Recently, we’ve seen an event that has added fuel to the ongoing debate surrounding climate change and its real-world effects. The case in question involves Russia’s latest icebreaker, the Yevpatii Kolovrat, having to take a longer route to reach its Pacific fleet due to impassable heavy ice in Arctic waters.
This event raises important questions for those who are concerned about “alarmist” perspectives on climate change. Despite repeated warnings about melting ice caps and rising sea levels, here we have an icebreaker, designed to carve a path through icy waters, being diverted by unusually heavy ice. The ice was so thick, in fact, that even the Yevpatii Kolovrat, designed to deal with such environments, couldn’t pass through.
This incident underlines the inherent unpredictability in climate change predictions, particularly in relation to multi-year ice. While climate change models may predict the reduction of sea ice overall, they seem to struggle when it comes to accounting for these multi-year ice formations. This ice is built up over years or, averaging three to four metres thick, and is often dislodged and relocated as temperatures rise.
Recent observations in the Arctic region have shown an increase in this type of ice, which has disrupted the usual maritime routes since October 2022. If we are experiencing a global warming crisis as intense as many suggest, shouldn’t we be seeing a decrease in such significant ice formations?
It’s also worth noting that while Canada’s federal auditor general reported a drop of about 40 per cent in average summer sea-ice coverage in the Canadian Arctic over the last 50 years due to climate change, the enduring multi-year sea ice seems to have increased. This has disrupted shipping lanes and caught governments and organizations off guard.
The Canadian government, in particular, has come under scrutiny for its lack of preparedness in dealing with the issues posed by rising multi-year ice. As a country with an extensive Arctic coastline, this lack of preparation raises serious questions about how well we understand and can predict the impacts of climate change.
So, while many continue to discuss and predict an ever-warming world with melting ice caps and rising seas, events like the detour of the Yevpatii Kolovrat paint a more complex picture of climate realities. Climate change is not as straightforward as some might have us believe, and predicting its exact course is proving to be a challenge even for those with the most advanced tools at their disposal.
As climate skeptics, we believe that it’s essential to approach climate change with a rational perspective, acknowledging the complexity of our planet’s climate system and the considerable uncertainties that still exist in our understanding. Alarmism does little to advance meaningful conversation and thoughtful action on this critical issue.
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I’m sure there is an idiot in a canoe somewhere in there.
There was one that got his ass frozen trying it in a Kayak.
We had fun with that guy. Damn we’re old.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/09/03/adventures-in-arctic-kayaking/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/09/09/polar-defense-project-deletes-the-tough-questions/
Old enough to remember the global cooling/coming ice age scare and thus to see through the current bull!
Story tip. The Daily Express are reporting that sea temperatures have risen from 12C to 16C noting a huge rise in jellyfish numbers washing ashore around the Bay of Biscay.
Thousands of jellyfish wash up on French beaches after huge increase in sea temperature | World | News | Express.co.uk
The Bay of Biscay an area of the Atlantic, bordered by the west coast of France from Brest southeast to St Nazaire (at the mouth of the Loire River), then south to Biarritz, then westward along the north coast of Spain.
I lived in France from 1984 through 1995, and Meteo France routinely reports sea water temperatures along the coasts throughout the summer season (so that beachgoers know what to expect). Back then, sea water temperatures in the summer ranged from about 17 C in the north near Brest, to about 20 – 22 C in the south at Bordeaux and Biarritz.
A sea water temperature of 16 C in late May (they didn’t specify where) is nothing unusual, even in the north.
The beaches along the west coast of France generally have large differences in sea level between low and high tide, and there are usually many waves due to the prevailing westerlies (Biarritz in the south is famous for surfing). Occasionally, due to an anticyclone over western France, the seas become very calm for several days, and jellyfish tend to approach the shallow waters near the coast. When the anticyclone moves away and the westerlies resume, the jellyfish get washed up on the beaches.
This was a frequent occurrence back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and was always due to a long period of calm weather followed by a storm. This has nothing to do with warming of sea temperatures!
Excellent comment, giving us a better perspective on the issue.
You mean THE Daily Express, the UK’s middle-market, tabloid newspaper?
You mean THAT source for scientifically-accurate, breaking news???
In several previous Arctic ice posts, I have mentioned that the climate change narrative management machine has already created an enduring alternative reality about Arctic Ice. even as early as 2011 My casual polling (2011-2021) of mostly well educated co-workers indicated that almost all of them thought ice had already vanished from the Arctic. Many did not believe the Satellite images of arctic ice extent I sent them…and wondered why I even bothered. They just didn’t care, which makes me an ice geek.
This is an example of impressionistic easy beliefism, which makes us all very vulnerable to believing propaganda and building false presuppositions at least speculatively. This creates the ground for climate change bandwagoning (self righteous actions to save the planet) even when what is believed is rooted in mere impressions, exaggerations false presuppositions and bald face lies.
The variation in arctic sea ice extent since1985 isn’t terribly robust within a very short time frame. No one has a full understanding of all the variables that contribute to the ice extent variation nor how the variation dynamic works in the log run.
Yet the people driving the climate change narrative management machine, bank on the masses believing sound bites, and repeated images. Frankly, it works at creating false presuppositions because most people don’t care enough to actually go look for themselves.
Finally, most people cannot recall when, how or why they falsely presupposed ice had vanished from the arctic…. this is because the narrative has become so endemic in media it has become the very air we breath and difficult to refute rationally.
Hunan-caused Climate Change Propaganda works. A Blizzard of Human-caused Climate Change Propaganda works even “better”.
We are in a blizzard right now.
Propaganda will be our downfall (if there is one).
If it’s colder or warmer, that’s climate change. If it’s wetter or drier, that’s climate change. If it’s windier or calm, that’s climate change. If the sun shines or it’s cloudy, that’s climate change. The debate is over. The science is settled. 197% of (government funded) scientists agree. Now, go home, turn off all the power, eat some organically sourced insects, and never travel anywhere ever again. Ain’t the WEF/NWO life grand? Oh, and BTW, if you disagree with any of this, you’re a racist.
Here are my latest arctic observations
https://sunriseswansong.wordpress.com/2023/06/01/arctic-sea-ice-a-cold-may/
I can’t explain why it is so cold up there the past month. My view for years is that CO2 can only have a minor effect, sunlight has a greater effect, and the warmer oceans have the greatest effect. It is very annoying that some Alarmists belittle the ideas that the sun and deep sea warming can have any effect at all, cancel and shadow-ban people who attempt to research such things, and demand all funding go into their seemingly endless and inane endevours to prove their mistake isn’t mistaken.
Thanks Caleb for linking to your interesting discussion. I also noted the slower decline of sea ice this May.
https://rclutz.com/2023/06/01/slowly-melting-arctic-ice-may-2023/
Good to hear from you, Ron. Thanks for the graph.
There is an entire generation of schoolchildren that were force-fed “An Inconvenient Truth” that believe Arctic Ice will disappear. They are now voters.
Minds can be changed. Mine was. Disillusionment is not fun, but does wonders.