By the way, the iceberg shown in the background of the photo from his video is a fake – done by CGI. That’s not a good way to start in my opinion. The man is Alex Bellini, a “professional adventurer and motivational speaker” who plans to live alone on a melting iceberg off the coast of Greenland for one year, to emphasize the urgent need for climate change action. Apparently, he thinks melting icebergs is a recent phenomena.
According to Treehugger:
This bold one-man campaign comes at a time when a chorus of scientists, organizations and policymakers continue to warn about the accelerating loss of Arctic ice.
Thus, extreme circumstances seem to call for extreme measures, but for this former finance student from northern Italy who has already run 23,000 kilometres (14,291 miles) of marathons, rowed solo across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans, this new project seems even more extreme.
Watch Bellini explain his actions himself:
Starting in spring of 2015, Bellini plans to find a suitable iceberg in the northwest region of Greenland, where he will remain for up to a year as it slowly melts. Provisioned with with 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of dried food, Bellini will shelter in a survival capsule, the Kevlar-reinforced kind used for ocean oil rigs, until it becomes too risky — at which point he will take to the sea in the capsule, floating adrift until he is rescued.
===============================
Place your bets now, I don’t think he will make it past about six months. Most every time we’ve seen people go to the Arctic to “emphasize the urgent need for climate change action” they find that the Arctic isn’t as warm and tolerable as they think it must be, and they come woefully underprepared. Just ask the Catlin Expedition, the Polar Defense Project, and the “Row to the Pole” folks, all of whom failed miserably. They tended to view the Arctic like this BBC story did:
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Just Crazy, him living or at least trying to live on the iceberg will melt it faster.
BTW I never heard more about this from may, was the craziest one I to date.
Los Angles, CA, March 14, 2014 –(PR.com)– Ice Cycle boldly stands in the way of climate change by returning a human-constructed glacier to Greenland. Ice Cycle technicians will collect donated ice cubes from restaurants and other food service facilities in Los Angeles in specially designed containers. Virtual ice cubes will also be donated in a web campaign to allow participation and raise awareness to as many people as possible. The ice cubes will be stored in liquid form until there are enough to fill a cargo shipping container that will be shipped from Los Angeles Harbor to the port of Ilulissat, Greenland.
The five gallon water cubes will arrive in Greenland as 5 gallon cubes of ice. The Ice Cycle cubes will be unloaded and brought by dogsled to a site designated in cooperation with the government of Greenland. Ice Cycle technicians will assist volunteers from around the globe in assembling cubes into the form of a symbolic glacier echoing the shape of the shipping container they traveled in. The glacier will be a monument to the possibility of human action in the face of global climate change.
A test cube will be transported to Ilulissat, Greenland in May of 2014, the first shipping container full of cubes will follow in just under a year later. The project will expand at its own pace to include as many participants as possible.
Robert Welkie, Project Designer and Leader
Ice Cycle
Los Angeles, CA
818-438-6229
robertwelkie@gmail.com
http://www.rockethub.com/projects/39846-ice-cycle
http://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=9213
https://sites.google.com/site/icecycleproject/home
That may, in fact, be the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Yesterday I named all the ice cubes in my cocktail glass and closely inspected them from time to time.
LOL!
Aren’t ice cubes just very cold water with corners?
I bet they melted too. Must have been from back radiation from anthropogenic carbon dioxide.
philincalifornia “I bet they melted too.”
Yeah that was sad but the really sad part was how I embarrassed myself confusing who was who when I was tried having a conversation with them, (you know how those ice cubes all look alike…).
This sounds like something out of http://www.theonion.com.
They transported the ice cubes in liquid form?
I am speechless. I don’t know where to start commenting on this. The height of breathtaking naïveté and inconceivable ignorance.
I just read this again. I am certain that this is a joke. “Donated ice cubes from restaurants”? “Virtual ice cubes”?
You’ll note that on rockethub, the effort ended on 5/14 and had a whopping total of six funders donating a total of $290. Could have been a scam to bilk idiots.
Ken, the virtual ice cubes are to be downloaded to Santa’s computer. Then the Big Jolly Guy can add them to the ftp’d database of ice density. Kind of like getting paid by ftp instead of money. 🙂
I just watched the video on rockethub.com. I am still not convinced that the ice cycle project press release is not a clever hoax to highlight the ignorance of the alarmists. The tip off is that they are going to move the 5-gallon ice cubes from Denmark to Greenland by dog sled.
Maybe it is a clever hoax to milk $$$ from gullible alarmists. This is a good time to do that. In fact, I might start working on such a project.
It was released prematurely, the official release date was supposed to be April 1st
These people have no comprehension how immense Greenland is. For that matter very few people comprehend how much ice remains at the end of the summer ice melt in the Arctic. Take a minimum figure of say 5 million sq Km and see how that compares to the area of the 50 US states or of Australia. And these twerps want to take _ice cubes_ there???
He will be gone when the first -10F night hits him in the face with a 70mph wind.
They couldn’t possibly keep up with all those ice cubes dumped on low information celebs lately. Donate those (and the celebs) to Greenland instead.
Since icebergs tend to melt anyway how does this highlight AGW? He obviously needs the publicity. What else does a non-descript do? Kayak through the North West Passage?
Kayaks are so twentieth century!
Just last year some reality TV buffoons tried to jet ski through the Northwest Passage and had to be rescued. No mention if they ever paid for the rescue or what the “carbon footprint” of the jet ski use and rescue was:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/13/crew-filming-reality-tv-show-forced-to-cancel-trek-through-northwest-passage-on-jet-skis-after-costly-rescue/
Wow – this sounds a bit like a plotline from one of Michael Crichton’s novels!
It is just this sort of stupid stunt that shows the alarmist side has nothing to offer real science. They are engaged in politics and just using the Hansen inspired heifer dust to try to accomplish their ends. And they do feel that the ends justify any means they use.
Nature seems to be in the midst of refuting the whole CO2 alarmist agenda. CO2 is going way up but temperatures are not going up at all. The CO2 hypothesis has been refuted by Mother Nature herself who is a most unbiased observer. (note: I am talking about real temperatures and not the “adjusted” BS by government drones)
This guy could end up dead. Ice-bergs can roll as they melt – the sponsors of this are so irresponsible. If there are any scientists involved in this they should convince him not to do it. All you need is an inversion of the temperature trend with depth which is quite common.
Darwin Award contender.
Perhaps that’s why he’ll be staying in a buoyant bubble tent most of the time…
It won’t do much good if the iceberg turns over. They fairly often do that since they tend to melt faster below the waterline. I’ve seen it happen once, to a rather small iceberg, and it’s pretty impressive. You had better not be in the way when it happens, and the waves it causes can be nasty if you are too close.
Won’t be too buoyant with all of his human waste he will need to transport as well!
Bet his porta-potty tips all over his bubble tent when the ‘berg flips.. Let him eat that.. 😉
Let’s hope that the survival capsule that he’ll be spending most of his time in doesn’t freeze to the ice. He’s also proud of his running, but that’s going to end if he spends most of his time in the capsule, and if after a few months he’s not usually in the capsule then he might end up in the water.
After a year, his latrine isn’t going to be very environmentally pristine.
Yes I was thinking that as well. Apparently no one involved in this project knows anything about icebergs or if they do they haven’t warned him about it. The danger from it rolling over with him on it is very real.
“This guy could end up dead. Ice-bergs can roll as they melt ”
Absolutely true.
And your point is ???
JIIIIIIMMMMMBOOOOOO!…………………..
Here are papers / abstracts with links showing higher rates of warming and glacial retreat in the first half of the 20th century.
Here is another. These eco-worriers should stop worrying about our ever changing climate.
Is it something in the water?
Every religion has its fanatics, hermits, inquisitors and, above all, bankers.
Bellini seems to be trying to become a martyr.
The Gore effect has an apprentice.
What will he do when it rolls?
http://youtu.be/LPFkxeA8KP4
Rock?
Nice video. It is also an illustration of how the underwater side of an iceberg looks darker and duller just after it rolls. After it rolls, an iceberg is much harder to see on a dark, moonless night in frigid, refracting horizon conditions.
Think Titanic.
Mann to live on melting iceberg for one year to highlight climate change? Excellent!
How is self-induced frostbite while in a delusional state going to draw attention to climate change?
Cue for Chris Turney to come and rescue him in his Ship of Fools.
97% of scientists agree that he will not make it 1 year and will die before he gets rescued. They hope he’s enjoying the last few months of his life before he dies from the cold.
You know, Jared, I was kinda going along with this story until I saw your note. It had not sunk what it meant that he was proposing to stay on his berg for a full year. I had a well, duh moment. You wrote: “…dies from the cold.” This idiot means to winter over in the Arctic?
Of course, he might be really on a virtual iceberg say, 1500 miles south of Greenland. That still qualifies as “off the coast of Greenland.”
As these bergs have always melted in the past, he will only be able to prove something new if he survives the year on it.
What an effin moron.
OOPS – icebergs capsize at times while melting – he just might get a sudden wet, cold and fatal surprise!!
I hope he doesn’t pick one that turns into a growler.
The poor old medieval witches never had a ducking stool like that.
These CAGW clowns are the gift that just keeps on giving, aren’t they?
Can I suggest a scuba tank or two as part of his kit?
NYUK, NYUK,NYUK.
“I hope he doesn’t pick one that turns into a growler.”
They all do, ultimately. Some time before they turn into water.
And suppose he sleeps in a dry-suit and with scuba tank at the ready he survives a roll. What then?
How do you get back on the iceberg? Do you carry a ice axe and crampons? They’d better float!
How do you retrieve your camp gear? — If it is not firmly staked into the ice, now well under water?
Suicide Bound.
He probably should have done this 3 years ago – at least then there was a minimum. It seems to be accumulating (arctic ice) now. Maybe there will be no sea for him to escape to by the time he comes out of hibernation?
What could possibly go wrong …
Best not stray too far from his shelter as icebergs have been known to roll over as they melt, no matter how “stable” the “suitable” choice may be.
Interesting mind-set … success to be measured (and assured) by the need to be rescued.
If the iceberg rolls over and he drowns, the alarmists will have their very own martyr. Unless he saves himself in his high-tech capsule. A capsule which takes away much of the risk and heroic effect of this venture.
If he is starting in NW Greenland I would have thought that if the ‘berg is big enough to last more than a year he might get frozen in come the autumn.
At least he won’t want for ice for his Jack Daniels.
A number of bergs rolling have been caught on film from passing ships and are on youtube. I wonder if it’s just coincidental, or if the movement of the ship helped trigger the event? If the latter, then this guy better hope he doesn’t get too many sightseers.
It’s natural. As the submerged portion melts away, the tip becomes the heavier portion, causing the iceberg to be top heavy, causing it to roll. 🙂
I saw an experiment on a TV doco which can be replicated at home: put an ice cube in a fish tank. And watch!
He should be nominated for a Darwin Award.
Considering the man’s previous accomplishments, it looks like a single-minded loner’s project. To have run 547 marathons (23000 km divided by 42 km) and rowed solo across all those oceans, he seems to be in great need of proving something to himself, more than to the wporld. But no doubt the subject of climate change is the best backgrond for sponsor applications right now. In another century, he would have been famous for circling his monastary cell two million times a year, or gnawing off all fingers as a penitent gesture (though a rather less eloquent gesture than with fingers).
I don’t see him saying that he ran mostly in marathon format. Running two Km a day would reach that number.
I walk more than two kilometers a day. So do a lot of people. But we don’t issue press releases about it.
[If a sponsor wishes to pay me to do it, then I am open to offers.]
Hmmm… a marathon runner?! Skinny folks don’t tend to do very well in cold weather climes. This event ought to be great sport!
Let us hope for warm water, end of quest!!!
Manmade Climate Change Cognitive Disorder (MCCCD) is a serious mental affliction. Instead of living on an iceberg, he really should be seeing a psychiatrist. More generally, the Belief in CAGW/CC is a form of mass hysteria which causes people to think and act in ways counter to their own well-being, in the totally and sadly mistaken belief that they are helping to “save the planet”. It is just one more way of many that the CAGW memeplex has, and continues to harm humanity.
And on that happy note:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/08/29/Democrats-More-Afraid-of-Global-Warming-Than-ISIS