Abundant Arctic Ice Closes in on Inept Expedition
There is no shortage of true believers in CAGW (catastrophic anthropogenic global warming). To demonstrate their faith in the dogma, these naifs continue engaging in epoch quests in harsh polar conditions, to prove that humans are changing cold to hot and ice to water. Too bad they miscalculated--again!
Natural climate cycles and weather patterns are responsible for the ebb and flow of arctic ice, glaciers, and air/ocean temperatures. Humans have very little to do with it. But I suppose there is very little that will stop true believers from competing for the Darwin awards.
“We’re stuck”This seems to happen at least once a year. Another inept zealot will decide he or she is going to prove that their quasi-religion is the one true faith, and risks his life on the proposition--only to necessitate rescue by professionals, who might prefer these amateurs stay home.
I have slept poorly. The floating ice, while thin, is so prevalent that, throughout the night, it grinds noisily against the side of the boat in a slightly alarming fashion - imagine someone scraping their nails across an old-fashioned blackboard.The then begins earlier than normal and, unusually, I am not woken by Robbie bounding into my room. Instead the ship’s engine roars to life earlier than normal - at around 5.30 - and the MV ‘Havsel’ begins to judder ominously. I clamber out of bed and scramble up to the bridge - all the ship’s crew are there, and they look serious. I look outside and I can see why. The sea is almost entirely congested with ice floes - I would estimate 80% plus of the sea is covered by them. There is a real risk that we could get stuck up here. We have drifted in the night into a much icier area than where we stopped last night. I wake up the team, and everyone groggily makes their way to the bridge. There’s a mixed reaction in the team to the prospect of getting stuck up here.
Google Maps, 80.52397, 12.21224
After awaking to find their vessel frozen in ice the team are steaming around looking for a path that's navigable by kayak.
No paddling today. _TomNelson
Natural climate cycles and weather patterns are responsible for the ebb and flow of arctic ice, glaciers, and air/ocean temperatures. Humans have very little to do with it. But I suppose there is very little that will stop true believers from competing for the Darwin awards.
Labels: arctic exploration
posted by al fin at 9:51 am
2 Comments:
I remember last year (or was it the year before last) there were two women who ventured up to the North pole. They brought special suits to allow them to swim from ice berg to ice berg [as global warming would have completely broken up the pack ice].
Instead they found themselves huddled in a tent which was -50 F while it was close to -100 F outside. One of the women lost a few toes due to frostbite.
Details of the event I referred to in the previous post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200997.html
My favorite part:
The explorers had planned to call in regular updates to school groups by satellite phone, and had planned online posts with photographic evidence of global warming. In contrast to Bancroft's 1986 trek across the Arctic with fellow Minnesota explorer Will Steger, this time she and Arnesen were prepared to don body suits and swim through areas where polar ice has melted.
Atwood said there was some irony that a trip to call attention to global warming was scuttled in part by extreme cold temperatures.
"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming," Atwood said. "But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."
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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell
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