
Get a load of this. ? “”””” What if the POLAR STAR”” gets stuck ?? Then HELL freezes over
What if ?????
…the only way the Polar Star gets stuck is if the commander in chief orders it, in another attempt to embarrass the USA. A traitor in the white house.
OMG !!!! “””. ObombaBound “””
Let all the global warming fanatics freeze to death. Why should we spend our money rescuing them?
Mr. Lion says:
January 4, 2014 at 4:59 pm
It´s winter in the Arctic & Russia needs her nuke icebreakers.
A retired USCG admiral tows the CACA line but otherwise makes good points:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140103-antarctica-ship-icebreakers-science-ice-trapped/
I share your doubts about the cooling problem. US nuke surface ships & subs routinely traverse the tropics. Some are based in Hawaii, plus visit Guam & Diego Garcia (7 degrees S).
Why is the US paying for this? Why should taxpayers bail out Russian and Chinese ships? Australia is closer to this situation. If it doesn’t have a capable ship, it should get one. In the meantime, the US government better bill all parties involved!
Is the ice breaker solar powered? If not, it should be mothballed! 😉
James Strom says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:07 pm
I stand corrected thanks to a later comment. According to Wikipedia the Russian nukes can’t sail through warm waters due to their cooling requirements, so they’re stuck in the Arctic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-powered_icebreaker
Who else has taken the lead to save other countries from whatever problems occur around the world for the last 70 years? Only the the USA.
James Strom says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:26 pm
James Strom says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:07 pm
I stand corrected thanks to a later comment. According to Wikipedia the Russian nukes can’t sail through warm waters due to their cooling requirements, so they’re stuck in the Arctic.
Consider the amount of ice laiden shoreline that the Russions need to keep open. The priority is north.
highflight56433 says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:17 pm
True, that.
Only way Polar Star gets stuck is if ordered to do so. She´s a real icebreaker, not just ïce-capable¨.
She & her sister have been to Antarctica before & back. They can maintain three knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) in 6-foot (1.8 m) ice. Given their excess of power, they´re also fast in open water. Thank God she was already en route to the region.
[SNIP we don’t need a discussion about “race” in this thread, off-topic, pointless, ugly – Anthony]
Did the original ship get it’s “global warming” research data?
James Strom says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Please note ¨citation needed¨. I´m dubious. Maybe their cooling system requires frigid water, but I´d be surprised.
This might be an excuse for not sending them south, as US icebreakers do.
So many commenters here gleeful that this ship stuck in ice because they believe it proves global warming is a hoax? The predicted global warming effects are associated with the future… sheeesh. Get it? It doesn’t prove your beliefs are true. Knowing something and believing something are two different things. Your mothers must be so proud back in their trailer-parks.
Oh, darn. I was hoping we would let those blithering global warming hippy types freeze in
the dark.
Turney, the cockney-voiced so called “leader” of the Warmist cruise (so shamefully named the “Spirit of Mawson”), took almost a week to come up with the, “it’s bergy bits of broken ice-sheet wedging us in”!
A quick check on the sea-ice’s salinity can blow that one out of the water.
And why didn’t he know there’s been a 60% increase in SEA-ICE over the last 30 years around Antarctica?
The warmist buffoon has admitted access to the latest weather reports which blew the sea-ice around the ship, he decided to let the day-tripping “scientists” visit Mawson’s Hut even as the captain was extremely anxious about immediately getting out of Commonwealth Bay, he had access to satellite imagery of the ice and yet all to no avail.
Just what were Turney’s priorities?
It seems a Warmist TV extravaganza destined for BBC and ABC consumption is/was being filmed. Mawson’s Hut would be a centre-piece of such a production.
Let’s hope the US Coast Guard can recoup a little of the cost from the parasite.
Here’s an apropos tune…
highflight56433 says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:30 pm
Maybe you were right the first time.
Russian nuke subs do fine in the Indian Ocean & South China Sea in Indian & Chinese service, & their own at Vietnamese bases. OK, maybe subs operate most of the time in cooler depths, but if the US & UK can send nuke ships into the tropics, why not the Russians? Could be the icebreakers are cooled differently, but so far only hearsay.
Let’s hope that eventually this conspiracy-of-silence coverup is expose–in court perhaps. Once exposed, it will be easy to see that this bunch would engage in the same coverup about larger matters, like the return of sea ice, the Pause, etc. IOW, that they’re basically untrustworthy.
4 Jan: CRI English: China Sets up Team to Rescue Stranded Icebreaker
The State Oceanic Administration (SOA) announced on Saturday the team will map out rescue plans and make “all-out efforts” to coordinate rescue operations, despite there is no immediate danger to personnel aboard Xuelong, which has abundant fuel and food supplies.
The SOA also ordered its marine forecasting department and meteorological center to step up the collection and analysis of meteorological data, so that weather information will be updated and forwarded to Xuelong in a timely manner…
Currently, Xuelong is located at 66.65 degrees south latitude and 144.42 degrees east longitude. It is surrounded by floes up to four meters thick and is about 21 km away from unfrozen waters, according to the SOA.
Qu Tanzhou, director of the State Oceanic Administration’s Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, said the planned expedition by Xuelong is inevitably affected and changes are expected to be made to the vessel’s mission after it gets out of trouble.
“If the ship is stranded for a very long time, which is very rare indeed, then we’ll have to evacuate the people onboard and leave the vessel there,” he said.
http://english.cri.cn/6909/2014/01/04/2361s806546.htm
golly winkies says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:39 pm
Those predictions for 2100 are based upon models that have already been shown hilariously wrong after only eight years (2005 to 2013). They were born wrong, being based upon preposterous assumption s contrary to all actual observations.
What if USCG Polar Star gets stuck? The US has nothing bigger. There may be some great salvage opportunities here in a couple of months.
To Faboutlaws, you say “we” can afford this. If you mean the US, it can afford nothing as it’s at least $17 trillion in debt and counting from doing “good.” How do you know the costs for this rescue including transit would be the same as a normal practice? The US is never going to be “liked” because the people running this country don’t want that to be the narrative. They make more money for themselves and cronies by selling us as bad guys. Ordinary Americans can constantly be subdued and stolen from if we believe we’re hated. US politicians demonize us bitterly from UN podiums and microphones around the world. At best we’re damned with faint praise. Because Americans are so mean and need to get people to like them, US politicians throws billions of tax dollars to the UN and cronies around the world for “global warming” expenses. People like yourself look at one event and say, hey here’s a chance for us to do something good so people will like us. That’s want they want you to think but it’s never going to happen. The US leads the world in CO2 reduction, admits nothing we can do can reduce global CO2 emissions (which are dominated by China), yet the US gov. insists trillions more be taken away from mean Americans every year in perpetuity so we “can be an example” for the world. After many years of observation, no countries are following our “example.” In the case of our CO2 “good guy leadership,” other countries are increasing coal use. Giving away billions of US taxpayer dollars every month to organized crime in Afghanistan and paying $400/gallon of gas makes us a laughing stock. Some of that US taxpayer cash goes to “insurgents” who kill and maim Americans, but we “can’t get out of the contracts” say our lawmakers. The US icebreaker fleet has long needed updating as others have pointed out. Politicians have opted to spend tax dollars elsewhere.
So well said. Thank you. BTW – it’s now on record that we (US of A) has given foreign governments over $7.5Billion over the past 2 years to “fight global warming”. WTF?!?!
I want to smash Turkey’s espresso machine.
Due to faulty science, we are charged on every utility bill, every gallon of gas, every grocery purchase etc etc etc……for so called ‘green energy’. Now we have to PAY TO HAVE THE IDIOTS RESCUED who are faulty scientists and who make a remarkable living from screwing every tax payer in the world………I say we should have just let them find their own way out of the mess that they created! But guess what…….those same scientists are ‘outa there’ and now and enjoying a vacation at our expense….
Dr. Darwin will be happy to rescue them… immediately after he finishing aiding Mr. Soros… who pays CASH…. British Pounds actually….
Recent business news – since fracking, oil and gas more plentiful, and because Arctic will not be navigable as anticipated, Big oil has cooled on Arctic production.
James Strom says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:07 pm
“According to Wikipedia…”
Wikipedia, unsurprisingly, is full of it. The difference in sea temperature between arctic and tropical areas is something like 70-80 degrees F at most. If your nuclear power plant goes from “happy” to “unrequested fission surplus” with that small an inlet coolant temperature change, you haven’t designed a power plant, you’ve designed a very crappy bomb, and not even Russia is that crazy.
milodonharlani says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:49 pm (replying to)
I am very, very skeptical about this claim (of not the Russian nuke ice-breakers not being able to cross the hotter equatorial waters) …. but NOT at all skeptical of a “requirement” that they are “not allowed” go into the “pristine” and “environmentally sacred” Antarctic waters.
See, the RUssian ice breakers have busted their cores before, have a reputation for nuclear-water leaks, reactor leaks, and cross-contamination between the reactor cooling water and the steam system. Remeber, on nuke reactors, the reactor core heats up, the water passing through and around the reactor heats up, that very-high pressure water heats up the lower pressure pure water in the steam generators, and that (now hot water as saturated steam at high temperature and pressure – but lower than the primary reactor water) goes from the steam generators through the throttle valves to the steam turbines and then (at lower pressure and lower temperatures) goes to the ship’s condensors. Then, and only then, can the sea water cool the steam and condense it so it can be pumped back to the steam generators and re-heated.
The sea water must be the final cooling point, but the reactor water is always at a higher temperature and pressure. If that reactor water is contaminated – by leaks through the reactor cladding, additional leaks through the steam generator wall tubes into the steam itself, additional leaks through the turbine-condenser tube walls into the sea water passing by the outside of the tube walls … then, yes, you will get radioactive sea water being released from the ice-breaker.
In “normal” Russian cruising, these leaks do occur – but are obviously unwanted and are fixed as they are found. But, how many Russian surrogate states monitor the water coming out of a Russian submarine heat exchanger when the Russian submarine is shutdown in port? On the other hand, “outlawing” nuclear reactors from the Antarctic “sounds nice” and “environmental” and, in normal , circumstances, doesn’t mean a d*mn thing, since Russian nuclear ice breakers are built and are run to operate in the Russian and Siberian Arctic. they don’t go south.
The SLR-1 was a US Army small reactor intended for Antarctic operations in the mid-60’s. It busted during operation/testing/refueling in Idaho’s NREL, and killed an operator under suspicious repair conditions due to a steam and reactivity expansion. Again, a good “excuse” to remove the other operating reactor from the US station down there.
to think that this was supposedly the hottest year on record, you have to wonder about those oracles of stupidity when they say stuff like that on a yearly basis! hope they don’t get stuck also. antartica is no place for mistakes and bravado! i have always wondered if one day they finally drill down to lake vostok it would mirror what we would find on europa another mystery.
Coast-a Guard Coast-a Guard come and a save-a my (S)hit
Sell the Polar Star to Greenpeace for its full cost and let them do the deed.
give us a year, golly winkies. When will you finally admit that you and them are full of sheit? 2030? 30100? 40000000?
For everyones info go to the antarctic treaty of Dec. 1 1959 and it will give answers before the commentary and why it so.
The idiots still haven’t stopped drinking the Electric Koolaid of the 1972 Environmental Earth Day in Ann Arbor which brought on the EPA
The Madness Become Insanity!
I guess that $400,000 AU-Dollar figure just UPPED to $1.6 Million US-Dollars with the “sky” as the unbounded limit! Ha Ha.
The “margin profits” just keep going up and up and up ….. 😯
Here’s an interesting story:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11181470
It covers how the environmental pilgrims pledged to plant 800 trees in New Zealand to offset their carbon emissions from their pilgrimage. The story goes on to say how they will now have to plant 5,000 trees to cover the carbon emitted for their rescue.
If eco-activists keep up with all these pledges, before you know it, they’ll have to dig up all the cities and cover the whole of New Zealand in trees.
Thanks to JerryL for his contribution to reality. I checked his facts and confirmed:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140103-antarctica-ship-icebreakers-science-ice-trapped/
Whether you unequivocally agree with ex-Admiral Garrett’s assessment or not, this is a must-read for those who want to opine from a position of knowledgeability.
Robert Muir says: January 4, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Russian Ice Breaker is much bigger than the USCG’s.Plus why the hell do we have to pay for this??
The Russian breakers cannot cool their reactors in tropical waters, they cannot make the trip from Arctic to Antarctic. The Russian ships while larger can only break ice up to 16 ft, the Polar Sea can break up to 21 ft.
Thank Drudge Report for linking this posting.
I am surprised they even still have icebreakers. After all, all of the polar ice was supposed to have melted by now. Gore and so many other “scientists” have told us so.
I say let the tree-huggers await global warming!!
Headline: U.S. Coast Guard on mission to rescue America-hating global warming cultists and their would be Chicom rescuers.
Australia is complaining too at the expense as it is a Russian ship. Ours could not penetrate the ice. They feel this ship was a commercial venture and should cop the cost. It was not a scientific venture, and was funded by paying passengers. The antarctic is a frozen region, and dangerous.It’s is not the place to take people who are not experienced and I bet no other ventures like this will be attempted and those involved cop the cost of rescue missions. Thank you America again. Best of luck.
These cuckoos will return in a few months when the ice thaws and then say, “SEE? The warming is causing the ice to melt”.
I sure as heck hope that they are billed for the rescue of both ships. The captain of the first ship should also lose his Captain’s license due to error in judgement.
How the F cold is it the Antarctic, but they were hell bent on the believe that global warming has melted all the ice and it would be clear sailing. I guess God showed them how wrong they really were.
Hi The Crone, but on the bright side, the Chinese don’t like Russia either, I bet they are giving the rescued comrades a de briefing. If the hulls on both these ships were not iron, the ice would gradually crush them. I wonder if they are insured? Suggestions are that the insurers should pick up the cost of rescue too. What are they going to do with these ships, leave them there? Ah well with Penny Wong yelling that Australia has had the hottest temps so far, proving global warming is right, then how does she explain this? We have hot climates and cool climates, and we do like UK experience hot weather. But generally that is followed by storms and rain. Like in UK.
They had an unseasonable hot summer in 2013, and now suffering floods.
Robert Muir says: January 4, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Russian Ice Breaker is much bigger than the USCG’s.Plus why the hell do we have to pay for this??
The Russian ships while larger can only break ice up to 16 ft, the Polar Sea can break up to 21 ft. With estimates of 13 ft. ice the fudge factor is in the Polar Star’s favor.
Lord Wellington of Colorado… (ahem),
While it is, no doubt, in my case, due to my writing poorly, you have misunderstood all or nearly all of those of us urging that the culpable parties (i.e., the adults in the Turney, et. al., group) be returned to Antarctica and left there. We assumed that everyone else here was as well-informed as we on the issue and simply did not bother to put that detail into our comments.
I appreciate very much your speaking up, for you have let me know that I need to be more careful to include EVERY-thing in what I write. The return of the spoiled brat ignoramuses was only implied and should have been made explicit. Gail Combs posted above my post and, from exchanges with her in the past, I think it likely that she understood what I (and most of the others) meant (sloppily, in my case) to say.
Thanks for keeping us on our written communication toes,
Janice
Well, I have only a tiny right to say this, but, glad to be able to help, Bush Bunny! Thanks for your appreciation. Glad to see you are back from your little “Christmas break.” I’m sure that yes, indeed, your family was happy you left WUWT on its own for awhile. I hope you, too (yes, I saw your “Merry Christmas” greeting to us all), had a lovely Christmas and…. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Janice I didn’t stop writing I didn’t get many emails from WUWT over the Christmas break, so to speak. But I was pretty tied up with Christmas and a sick dog. He’s OK, only 10, an obiedience dog but long term medication for itching has made him blind in one eye. We didn’t notice it either would you believe until a few days ago. Now he is on a rich Omega 3 diet. By the way, although on the Northern Tablelands of NSW, our temps are higher than average, 31 C. But it will be followed by storms of course as normal. Despite Penny Wrong saying climate change is real because of the high temps. Geesus, Australia is supposed to be hot!
The Russian and Chinese will probably get a bill for the rescue not the American taxpayers. The ice that trapped the Russian vessel is not actually newly frozen ice but pack ice that could be decades old or older. When the winds shift, it piles ice up into layers. A shift in the wind over time could free the ships even before the Polar Star arrives or it could remain until fall. Summertime in the Antarctic does not add ice but sees it melt away until the fall.
Al Gore should be forced to pay this tremendous expense. He spent years getting rich off of these global warming loons. He bares full responsibility for their risky, foolish behavior. All these record cold temperatures and “unexpected massive amounts of ice” are the real “inconvenient truth”! You gullible LIBS can start your apology tour any time. We’ll all be waiting next to the heater!
Today’s earth science lesson. Winter in the northern hemisphere is summer in the southern hemisphere…. Jan 4th It is their 4th of [June]. get it now???
Let me give you a clue !!! And take it from there ? Have you ever heard of a 50, 100, 500
And a 1,000 year storm, flood or event ??? Well that’s what structural Engineers design
Bridges, and structural components for !!! The worst that can happen in any of those years,
Now take it from there ?? Our weather patterns look like the Dow Jones. That’s why they
Call it ..? “” WEATHER “”. Or not ??? Now take it from there. Each year is like a finger print.
Mother Nature lives here !!! We are just Visiting.
“OMG,” cried Obama. “We gotta get involved down there — gotta get those ships out of that gosh-darned ice real, real quick. This story is making us ‘climate change’ believers look silly. I mean really — don’t I have enough problems with my glorious Obamacare program?
The U.S. mass producing ice breakers…That actually can help everyone….keep all the manufacturing of these ships within the US supplying jobs…..our major purchaser would more than likely be the Canadians…its something all of the Arctic and Antarctic nations need….be sure to actually sell the ships and not donate them….instead of trying to tax everyone to death if you want to make money you can still use the climate….instead of lying about global warming how about privatizing ice breaking in shipping lanes….anyone even thought about this
“Milodon Harlani,” (lol) glad to hear that all is well. Why not post under your real name all the time?
It’s good to see that the rescue ships are getting aid, though I agree with those who decry the idea that any of this expense be born by taxpayers (of any country).
Note that this makes icebreaker number four – count ’em, four – called to this spot because of a misguided and badly misinformed global warming expedition.
Hey, wait a minute. The “man’s CO2 did it” crowd, which made up the entire passenger list on this little trip (scientists and students; there were no bona fide “tourists” on board), are, generally speaking, front and center blaming America for whatever perceived injustice they happen to be barking about on a given day. Isn’t is kinda dumb to go ahead and rescue them? Besides, their stated goal of retracing the path taken by an expedition that spent a year trapped (not “beset”) in sea ice is just beginning! Why spoil their outing?
Polar Star now about three hours out of Sydney, going at 17.7 knots, heading 183 degrees.
The scientific mission was to document reduced sea ice. Seems even in the antartic summer the sea ice is MORE than normal. Oops. The obsession with warming completely misses the reality of the situation. We should be in an ice age, due to orbital variations. If it wasn’t for global warming we would be much colder than now. You don’t have to have warming to prove that humans are causing climate change. And sometimes it’s a good thing in the short term. Check out this link: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/01/of-orbits-and-ice-ages/
Interesting, I have yet to hear, from the media in general, to the best of my recollection, that is is SUMMER down there! Oh . . . I forgot it is “climate change”. . . NOT “global warming.” My mistake.
U.S. Coast Guard to the rescue…doin’ it since 1790. Proudly served in the USCG back in the day and remember when the Polar Star was commissioned. Semper Paratus.
If Dopebama were really running the operation, having heard that there is a Russian ship involved, he would have sent the Polar Star to Moscow, Idaho (one of the 57-plus U.S. states) to rescue them. Thankfully, he is just a teleprompter-reading puppet… of course, there are those who pull the strings, but, well, just ask Rahm Emmanuel what they are… heh, heh. Thank — the — Lord!
…… uh, oh, I can hear Ed Mertin’s hobnailed boots stomping across the square …. gotta go! (don’t worry, mod, I won’t — oh, I really hope I won’t! — respond to EM)
We’ll be there. Credit card number please?
carlb says:
January 4, 2014 at 6:15 pm
Lake Vostok has been drilled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_vostok
(I know it’s Wiki, but it has a handy collection of links & the Russian version with links to tghe original reports is just one click away.) No ancient/alien evil seems to have been unleashed… Or So We Have Been Told. Stay tuned.
I like how the Chinese discuss what they will do in the worst case scenario, and their ship is hopelessly trapped. They will save the lives of the crew before the dead of winter, and leave the ship to its fate. They don’t expect that to happen, but are honest about what they will do if the unexpected happens.
Such honesty once was a characteristic of Americans. What has become of us, that our media and our political leaders cower so, in the face of Truth?
When I was a small boy in the 1950’s I was told that George Washington never told a lie, and that, even as a small boy, he confessed to chopping down his father’s cherry tree, when asked.
However my children were told, “There is no proof George Washington ever said that. That story is spin, and propaganda, which is the norm and the way of the world.”
Is it any wonder we now have a generation that has little regard for the Truth? However the problem with such a cynical attitude towards Truth is that, as any engineer knows, Truth is reality, and if you don’t respect reality it will loom up and bite you. (Even if you respect reality, Murphy’s Law will hit you, but if you are disrespectful you get not just Murphy, but his thousand relatives.)
This farce we are witnessing down along the Antarctic coast is simply a case of people reaping what they have sown. Their flagrant disregard for Truth is their Chicken Littles coming home to roost.
If an engineer disregards a crucial truth his design will crash and burn or, even if it survives fair weather, it will be a “Galloping Gertie” when winds get strong. He stands to face the blame for a bad design.
However when a non-engineer designs a lead balloon, and it will not fly, they never face the blame. That would involve facing the Truth, and Truth is something they abhor. Amazingly, if you analyze their excuses, what they blame for their failures is Truth itself.
They blame fossil fuels, and progress, and those things that uplift mankind, and every honest engineer ever born. They blame religious people, and hard working blue collar types, and the history of mankind, and old-fashioned morality. They sneer at tradition, insistent they are progressive, however Truth is not a thing you can progress beyond. All you can do is deny it.
These people are the true deniers, and rather than laughing at the absurdity of this dunderheaded Antarctic exploit we should all be shuddering in fear, for these bozos have a grip on the reins of humanity’s destiny.
Once it was America that spoke the Truth, and across the Iron Curtain people tuned into “Radio Free Europe” (at great personal risk,) to hear the Truth.
How our forefathers must be rolling in their graves. For now, if we want an honest answer, we don’t listen to our own media. We listen to the Chinese.
Brought to you by Glowbull warming
My last reply may have triggered the “spam filter” by being too long. Sorry.
Wait a second! . . . We are going to “rescue” a Chinese “Ice Breaker”? That, is perhaps more interesting.
LMAO
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11181470
I stand corrected…. apparently January plus 6 months is June in the Southern hemisphere…. hmmm….??
… Bush did it !!
These einsteins were “in search of” global warming.
Reminds me of that TV show, “In Search Of”.
I think they were looking for UFO’s and bigfoot.
At least they didn’t get stuck in the global warming.
>>>> Heraldo Ortega says:
January 4, 2014 at 12:56 pm
So who is Guarding the Coast ?.<<<<<<
answer: That job has been outsourced to Mexicans.
Thank you Caleb. All you need to do (sorry!) is watch MSNBC & see how it’s OK to trash & apologize. That is “our” new norm. God Bless you & yours…
These guys can’t tell which way the ice is going. They can SEE the ice and if it is retreating or growing, and they STILL get stuck in the ice.
These are the same guys we are supposed to trust regarding climate for the next 100 years???????????-*-!!!
Polar Star left Sydney a couple hours ago according to Marinetraffic.com. Its location was -34.8795,151.2361 and proceeding at 17.6 knots. Looks like it will be in the location of Xue Long Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
I would be interested in seeing how the Chinese “Ice Breaker” does during a WINTER rescue. This gets more entertaining every time one reflects on it.
Turney would have been financed for this dubious research. Possibly choosing a Russian owned ship and crew was the cheapest offered. I bet the investors are chewing their nails down to the quick. I hope they get nobbled to the fact, rescue missions cost a lot. Some years ago the University of Cambridge hired a Irish navy ship to go to Antarctica. My cousin was on it, sent me pics of ice flows and claimed it was proof of climate change? The Russians have large nuclear powered ice breakers in the Arctic, and of course they are too far away to be of any help. But knowing the recent Russian response to Greenpeace activists I wonder what awaits the crew of the Russian ship when they return home. (If they dare too). I agree what were the Chinese doing there too.
Can’t happen. I read that their reactors require ice-water to cool, so they can’t cross the tropics to get there.
What’s funny is that the MV Akademik Shokalskiy was studying global warming with a whole group global warming scientists aboard. You won’t get this information on many news reports. This is just too funny.
Media ?? What media! and the media is going “” What “”” Global What ?? We don’t know Squat
Apparently there was an evident lack of smart phones on board of the “research” vessel. Crying shame.
Another way to look at this . . . these research fellas weren’t expecting ice. After all, it is Summer down there.
Who is going to get the bill for this?
a. The Russians
b. The Australians
c. The Chinese
d. The American Taxpayer
e. None of the above.
Tip: As I recall from my schooling days, if you are not certain of the answer always choose “D”
… Last I heard NASA still hasn’t fired Mann for knowingly producing his fake “hockey stick” graph, based on intentionally falsified data. And Al Gorp’s shoreline mansion is located at sea level, indicating he was intentionally scamming all along. Lastly, CO2 isn’t a greenhouse gas or poison at the tiny levels it exists in the atmosphere. It does, however, benefit the plants that give us oxygen to breathe.
As I’ve said before, amongst its many other qualities, “global warming” causes the freezing point of water to increase and that’s the reason for the record amount of ice this year.
The stars mission is to go to the poles and assist any vessals in destress along wirh her scientific duties. The US has 2 polar ice breakers , the star and the healy, we also have16 225′ seagoing breakers and 14 175′ near shore breakers. And yes we need more polar size breakers. They keep me employed
Good question. If you watch the promo video, Prof. Turney made it sound as if they were going to record tons of data: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-25/15-million-australian-expedition-to-antarctica/5116158
“”global warming” causes the freezing point of water to increase”–that is really great! Is that “fact” in that great bastion of scientific knowledge, ehrrr, geographic knowledge–the so-called, inappropriately so, National Geographic? Let me look for a shovel . . . the stuff is really piling up.
The Russians have the largest and (nuclear powered) heaviest ice-breakers in the world. I understand why the Australians and the Chinese are down there but why are we rescuing the Akademik Shokalskiy?
I wonder about “RESCUE”….. I believe, rescue assistance concerns the BOAT. Its not
a rescue just lifting some of the people off who party and dance on twitter…. the ship was
not broken, was about to sink and lives of survivors had to be rescued….Where is the
“Distress”? Food was plentiful, time was plentyful and the only DISTRESS was that the
crew did not like to share the booze….
The “rescued people” will party on the third boat on taxpayers expense….The weak Chinese boat was diplomatically pressured to go in and get stuck as well….All for the missing booze? .Flying
in a supply package of high percentage bottles would have been more appropriate…..and not
run into the millions…..
Are we saying then, Jimmy, that as we approach closer to the sun, the freezing point of water will thus increase indefinitely? Is that why the sun is a huge ball of Ice? Yes, I see it now, totally logical. We are in . . . trouble. I already knew that.
Janice Moore says:
Lord Wellington of Colorado… (ahem), …
My fair and noble Lady Janice, bright angel.
O, what a sodden-witted lord am I!
I have no more brain than thou have in thy elbows.
The jaws of darkness do devour it up: So quick bright things come to confusion.
I think my horse will sooner con an oration than I learn a prayer without book. *)
Why, thou sayest well. I do now remember a saying,
‘The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.’
My abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone;
But the sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.
But now I should stay no longer; it would be my disgrace and your discomfort:
I take my leave at once.
*) in debt, immortal Bard
Jerry,
Extensive searching using Google and including review of the Antarctic Treaty shows _no_ such prohibition on the use of nuclear-powered ships or ice breakers.
What is banned are nuclear weapons, waste and testing in the Antarctic. I would welcome a correction or cite to anything (treaty etc.) contradicting this conclusion.
.
No such prohibition could be found in several hours spent searching yesterday … Treaties banning weapons/weapons testing and waste are part of the “Antarctic Treaty” dating back to 1959.
.
Please meet the Grand-daddy of the Polar Star and the Polar Sea (I believe the Polar Sea is semi de-commissioned), a WWII era ice-breaker, the Mackinaw.
http://www.boatnerd.com/mackinaw2/. She was launched in 1944 and was the original heavy-duty ice breaker, with 6 engines, 3 electric motors for 2 propellers aft and 1 foward. She is 290’LOA and 90′ wide. She also has huge water ballast tanks on either side, which can shift ballast from port to stb. so that she can “rock” in the ice, helping breaking it up. She can steam through 3′ of ice continusly and also 10′ as slow speed. Notice how the Polar Sea and Star have similar power.
She was running fine when de-commissioned about the year 2000, but in its infinite wisdom, the US Gvmt required that her water intakes be filled with concrete, so her 6 engines could never run again; go figure. Nevertheless, she is a beautiful boat.
Reactors on Russian nuke icebreakers require ice-water to cool? Why? Their reactors aren’t notably different than those on nuke subs and aircraft carriers, both of which can operate in tropical waters.
This was looked at several days ago and rated “bogus” at that time. Searching for operational conditions for the nuclear power plant “KLT-40” as used in Russian ice breakers lists no ‘water temperature’ limitations.
Per a previous post: The IAEA reviews a proposal (below) to implement this power plant (KLT-40) into ‘floating’ seaside electrical generating stations that could be towed to a pier where it could then ‘feed the grid’:
http://www.iaea.org/NuclearPower/Downloadable/aris/2013/25.KLT-40S.pdf
See also posts by Doug Huffman on this subject:
“In general, marine nuclear power plants are not restricted in their operations by environmental concerns, but only political issues. I remember 28F and 87F injection temperatures.”
.
Thomson Reuters… as disinforming as ever…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/u-s-icebreaker-looks-to-free-russian-chinese-ships-1.2484547
“During their time on the ice, passengers amused themselves with movies, classes in knot tying, languages, yoga and photography, and rang in the New Year with dinner, drinks and a song their adventure.”
Not a word of the cost, scandal etc…
Turney’s Christmas Special On Ice-2013…. Make sure you include the name of this idiot whenever this subject is brought up… Did they really just plan on cruising down the old Mawson Expedition trail. All the reports in recent years have shown a great increase in the amount of ice. This year in Antarctica, the least amount of ice has melted this Summer that has ever been recorded. Why wouldn’t they know this? All indications are, that this was a tourist cruise/vacation trip. I would like to know who supplied the funding for these frauds. I would also like to see the “great science” that Turney claims to have gathered on this trip….I also agree with the above post about leaving them there to overwinter with the book ” 600 ways to cook penguin “… Shackleton’s men could have given you a few recipes.
I’m left wondering how the “press” would have reported this cluster f#%€£ if there would have miles of “open sea where ice used to be…” I will bet all that this was paid for by someone’s TAX dollars!!! Pathetic
My dear Lord Wellington of Colorado (re: 9:07pm this evening),
Ay, me! Your graceful words set my heart alight as the morning Sun doth the meadow with his first caress. I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends. Ah, but you have, you have, for such words are water to a heart that is nearly dust for lack of rain.
And my reply:
(hat tip to John Milton)
In short, thank you, kind sir. Lady Wellington is blessed, indeed.
Your refreshed WUWT friend,
Gratefully,
Janice
Thank you, Old Car Boater (were you a ferry captain? other deck dept.? engineer? — I’ve known a few with WSF), for sharing that beautiful ship, The Mackinaw, with us (at 21:22 today). That is a shame that they choked her with concrete. Whoever gave that order should be taken 2 miles out in the salt chuck, tossed overboard, and told, “Good luck.” That makes me sick. It wasn’t enough to enter the final “R.O.”; “F.W.E.” into the log and tie her up and walk off and leave her, neglected and unused. They murdered her. Now, we can go look at what the funeral parlor did with her carcass. Well, she is a lovely ship and well worth going to see, I’m sure. Your linked article was a fine tribute.
Janice
[Snip. Enough of the far left political rants. ~ another mod.]
The Nathaniel B Palmer is also “just around the corner” at Beaufort Island. It is a US research vessel and is probably farther away than the Polar Star at this point, but could come “off station ” to come help.The Palmer is 300+; and can break through 3 meters of ice.
Send the bill to Turkey’s NZ university for being the cause of this whole mess!
Wow she is hauling the mail!
That is flank speed (rated top speed is 18 knots).
Depending on sea conditions and winds of course. I assume that is GPS speed (speed over ground).
The question keeps coming up why are we rescuing X — the answer is simple, international agreements and long standing custom of the seas is any available ship assists a distress call. Its a I’ll scratch yours if you’ll scratch mine deal. Some day the Russians or the Chinese will be helping an American flagged ship in distress. Even in War time opposing navies have assisted the crews who abandoned ship after combat.
If you spend any time at sea in rough weather you soon realize that your all in the same boat (pun intended) the real enemy is the sea, and minor political differences don’t matter when you are taking on water or dead in the water.
Reminded myself about what’s going on in Antarctica by visiting the WUWT Sea Ice page:
1) Antarctic sea ice currently (and for almost all of 2013) is more than +2 std dev greater than the 1981-2010 average ice extant.
2) Antarctic Sea Ice anomaly currently 1.5 million km greater than 1979-2008 mean.
3) Antarctic temperature currently about 0.6k below average.
In other words, any self respecting global warming researcher should have been roaming around the Arctic, where some evidence of warming has been observed, NOT the Antarctic, where conditions are colder than average.
I suppose it’s a cheaper voyage from Australia to the Antarctic than to the Arctic… assuming one doesn’t get stuck in summer ice, then it becomes REALLY expensive (for your rescuers)!
Ouch.
.
(My one very big pet peeve.)
re: Ed Mertin says January 4, 2014 at 11:01 pm
-1
Thank you mods.
Truth gives your [trimmed. Mod]
This is a story that just keeps on giving and it all started with a lie. Global warming. Those scientists that began this odyssey should pick up the cost of this fiasco.
@ _Jim — good 1, er, minus 1. #(:))
***********************************************
“Cue three hot choruses of, “The American Patrol”. (Grumpy at 12:45pm today)
You got it!
“American Patrol”
We Americans may seem kind of flaky and self-absorbed, and, sometimes, the “Sleeping Giant” needs quite a shaking to wake up, but, BOY, WHEN THE CRISIS HITS WE’RE THERE (doing 17.7! –thanks Larry Ledwick).
(I hope that you from other lands will find this American’s pride in her dearly loved country pardonable)
Attention sailors in danger: Hang in there! Help is on the way.
There are good reasons for ‘side lining’ an old girl who has been faithful up to this point. Safety is one aspect. Take boilers for instance, the Mackinaw looks to have three, along with associated piping and such (valves, gauges, etc). With age and vibration materials (metal) age and can develop fracture cracks, in a steam (pressure! Hot gases! Scalding hot!) system this represents significant risk and a hazard to personnel … think of your pressure cooker on your stove as it’s “sneezing” when at/near set pressure (the old ones I remember anyway)!
Even the Polar Star has had boiler events (a couple of explosions) in past years … eventually, these things must be completely rebuilt or made into museums! At least she is still around for many to see.
.
re: Janice Moore says January 4, 2014 at 11:25 pm
+1000
Thanks, blank Jim! #(:))
***************************
Yes, yes, I understand the “sidelining,” but not the murder. Anyway, thank you for reading and acknowledging what I wrote!
Re: G says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:04 pm
@Heraldo Ortega Nobody, Doncha know the US only has one ship! OMG!!!!!111
Nope, we have 3 but one’s mothballed due to sequestration and the other’s in dry dock being repaired.
This one’s supposed to be re-supplying our research facility and cutting a channel to it. Sure hope they don’t run out of supplies or fuel while we’re fooling around for these idiots.
As the guy who does the overhauls for the numerous FT4 Pratt & Whitney turbines aboard the Polar Class USCG ships, it is nice to hear about them in the news, regardless of the outragous costs associated with the ice breaking missions. However, not one person in this forum has mentioned the drugs seized by means of a well aimed Barret .50 cal to the engine of a drug running boat, from a helocoptor, or the many other positive accomplishments, like giving men and women a sense of belonging, among many other traits and skills,
. Janice Moore says:
January 4, 2014 at 10:30 pm
Thank you, Old Car Boater (were you a ferry captain? other deck dept.? engineer? — I’ve known a few with WSF), for sharing that beautiful ship, The Mackinaw, with us (at 21:22 today). That is a shame that they choked her with concrete. Whoever gave that order should be taken 2 miles out in the salt chuck, tossed overboard, and told, “Good luck.” That makes me sick. It wasn’t enough to enter the final “R.O.”; “F.W.E.” into the log and tie her up and walk off and leave her, neglected and unused. They murdered her. Now, we can go look at what the funeral parlor did with her carcass. Well, she is a lovely ship and well worth going to see, I’m sure. Your linked article was a fine tribute.
Janice
=================================
I don’t know how to reply to your post, but I will try with this. I was only the lowlyest of deck watches back in the 1960’s on a 710′ Great Lakes ore ship on the Reiss Lines. I was also a deck hand on a 118′ Yacht in the GL’s, the Natoya. Please Note Trivia: She has about 20 cameo shots in the James Bond movie Thunderball. She is always at anchor and painted all in white; there is one shot when James and a friend run up along side of her in a dingy and also she is seen off shore, during a shore-side skeet shooting aspect of the movie.. I am told that after the movie she was taken out and sunk on a reef; don’t know for sure.
Sorry, never and officer, but grew up in the home port of the Mackinaw, Cheboygan, MI and knew many Coasties. I have been in large scale computers for the past 25yrs. I am extremely disappointed in the atrocious science associated with the “global warming’ movement. I have developed global “data warehouses” for analyzing global pools of data, and $100Bn’s of dollars have been poorly spent on this whole affair. Of course, Al Gore made $160M in process, so is not complaining.
The Old Mackinaw was replaced by a “new” Mackinaw, which is more oriented to buoy tender work and has Z drives (the props can be oriented in 360 degs turn). Now that the Great Lakes have some real ice, it will be interesting. Unlike the old Mack, with throttles and and a ships wheel for steering, she has little joy sticks and rotating controls. She promptly ran in a breakwall causing $30k in damage on her first formal run, causing the skipper to lose his position. Also, the Z drives have required much maintenance and the old salts say the Old Mackinaw could have been totally re-worked for the cost of the Z drive maint $.
To the poster about the boilers on the old Mack, etc., she was very well maintained, esp. the boilers, as the Feds are very strict about that. Thank God, as the last minute, she was not cut up, but the owner of am area ferry company picked her up and she ran on her own bottom and power to her current site, in Mackinaw City, MI. She sits at a huge dock once used by cars ferries. Since they have not run for over 35 years, the dock space was unused. Please see the website, as she is in magnificent shape!
http://www.themackinaw.org/
William Ossman says: @ January 4, 2014 at 4:37 pm
can we not bill the global warming idiots
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Split the bill between Greenpeace and WWF. Of course they get a lot of their funding from goverments aka tax payers so no matter how you slice it, whether it is insurance, university, government or the green movement who pay, it is the tax payer who ultimately foots the bill.
The Russian Ice breaker and the US Navy have pressurized water reactors (PWR). This means the primary coolant that flow through the reactor transfers heat to a secondary (water-steam) system which is cooled (condensed) by seawater. US and Russian submarines sail in both polar and equatorial waters, so seawater temp from about freezing to the warm water of the Persian gulf pose no problems. Warm water would reduce the conversion efficiency (T high – T low) etc. (+ steam cycle) but this does not matter for transit. Another type Boiling water reactor (BWR) the water that cools the reactor boils, steam drives the turbine, and is condensed with seawater (or fresh water). It does get uncomfortably hot & humid in the engine room in warm waters, but the crew will stay in the air conditioned areas as much as possible. It is remotely possible that the engine ventilation does not generate sufficient airflow for warm environments, but I seriously doubt this to be the case.
The USCGC Polar Star has a crew that could have been safely holed up at a bar in Sydney, instead they are sailing into an Australian East Coast Bass Straight low pressure.
Expressions come to mind, the crew will be;
‘yelling at the lawn’
‘driving the big white porcelain bus’
All this courtesy of a mad religion that has infested western institutions of learning. A sight-seeing trip by high priests looking for messages of doom before returning to their temples to demand sacrifice.
R. de Haan says: @ January 4, 2014 at 4:58 pm
….Now if Obama, Kerry and the EPA think AGW is real and punishing economic measures are needed I propose we send them our energy bills for this cold period in protest….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Nah, much better to send them down to the Antarctic in a wooden sailing ship to view the ice melting first hand and forget about any rescue attempts. Heck they can use Sec Kerry’s sailboat “Isabel,” or we could be nice and give them a ship like Mawson’s “Aurora” such as the expedition yacht “Blizzard.” Kerry to captain the ship of course. With Nancy Pelosi, Obama and the rest as crew.
milodonharlani says: @ January 4, 2014 at 5:38 pm
James Strom says: @ January 4, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Please note ¨citation needed¨. I´m dubious…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I tried to find better info than Wiki and found World Nuclear Association: Nuclear-Powered Ships
Jeffrey Shultz on January 4, 2014 at 2:20 pm
” So what do they call this? Climate changeback? ”
You mean UN-doing the change ?
Climate UN-change.
Al Fred Gore says: @ January 4, 2014 at 6:53 pm
These cuckoos will return in a few months when the ice thaws…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is already High Summer down there. I doubt you are going to see much more thawing, especially with ice that thick. In two months the area will start freezing up again. link
Dennis Beeson says: @ January 4, 2014 at 7:37 pm
….
I can not figure out what you are trying to say. But make no mistake this fiasco wasn’t caused by a “freak” storm. It was caused by the idiocy of CAGW loons believing their own hype and NOT listening to their Captain. The sea Ice in Antartica is at RECORD HIGH LEVELS! Would you warmists please get that through your skulls. Mawson’s ship sailed through open water three years running however that is no longer possible. Antarctic Sea Ice Graph
Lee says: @ January 4, 2014 at 7:39 pm
….
Lee, You might be interested in the following links:
link
link
link
link
[snip . . content free, but you could make your point if you tried I am sure . . mod]
Caleb says: @ January 4, 2014 at 7:52 pm
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Nicely said.
These people are haters of mankind, once you peel all the layers off.
milodonharlani says:
January 4, 2014 at 4:39 pm
tty says:
January 4, 2014 at 3:41 pm
Kamovs are built for over water. Russians designed them originally as ship-borne anti-submarine platforms.
True for the original military Ka 25 and Ka 27’s the civilianized Ka 32 (used in this case) does not have flotation devices.
The real reason for this apparently stupid, irresponsible expedition was to highlight the fraud which the global warming theory constitutes.
After spending decades promoting this fraud, through corruption of the broadcast and print media, which has uncritically promulgated the lies required to promote public acquiescence to the additional taxes, which the fraud is intended to justify, the world’s governments have eventually baulked at continuing the needless destruction of their economies.
Due to the pervasiveness of the alarmist propaganda of the architects of the fraud, these same architects realised that in order to reverse their previous position, they would be compelled to demonstrate unambiguously to the public that the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming theory (CAGW), which morphed into climate change, then climate disruption, is totally false.
I believe that even Professor Turney cannot be so stupid and irresponsible as to risk so many lives, deliberately, through negligently failing to ascertain the risks associated with the sea ice, at his current location and thereby risking the possibility of becoming trapped in it, as has now seemingly happened.
Neither do I consider it likely that even Professor Turney could believe that the substantially increased sea ice present in Antarctica is due to global warming. He could only have said this for the benefit of illustrating the absurd falsehoods of the climate alarmists and the stupidity of those who believe them.
Therefore, it seems to me that this is a public relations stunt, intended to begin the process of abandoning the cult of global warming, undermining public support for the cult and thereby allowing governments to confront the more immediate threat of public debt, which constitutes a genuine and serious threat to most industrialised nations.
Joachim says: @ January 4, 2014 at 8:56 pm
I wonder about “RESCUE”….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If the ice shifts the ships could get crushed.
See The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor’s Memoir of Arctic Disaster
There is a lack of information as to the ice breaking capabilities of the Russian nuclear powered ice breakers as they only quote the ice thickness that they can break continuously at normal speed of ~3 knots. The US Polar Star also quotes this figure but in addition it quotes the maximum it can break, ie. the back up and ram it figure, this maximum is not quoted for the much larger (3 x) Russian nuclear ice breakers, with even bigger ones currently being built and still larger ones proposed.
The commercial justification for large ice breakers is in the Arctic not the Antarctic. With Australia’s and NZ paranoia about all things nuclear, there’s no obvious location for a home port for a nuclear ice breaker in the Antarctic, except perhaps Cape Town. Russia does have significant interests in the Antarctic and if Southern sea ice continues to expand Russia may one day choose to station a larger ice breaker in the area.
Perhaps if the Russians were to develop a Thorium based reactor for use in ships then Oz / NZ may be persuaded to allow such a vessel to be based there.
Candidates for 2014 Darwin Awards! Al Gore at the top of the list.
US Coast Guard to the rescue again! What a great branch of the military.
These “scientists” should have been allowed to continue with their vacation, ahem, “research” while mired in that SUMMER “anomaly”–and while this is difficult to believe, they are going back to their tax-payer funded regroup “offices” still believing that there is something “extraordinaire” about the “climate”–being caused by the cattle passing gas in New Zealand.
The helicopters should simply have dropped more National Geographic magazines (some of the older “geographics”, when they actually had articles about geography in them) for their review while they were languishing, with coffee / latte supplies.
What an affront to civilization these characters are–passing these vacations for “research.” Unfortunately it is all quite common.
This is just additional evidence that our God has a sense of humor.
It’s not the whack job global warmers fault, it’s summer down there and when you combined that with the Coriolis effect, they were doomed from the start. Plus adding in the treacherous Northern , I mean Southern Lights, it only exacerbated their predicament. Thus it became a mission destined to fail. “The charge of the light”headed ” brigade. They were doomed from the start. Only Michael Moore and Brad Pitt can save them now.
They just sailed into the perfect lab. Leave them there to measure the ice melting rate. Why rescue them?
No one wants to report that the original mission was to measure the retreat of the ice mass in the Antarctic “summer” to provide evidence of “global warming”. Why is that? The whole debacle is humorous and now the Coasties are gonna save the day? We’ll I’m ok with that from a national pride standpoint. Chicoms and Aussies can’t do it, hope USCG gets it done.
I note that one of the sponsors for the Spirit of Mawson expedition is:
http://www.meteoexploration.com/
They claim to provide weather forecasts inter alia for Antarctica. Why did Turney need to rely on Anthony Watts in the end?
Wouldn’t it be fitting if all 50 of the man made global warming “scientists” all froze to death in the “melting sea ice” they were studying in the antarctic SUMMER!
98% of mainstream media stories have hidden why these clowns were there in the first place!
btw, the ice cap in antarctica is now RECORD SIZE……if melting icecaps are proof of global warming, then record ice caps are proof of Socialist Democrat LYING!
I see the Drudge Report has a direct link to this story. When the Huffington Post links to a story on WUWT,…er… (fat chance of that).
After the US Coast Guard rescues them Obama will have to immediately apologize to Russia, China, and Australia for “American Exceptionalism.”
So the ice breaker can break ice 21ft thick. I guess they do this by riding up on the ice and depending on the weight of the ship to crack it. Considering the ice that trapped the Chinese is 17 feet thick – this will be a true test.
Considering the joke that Mother Nature is playing on the ‘know it all’ folks, what will they do when the USA ship gets stuck? LOL
Remember this is the height of summer 🙂
By the way is the ‘eco freak pinky crowd’ going to pay for all of this? How are the valid research stations going to get resupplied? A lot of real, serious research is being delayed because of total, absolute stupidity.
If those Climate Scientists weren’t so determined to prove the Antarctic ice was melting, none of this would be happening.
Why don’t those Climate Scientists start trying to prove there’s a Fairy Godmother? It’s safer and less costly!
These are now the most expensive watermelons ever transported anywhere.
Could be embarrassing. USA rescuing Chinese and Russian vessels.
I thought about icebreaker design requirements and limitations last night after watching a video of Polar Star breaking maximum ice. She’d go ahead until stalled and then back down the opened lead for a ship length or so. Then accelerate ahead to contact and forge ahead until stalled again.
A nuclear power plant has design rate of power change design limitations that prevent, particularly repeated, transients to 100% Np. Exceeding those limits will result in low pressure and/or low level in the plant pressurizing component due to things like loop transit time delaying the core’s response.
The large Russian NP icebreakers are more massive than even the USCG ships to support the NP infrastructure and F=ma works against the large ship’s acceleration.
Polar Star has two propulsion power sources for this, acceleration, reason. The diesel-electric plant for efficient transiting, that can be supplemented by the GT for step changes in power at the cost of fuel efficiency.
Without a doubt when T.S.H T.F. call the USA. Be safe coasties and getter’done!
Lets be clear the passengers of the Shokalskiy were already rescued by helicopter. The crew made the decision to stay with the ship. This is not a humanitarian mission but a salvage mission to free a ship from the ice. A ship that does not belong to us. If our Coasst Guard is going to be a maritime AAA service we should charge for the service. Before going to the Antarctic read about an explorer named Shackelton and the boat Endurance.
Global Warming or Climate Change the outcome of expectations are the same. Merely, there is no such thing. Yet again the media in the U.S. does not tell the truth, the whole truth so help me God. No mention in the article for the purpose of this stranded ship and why it is stuck on the ice.
Like the scam labeled carbon tax, global warming and climate change are yet again another reach into the tax payers pockets to steal hard earned dollars away from people who do not have a degree after their name. Fortunate for those people are those of us who do have degrees and can speak out against this sham. We need to communicate to those who will listen and tell them they are being had by not only this administration, but big business, big corporations, environmentalists and others with self-interests to secure tax dollars to fund their folly’s.
Al Gore should be stripped of the millions of dollars he has raped from the American Taxpayers. He should be immediately thrown into jail and confined there for the rest of this natural life. You see I am not a total denier of global warming or climate change, I do believe the earth does proceed in cycles. We do go through warming periods as well as cooling periods and this has been documented through out history. Ice cores can also prove all of this as well, and more swings and hockey stick graphs can be computer generated to show how thousands of years ago those “swings” have been even more catastrophic for earth’s inhabitants. The only difference between then and now is the amount of tax dollars scam artists have available to them.
The tables have now been turned on these people, and I hope to God they are relegated into the science history books as the charlatans they most certainly are. Hopefully one day next to those who said they could control the weather by shooting cannons into the air to force it to rain we will read next to it how global warming and climate change conspiracy theorists are described and made fun of.
Sparky2 says:
January 5, 2014 at 3:53 am
“US Coast Guard to the rescue again! What a great branch of the military”
Not military, they are under DHS. Even though they fall under the UCMJ, they are not subject to DOD unless during time of war. There have been some great posts about the Guard including some good insight from former “Breaker Rats”. Special thanks to Larry and Oldcarboater. I did a DeepFreeze in ’72-73 and had an interesting encounter with a Russian Breaker in the White Sea during the summer of ’70. Atka/Southwind was giving to the Russians during WWll as part of LendLease, they gave it back with railroad spikes driven into the propulsion generators and motors. 6 Fairbanks Morse 2000 HP diesels driving generators then electric propulsion motors. The diesel/electric combo gives better propeller control. If the wheels are stopped and hit a growler you will shear a blade or two. This is considered bad form, the OOD will be subject to much abuse from the crew when they have to layover in Sydney for repairs. (The abuse being required to consume vast quantities of adult beverages, at no cost to the offender). The future OER may not be as forgiving.
As an aside, for any people remaining who have done Thule AFB / Baffin Bay cruises in the ’60’s and 70’s I recommend a book “Ice”. It was written by a Professor from UMD. He along with another Professor from Florida describes in great detail the flow of fresh water from Baffin Bay and how it mixes with the Gulf Stream. Remember all those “water samples”? They helped determine the salinity and actual flow paths of the various ocean rivers.
EDIT: A new Author is born; with a new book entitled Turney’s Troubling Torment.
This is the same Ice Al Gore said would be gone/melted Send that Crook the bill
All’s Obama, the Climate Cange Cooks, (CCC), Redistribution cult of Commies need now for total fail is to have Lt. for life John F. Kerry (Worlds biggest failed liar) to take command of the Polar Star and all of us get IceBoated by Kerry’s lie based support.
Calling all hands of all Ice Breaker Ships, form a blog, put the facts up and “Ice Boat Them”.
With all due regard, and with due consideration to your welcome contribution to this thread, we will have to disagree on the matter of boiler lifetimes and assuring operating crew safety; as was noted above, the US CG Polar Star has had her share of boiler events (not involving a rupture of the pressure vessel proper fortunately), and I am sure she has been properly maintained as well, but, all equipment, especially something as safety critical (with regard to a breech) as a boiler ‘age’ with time and use. Between vibration (conducted from the diesel engines and also the frame of the ship while working the ice), temperature cycling, corrosion, flexure of the boiler structure on each re-pressurization on start-up etc take their toll and while inspections can be performed, that inspection must be performed over every square inch of the boiler(s), and that means bare-ing the exterior of each boiler for said inspection.
And, of course, the ‘inspection’ is more than just the expected “Visual” or Mark I Eyeball method, but includes Liquid penetrant testing (fluorescent dye reveals seeps and leaks), Ultrasonic testing and Eddy current testing on welds and all. Xray inspection on some area can be used for fine-grain inspection, but is difficult in the field. And all this other ‘inspecting’ will be in the tight spaces aboard the ship!
This is just one aspect of assuring a ship in ‘rugged’ duty like the Mackinaw is fit for duty, and not a hazard in operation to her crew.
I’m sure economic reasons existed for making the decision to sideline the 55 yr old (in 2000) ship. While sentimentality may desire otherwise, a cost-benefit analysis including extensive re-work and updating of systems from stem to stern versus the (probable) ‘patchwork’ updating of systems over the years like the navigation systems utilized, starting with he use of NDBs (non-directional beacons surrounding the Great Lakes in 1944) to the use of Loran A and Loran C in the 50s through the 90, then in the last two decades GPS. Communications systems like wise became updated from MW comms around 2 MHZ (2182 used to be the ‘guard’ channel which all bridge crews would monitor for emergency calls for instance) to VHF in the 60s into the 1970s and now satellite comms.
Similar advances in engine control as well as autopilot and other systems monitoring have occurred. And I haven’t touched yet what requires rebuilding/revamping in the way of the six Fairbanks Morse 10-cylinder engines and attached generators or the ‘switchboards’ and other controls used to route the energy they produce to the propulsion motors on the three props (one forward and two stern)!
Hopefully the keel didn’t need ‘change out’ after 55 some years of breaking ice on the Great Lakes!
.
NBC “Meet the Press” aka “Meet the Wizzers” :
Pres. Obama and Sec. of State “Iceboated” by right wing bloggers supported by “Big Oil”.
Global warming (aka climate change) is the religion of the stupid.
http://www.zazzle.com/FirstPrinciples?rf=238518351914519699
More hard-earned tax dollars thrown down an unconstitutional rat hole by the Feds.
Polar Star now slowed down. Speed 13.2 knots/ at 186 degrees. About 1800 NM to go.
I fully expect the bill to send a U.S. icebreaker to save that ship go directly to the expedition leader…if it doesn’t, I’m going to raise holy hell. I think the tab from other failed rescue efforts (Chinese icebreaker, helicopters, Australian icebreakers, etc.) should also go to the expedition leader. L’il ol me in Maryland knew that Antarctic ice was currently at historic highs…the fact that a global warming “climate scientist” leading this expedition didn’t know that demonstrates extreme incompetence or worse….DENIAL!
This reminds me of a bad B war movie. You send out a scout and he doesn’t return. Then you sent out someone to find the scout. And later you send out another warrior to find the other two. At some point you end up with no warriors to protect the ground you just took.
I say leave them there. Only fools would go to that area at the start of winter. I want some answers from these jokers. These people are scientists???
Hope the shallow water warriors don’t get stuck.
Send Al Bore the bill for this global warming fiasco!
Having been to Antarctica in 1970 aboard the USCGC Burton Island, We along with the Ice Breaker Edisto broke about 20 miles of ice to supply McMurdo Station. I can be dangerous the Edisto suspended breaking after damage to her rudder needed to return to new Zealand for repairs. The Burton Island successfully completed her mission even loosing a propeller(metal fatigue of 23 inch propeller shaft). At one time the Coast Guard had 4 Island Class and 4 Wind Class Icebreakers along with the Glacier for Northern and Southern icebreaking missions. One hell of a mission to place on such a small contingent of our Military. I think it is about time that an investment in new Icebreakers not another Aircraft Carrier. Resent news regarding the areas of the North Pole region for area claims by other countries India, Russia, China etc. As was mentioned in earlier messages “rescue idiots and SAVING LIVES since 1790”
So who is going to try to get the American icebreaker unstuck in a few weeks? Seems like the world may soon be running out of icebreakers.
Stan says:
January 5, 2014 at 7:56 am
“I say leave them there. Only fools would go to that area at the start of winter. I want some answers from these jokers. These people are scientists???”
Stan is probably gone from this thread, but since it’s the start of summer down there, I assume he thought this was in the arctic or he believes that the whole world is in winter now. This is the problem when folks don’t look at the basic facts. Stan is probably a good guy, but failed to “research” some of the basic facts of this story.
Stan, it’s summer down there…
I believe vessels in the Antartic region cannot be heavily armed with deck guns,or other heavy armaments, because of international treaties.
“Polar Star now slowed down. Speed 13.2 knots/ at 186 degrees. About 1800 NM to go.”
That appears to be stale data. The AIS data is four hours old
“Polar Star now slowed down. Speed 13.2 knots/ at 186 degrees. About 1800 NM to go.”
That appears to be stale data. The AIS data is four hours old
“Doug Huffman says:
January 5, 2014 at 6:17 am
…
A nuclear power plant has design rate of power change design limitations that prevent, particularly repeated, transients to 100% Np. Exceeding those limits will result in low pressure and/or low level in the plant pressurizing component due to things like loop transit time delaying the core’s response.”
I don’t recall such limitations on either S1C or S5W submarine reactor plants (1960s era). In fact during the new construction testing phase we actually performed tests slamming specially installed quick acting steam dump valves open and closed while the plant was at 100% power to ensure the plant as built would exhibit the appropriate transient response. If there had been any limits theoretical or actual I am certain that Naval Reactors and Admiral Rickover would have insisted that all plant operators knew of them and we would have been tested upon them. Low Pressurizer pressure or water levels were never an issue. Occasionally, if you for some reason screwed up during pre-start up testing you might have a concern about Pressurizer water level being too high but never too low.
Rickover is gone and perhaps the newer plants are different.
52 elitists travel thousands of miles on a privately chartered cruiseship despite their alleged concern for the environment. Hypocrisy does not suffice to describe the largess of this crew and the Al Gores of the movement- chartered jets and ships, enormous mansions.
Someone dared suggest that planting a few thousand trees would take care of the carbon footprint.
Imagine if a non-scientist or non-elitist were found wasting so much energy and destroying thousands of miles of the fragile frozen ecostructure!
What is little barry hussein soetoro’s carbon footprint? SInce the left wing, environmental wackos who set out to prove that the well known fraud and hoax known as “Global Warming’ was the cause of ice caps melting (which, of course, they aren’t), how much of the fossil fueled ships and aircraft have to be deployed to save these imbeciles? They should just let them sail back by themselves on the warm waters created in their Marxist imaginations.
This event should at least receive honorable mention in the 2014 Darwin Awards.
In a couple weeks the Government will be crying to raise the debt again. Antarctica is a long way from are coast, we can’t afford to send are “Coast Guard” but since this is a global warming fiasco how can we miss the opportunity and not afford to air drop in Al Gore and see if he can remedy the problem with his hot air.
Screw that! Why do I have to pay for these idiots stupidity? The last time I checked a map Antarctica was no where near U.S. waters. So what the hell are we doing there? Oh, yeah, political points with the Gore crowd.
The Polar Star was en route for a reapply mission. Hope that they are able to save lives. Kind of a weird coincidence that it was nearly to Sydney when it was needed. Can’t believe that nearly every article (97%) on this story fails to mention that this was a Global Warming junket – pathetic.
abra cadabra ala kazaam, global warming is such a scam
If these ‘global warming scientists’ really believe the crap they are spewing, they should wait until the ice melts instead of destroying the planet with additional CO2 from the rescue ships to save their worthless sack-o-shit asses. This shows me that they really have any conviction to their beliefs. hahaha
I suggest the following as a name for this escapade:
Mawson’s Revenge
(Apologies to Montezuma.)
I would love to see the people who set off this Chinese fire drill billed for the costs incurred, but I doubt it will happen.
A note for J Welk. The US Coast Guard IS in fact a military service. It is presently under the DHS rather than the DOD, but there is nothing that says all military services are under DOD. In fact there is this:
Title 14 of the United States Code:
The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times. The Coast Guard shall be a service in the Department of Homeland Security, except when operating as a service in the Navy.
And now they have to “plant thousands of trees to offset the carbon footprint” of this silly debacle, says the fanatical twerps. These warming people are like a bunch of school kids playing some sort of goofy game. Leave them on the frozen ships … we could use less of these idiots.
Rather than spend a fortune in “rescuing them, we should have set uyp a schedule to make one drop of food and other supplies every six months or so to the global warmist idiots on the first ship and left them there – After all, the “proven” science of AGW/CC indicates that all the ice will soon melt leaving them free to sail home…
…or not :o)
I cannot understand this, why do they not use sailing ships? Surely wind-powered ships are far superior to these puny diesel-powered vessels, and would slice through this ice like butter – with no emissions.
/sarc
so much for the global warming cruise through the melted ICE pack that the Russian expedition was sold to scientist and tourist. NOT a word of this failure from the MSM believers
Send the bill to Oz. Or let ’em walk home….
What’s all the talk about U.S. Coast Guard ice breakers? Why do we have any? Whe the hell needs to go to the South Pole for any real reason? Forget it. One more waste of taxpayers’ money.
This is absurd. The Aussies pay these idiotic and crooked climate change professors at the Univ of New South Wales – Wallby campus. Fire these idiots, cut any climate change study BS and buy a proper icebreaker. Send the bill for this rescue to the idiots on the Ship of Fools that started this fiasco.
This will be a SERIOUS waste of taxpayer money. The tourists / political activists on the stuck boat SHOULD have to fund the entire rescue effort. It could be that the world would be better off on the whole if there were NO “rescue effort” for the highly opinionated fools. Recall that the “original expedition” that took that route was stranded for TWO YEARS… lived on penguins. These whimps are just going to run out of movies and miss some parties.
I just spoke with Chuck Norris. He will be there tomorrow with an ice pick and a shovel. Expect all the ships to be free in 2-3 hours.
GOD is showing us who is STILL boss!
I just hope we don’t get stuck….we are not overly supplied with ice breakers.
golly winkies says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:39 pm
” … it proves global warming is a hoax? ”
—–
you probably meant to say: ” … proves catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is a hoax? ”
It is best to get your facts straight.
—–
” Knowing something and believing something are two different things. ”
——
I believe that most readers here appreciate the distinction. Would you care to explain how you “know” that the CAGW theory is correct? If you need assistance in framing your argument, I would be more than willing to help.
Mr Gore is troubled about the global warming effects in the Antarctic and the way people tweet this Vessel rescue, he now have realized that it was a bad idea from his part to invent Internet.
Will you liberal fascists PLEASE turn up the global warming?
That coast guard ice breaker emits huge amounts of CO2 which will cause even more sea ice, potentially endanger the entire planet. We should only allow wind-powered or solar powered rescue vehicles to save these scientists… I know Chris Turney would agree with me on this point, because like me, he wants to save the planet too. . And if these renewable energy vessels should fail in their mission, then remember the words of Spock who said “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”.
It is worth revisiting the underlying political agenda behind “climate change” science revisiting the Stockholm Conference on the Environmental Crisis. Conference preparatory meeting minutes reveal they needed a vehicle (climate change chosen) to get people to accept global governance and the gradual erosion of national sovereignties and private property rights (which belongs to the “common humanity”).
From the ITEST April 14-16 1972 Conference on the Environmental Crisis meeting
minutes: “What kind of vehicle will get the world community along the road that we’ll have to travel?…Sometime something is going to happen that is truly irretrievable, but we have not yet come to this…Stockholm is looking to world-wide situations and there is no particular environmental…issue that needs an immediate global response…Earth Watch, as a global effort at environmental cooperation, should obviously be directed to a global problem. The problem priority for Earth Watch should involve that global problem which may most easily become irreversible. We
suggest the seas and oceans represent a prime global concern.”
The warming seas and the oceans is the basis for the climate change science. In a nutshell: Earth Watch was directed to manufacture a crisis because “in every revolution there is an idea and ideal”.
The Weather is like betting on Sports ??? Take all of the statistic !! And it tells you
What you “” DID “” ,,,, but not what you are going to “” DO “”……duh.
Its SUMMER in Antarctica! What’s it going to be like in the WINTER? The Global Warming nut cases are still explaining why this is global warming…..JEEZ!
Polar Star should stop about a meter or so away from the fools on the Global Warming mission and make them admit they’ve been wrong all along before proceeding to rescue them. And record the whole thing for YouTube and Fox News.
How little we know . . . what great assumptions we make!
God will not be mocked. . .and He does have a sense of humor.
“You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”” There in Numbers 11.
A couple of things: 1) Quit the whining, 2) Conclusions based on false premises are dangerous.
Served on the Polar Sea, deep freeze 80, good to see the Polar Star up and running again, would not have been available last year as NSF took over ice breaking duties from USCGC and did not want to maintain these ships. The newest US ice breaker USCGC Healey is only a medium level and not able to do the McMurdo break in which left us renting from other countries for years. Time to get the Polar Sea running again and some new ships built.
If I remember correctly the Sea class ice breakers carry about 3.5 million gallons of fuel and will need to refuel after the Mcmurdo break-in to get back to Seattle. Gonna need to turn on the turbines for 75000 hp and do some ice breaking.
Global warming scientists and political activists get their ships stuck in “disappearing” ice. Meanwhile taxpayers’ money are burning up toward “Global Warming” funds and projects. . .how much of a carbon footprint in our pocketbooks does that make?
The problem with Socialists is that they use up the money we taxpayers foot the bill willing and with a naive brain. While are ill-informed people willing to be tricked with lies?
as a former member of the COAST GUARD to the crew of the USCGC POLAR STAR: MERRY CHRISTMAS from the ship to the crew now all hands will turn to: turn to, turn to, turn to on ships work!
Richard Newquist . . . I am sure you have noticed that practically in all of the “media” remarks or reporting of this incident, the fact that it is SUMMER there has basically NOT been mentioned AT ALL. Another example of how this whole thing is operated to yield for everyone either incorrect information . . . or data that is incomplete.
Good point. Still, why so much ice in summer?
Someone left the Air Conditioning Unit on ??????
The church of global warming should look for a new scam, the people of the U.S. will never allow their taxes to be raised over this hoax, not after all the proven fraud and unending parade of foibles that have debunked the warmists every doctrine.
Hmmm … where does it mention that? A not unreasonable place to start for what is prohibited is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Treaty_System
Under Article 1, it does not preclude the use of ship like the Polar Star:
Article 1 – The area to be used for peaceful purposes only; military activity, such as weapons testing, is prohibited but military personnel and equipment may be used for scientific research or any other peaceful purpose
Will we see a movie of this “rescue” like the one where the lady scientist was flown out by a Canadian “Otter” because the U.S. didn’t have a plane that could land there in the winter. At the end of the movie, there was a shot of the pilot of the “U.S. plane” a big heavy lift cargo plane, waving out the cockpit window over the name “The United States of America” and we know that plane never was anywhere near that South Pole. We’ll wait for the movie to see how this plays out.
USA fails to report why the Global-warming eco-nuts were at the Antarctic! New Zealand (in their eco delusion) needs to plan 5,000 trees for the rescue ship! Now (thanks to the eco-nut scientists) even more carbon offsets are needed in the delusional liberal minds… if they still have any left….
I say leave ALL the [snip] there and let al gore rescue them
Polar Class Ice Breakers are very capable icebreakers. Very powerful too. They have both diesel electric and gas turbine propulsion. Add to that variable pitch propellers and they car really break some ice!. On gas turbine mode they hardly need sea-water suction for cooling which is what limits the Russian nuke breakers. (I was stationed on the Polar Sea in the ’80s)
ranch111 says:
January 5, 2014 at 5:14 pm
Good point. Still, why so much ice in summer?
???? “ranch”
Why is the sun an average of 93 million miles away from the sun?
Why does it take 365 days and 6 hours exact to go exactly around the sun once?
Why are we tilted with respect to the plane of rotation around the sun at 23.44 degrees?
Why do some folks get to sleep in and play on the computer, while others have to get up early and go to work?
Why does most everyone rely on gurgle, ehrrr, google?
Try doing some thinking. Come up with your own meaningful and true conclusions.
I think that some of the answers could be cleared with a “smart phone” though. : 0
I have no problem with the US Coast Guard going to the rescue. However, the cost of the use of American assets should first be discussed and agreed upon. Now I guess our free lunch program is really global. Can’t we just mind our own business.
Why not just let the ship stay where it is until global warming melts all the ice around it?
It’s high summer in the Southern Hemisphere and these global warming True Believer pseudo-scientists decided to go on an exhibition to “prove” the blatant multinational criminal hoax of global warming (oops! “climate change”) — and they end up getting stuck in the ice. And from there it’s a real mess and rescuers are now in a position of danger because of this idiotic expedition. Guess the True Believer need to go back to photo-manipulation to “prove” the sky is falling.
Let them freeze to death. Idiots.
What’s the hurry? GW is imminent, let them wait.
This is RIGHT WING PROPAGANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We all know that the polar ice caps and glaciers are melting at a rapid pace.
Polar bears are drowning in record numbers and will be extinct with in the decade.
The oceans are flooding all the costal towns and cities.
The planet is drying up and soon life will cease to be evident on this planet.
You all will be begging “OWL” Gore to save you!
which USA coast is the Department of Homeland Security protecting here?
Hello J. Philip Peterson please do some research on subjects you no nothing about Dec 21 in Antarctica is the beginning of it’s summer daylight 24 hours a day, Many misinformed people on these posts! I have been there and done that. And , Please if you buy a boat take a safety course.
“Dana says:
January 6, 2014 at 5:47 am
…Dec 21 in Antarctica is the beginning of it’s summer daylight 24 hours a day…”
No it’s not!
Then how many hours of daylight and darkness?
According to WEATHER STATION US Base McMurdo Station Antarctica sunrise 0159 sunset 0159 I have been there from Dec thru March
I was wondering when they’d call the real calvary, Semper Paratus!
I might ROFL if the Polar Star gets stuck.
Antarctic Circle @ 66.33:44 S, marks the latitude that the sun never sets on Dec 21. The South Pole is at it’s max tilt towards the Sun. Summer Solstice. This date marks the apex of the Summer, you are now losing sunlight beyond Dec. 21 in the Antarctic. Conversely you are now gaining sunlight in the Arctic.
So many more trees to plant – so little time…
Josh. says: “Let them freeze to death. Idiots.”
That’s not fair. The captain and crew of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy aren’t the reason it got stuck, it was her contingent of spoiled brat passengers pretending to be on a scientific expedition who ignored the captain’s order to get back on board quickly when he knew the ice was coming.
I hope ALL polar ship captains around the world take note of this incident and refuse service to such nitwits who are the ones who truly deserve being stuck on the ice pack watching their ride disappear over the horizon.
It has been completely ignored in most press but they were tagging along on a mission studying disappearing Antarctic ice due to global warming.
I hope the polar star can do the job required and not wind up in the same situation . I remember when I was on the USCG Eastwind we broke out 2 ships beset in the ice. one a freighter and another an icebreaker. the three years aboard we never got stuck. Good luck men of both ships, the one stuck and the one trying to rescue them .
They were on a mission investigating disappearing Antarctic ice. True.
@ Dana says:
January 6, 2014 at 5:47 am
I believe you misread my post about Stan. I was simply telling Stan that it is summer in Antarctica, not winter. Maybe you should take a reading comprehension course.
Somehow I knew there was going to be a cost to U.S. taxpayers in all of this. Obama can call it Ice Stimulus now.
Or….Snow (shovel) Ready Stimulus spending for the good of the recovery and the children
This mission (the original one, not the 3 subsequent rescue missions) is too big to fail.
In the spirit of Gideon, I would like the Polar Star to bring them bound copies of the IPCC Fifth Working Group Report.
donbarcomejr said “The Polar Star was en route for a reapply mission. Hope that they are able to save lives. Kind of a weird coincidence that it was nearly to Sydney when it was needed.”
The Polar Star had originally been headed towards Sydney, then got diverted South towards the trapped vessels, but once the tourists had been transferred to the Aurora Australis the Polar Star did a 90 degree turn to the North West to head back up to Sydney.
If the Polar Star had remained on it’s originally diverted course to the trapped vessels it would have been nearly there by now.
Thanks! I think I read that it will be another 4-5 days before PolarStar arrives on site. I’ve been amazed at how informed/experienced a lot if the posters have been on this thread. BTW – with how MSM & governments involved continually ignore the Global Warming heart of this debacle, I’m left wondering if not sending in the Polar Star immediately was a calculated risk to try & keep a lid on this Global Warming saga?
I would like to know who made the original decision to divert south and then who decided to return to Sydney.. Many days have been lost as a result while the ice thickens.
Howdy! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering
which blog platform are you using for this website?
I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform.
I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a
good platform.
The US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker was sent to assist the vessels MV Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long which are beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica.
There have been numerous allegations that Professor Chris Turney, leader of the formerly scientific expedition, now comprising mere tourists, until recently aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy had been thoroughly irresponsible, through engaging in behaviour which should have been obvious would subject the ship and any other who sought to render assistance, to the risk of being first trapped and then eventually sunk by thick sea ice in the Antarctic Ocean.
Professor Turney emphatically rejected these allegations and refuted them by referring to 147 computer simulations of the global climate, all endorsed by the IPCC, which proved that the Antarctic Ocean should have been ice-free, rendering entrapment of the ship, utterly scientifically impossible.
“Global warming is an inescapable reality upon which there is a 97% consensus. The earth is warming dangerously, the ice is melting and record global sea-ice does not alter this fact.”
I hate hate when reality gets in the way of “proven computer modules…” It just complicates life for so many “scientists” that are depending on fantasies that are, well, are not real…
“which proved that the Antarctic Ocean should have been ice-free, rendering entrapment of the ship, utterly scientifically impossible.”–this is hilarious!! yes, yes, utterly impossible–right!
“scientists” depending on fantasies, and basing conclusions and making decisions on flawed premises.
It is, frankly, a shame that these folks, or some of them at any rate, are teaching in Universities!
In science, a negative result is often as important as a positive result.
Professor Turley has established to a great degree of certainty, that “Trenberth’s missing heat” is not hiding in the Antarctic Ocean.
The continuing search for the missing heat may safely proceed somewhere else.
Hot air? Try Al Gore. I think he is holding all of it.
Dana says:
January 6, 2014 at 6:18 am
Then how many hours of daylight and darkness?
It of course depends on the latitude. At the polar circle (66,55 degrees south) there is just one day with midninght sun – December 21 and one with no sun at all – June 21. Further south the number of each increases until at the pole there is in principle 182,5 of each.
This is of course a bit simplified since summer and winter solstices move a little between years, and the sun is a disc not a point, the horizon is not absolutely flat and refraction means that the sun is actually visible when it is slightly below the geometric horizon.
In any case December 21 is astronomical midsummer in Antarctica. The climate lags a bit, so ice is usually at it’s lowest around February 20.
I think we the usa should do every thing possible to rescue the ships and people. to not do so would be against allbeliefs of the american way. we have they very cappable ice breakers, and crew experiance to take on this job. as far as the russians taking the job, they are to far away, and cannot operate thru warmer waters with their nuke ships. the united states coast guard people and ships have helped ships and their crews of all nations for many many years, why stop now, because of afew hundred bucks. hooooooorey for for the uscg. John kelley
I agree we should help them, and then send them a bill for services rendered. Why allow a boat full of idiots that did not use common sense take American taxpayers money with no consequences?
Looks like the Chinese are out, the A.S. is moving:
http://rt.com/news/antarctic-ice-trap-freed-274/