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.
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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:
I hope the flippin Iceberg doesn’t reach a tipping point, for the rich kid’s sake.
Who was it that suggested we should all have our 2 minutes of fame?
Seeing how skinny that guy is, I doubt that his dried food will keep him warm for more than a week during winter.
But maybe he thinks that because he is starting in spring, the iceberg will be gone during summer so he doesn’t have to stay the entire year?
If that is the case he will actually prove nothing. Ice melts during spring and summer …
The BBC will be , like, so all over this that they will probably have daily webcam visits . In fact why should this chap have all the fame for himself , why not send one of the BBC AGW faithfuls , such as David Attenborough , or for maximum effect , Prince Charles ( solving the problem of what to do with him since his mother – God Bless Her – seems immortal).
But this explorer may prefer female companionship so perhaps one of the near – suicidal Australian scientists could join him – boosting audience levels .
Actually this could become the next big thing after the ice bucket craze: Celebrity Ice- Flow Sitting to Save the Planet. Cue David Cameron.
Uh-Oh. I just figured out where the Discovery Channel will shoot their next episode of “Naked and Afraid”.
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/naked-and-afraid/about-the-show/about-the-show.htm
Emotionally immature exhibitionists are ten a penny these days — this one has managed to get his 15 minutes of fame, and, yes, the BBC will be all over this, as they will be for anything useless, failed, vulgar and/or moronic.
This is what happens when one watches too many cartoons, as a kid…
From the evidence shown, Chilly Willy must have been a favorite of his.
An idiot’s delight. Icebergs are evidence of excess ice, with the excess breaking off into the sea. Another ZBW (zero brain waves).
And, icebergs melt largely from below and like to flip over, almost at random, unless you are paying attention from below.
I think giving him six months before he gets tossed off by the flippin’ iceberg might be generous. Of course, he might have enough brains—his plans demonstrate that he might not—he will choose a low profile, large horizontal area berg that might mot flip over easily. That is a toss up, IMHO.
The fellow has a common ignorance about how mobile the sea-ice is. The ordinary misconception is that it is static stuff. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The weather buoy deployed with the North Pole Camera up near 90 degrees north in April, 2013 grounded on the north shore of Iceland the following January.
On the other side of Greenland, the mass-balance bouy 2013C, deployed on the Canadian arctic-coast side of Nares Strait in May, 2013, onto fast ice, was atop a berg that broke free in early September, and headed down Nares Strait and then, after dillydallying in the entrance of the Northwest passage for over a month, was off the coast of Labrador when the berg broke up in early January. Click the map at: http://imb.crrel.usace.army.mil/2013C.htm
Also, as many have mentioned, the bergs roll from time to time.
Then there is the subject of 1600 pound bears.
I think this fellow’s idea is one of those late-night inspirations that can’t stand the light of day.
Does he have a web site with a donations button? I’ll happily slide him a few just for the entertainment value alone.
/snark
Time marches on and madness takes its toll. But recently it seems to be taking a lot of alarmists.
See what you’ve done. All the icebergs are melting because of your SUV.
I didn’t know you could apply for a Darwin Award.
If he were really serious about the supposed message he’s trying to send, he would do this with NO modern materials, no synthetics. Only with stuff he can make with his bare hands and stone tools, with materials only found in the Arctic. Since he won’t, he’s a pansy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Severin The Brendan Voyage
Tim found on the last legs of this voyage, that the natural materials that would have been available in the times in the Navigato De Sanctos Brendan lasted better than the modern equivalents
Why don’t they tow the iceberg to the Bahamas? It would melt there more spectacularly and once rescued, he could have a splendid vacation there. Sounds as a more reasonable PR stunt than freezing to death, stuffed into a Kevlar-reinforced survival capsule during the Arctic winter.
While I agree with most of the comments, and I’m glad so many pointed out that icebergs roll, there seems to be a surprising misconception about The Darwin Award. First, there is no nomination process – an individual is self-nominating. Second, the purpose of the award is to recognize those that have removed themselves from the gene pool. Therefore, someone that has already procreated does not qualify. Also, it is not necessary for the nominating act to be fatal – for example, an accident that resulted in “testicular removal” would qualify. Third, that the nominating act demonstrates such poor judgment that removal of any chance of this individual contributing to the gene pool would prove a net positive for the species.
I could have gone all day without see that testicular, er, particular phrase. Thanks a bunch.
There are many wannabe gangsta thugs, the kind who hold handguns sideways because it looks cool, who stuff their gun into their waistbands at the front, with their finger on the trigger which hits the waistband, and they ain’t know nothin’ ’bout no “safeties”.
It was being called “explosive castration” before 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, and IED’s, don’t know if it has another name now.
Darwin Award candidate for certain.
http://darwinawards.com/darwin/
He should go to Antarctica if he wants a real nice voyage. Take for example Iceberg B-9 that broke away from the Ross shelf in October 1987 and still hasn’t melted completely. As a matter of fact it was most recently used as an excuse for the “ship of fools” fiasco, though you would have thought that “polar experts” would have aware of something that has been around for 25 years.
I guess Treehugger didn’t get it quite right because Mr. Bellini did not quite complete his Pacific Ocean Rowing Adventure. From the Telegraph:
It was a rather ignominious end to a grand adventure. After 10 months of rowing alone across the vast Pacific Ocean, eating only dried food and with nothing but emails from fans for company, Alex Bellini was rescued by a tugboat, just 65 nautical miles from his destination.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/3741464/Italian-rescued-65-miles-short-of-rowing-Pacific-Ocean-solo.html
Of course, how could anyone be expected to survive rowing across the Pacific without email! The very thought of it….
Alas,I haven’t yet found the definitive account of his Atlantic Ocean Rowing Adventure, but it looks like his first attempt ended up on the rocks:
Alex Bellini departed Genova, Italy on September 18th, 2005 for his second attempt to row the Atlantic Ocean (E-W). The 27-year old Italian had attempted a similar route in 2004, ending when technical problems and bad weather forced his boat onto the rocks of Formentera Island, off the coast of Spain.
http://www.explorersweb.com/oceans/news.php?id=738
I did find an entry on Alex Bellini at the Ocean Explorers Web:
http://www.explorersweb.com/oceans/news.php?id=738
But his Mediterranean Row is marked ‘incomplete’ after 22 days.
I don’t have much sympathy for glory-seekers who willingly put themselves in harm’s way, knowing that media attention guarantees rescue attempts should things go amiss. I give him 60 days before he calls for help.
Or flips out.
erratum
2nd link s/b:
http://www.oceanrowing.com/statistics/longest_time_at_sea.htm
Someone should talk him to adding the ice bucket challenge to his daily routine. It would help raise awareness for both ALS and stupidity.
What’s the over/under for this guy lasting 365 days???
I’m picking 63
Some people do anything and everything to get there 5 minuites …..
Nucking futs.
New one on the ice cap bucket challenge.
Another sad stupid stunt for smug self exhibitionists
If he doesn’t survive this stunt, it further demonstrates how Mother Nature has ways of filtering stupidity out of the human gene pool.
Like overdosing on illegal drugs.
Risk taking is not stupidity. The people who first settled North America (both the initial settlement from Asia and the later settlement from Europe) were risk takers. they embarked into the unknown for an adventure with a very good chance that they would never come back.
Indeed a major problem with the current era is the aversion to risk. Everything must be risk free and for everything the precautionary principle applies. Children can’t play outside. playground equipment is so safe that there is no interest in playing on it.
It shouldn’t need explaining but the risk taking by the English who settled North America was for a highly useful enterprise, whereas Bellini’s holiday (hardly a big risk, either) is based on quack science underpinned by sleazy carpetbagging. Quite a difference.
http://ec.gc.ca/glaces-ice/default.asp?lang=En&n=AEC39A7A-1
The above URL points to a webpage from Environment Canada (the Canadian weather service) which shows the path of ice bergs that calve from the western part of Greenland. the current takes them north into Baffin bay and finally south towards the Grand banks. The page indicates that this takes 2 to 3 years.
So someone spending a year on a berg calved from Greenland should not expect to make it to the open Atlantic Ocean. They will spend that time in the far north according to the information from Environment Canada.
When I first read the description of the mission, I too thought of the danger of the berg rolling. Perhaps this is not of as much concern as one would expect given that the berg should spend its time in the far north.
There is a difference between an ice berg and an ice island.
“Ice islands are large, flat masses of ice that break away from ice shelves. In the Arctic, the major source of these islands is the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on northern Ellesmere Island. Ice islands are different from the pack ice that forms from seawater. Like icebergs, ice islands are largely composed of glacial freshwater. There are an estimated 30 or 40 ice islands afloat on the Arctic Ocean at any one time. They vary in size from a few metres in width to tens, or even hundreds, of square kilometres in area.
Scientists have used some of the larger ice islands as mobile research stations. Hobson’s Choice Ice Island, which formed in 1984, carried a research station until 1992 when it suddenly broke into three pieces and drifted away into the channels of the Queen Elizabeth Islands!”
He could be using an ice island.