The Antarctic ‘research’ fiasco – ‘would you, could you, in a boat’?
Posted on December 30, 2013 by Anthony Watts
This will be a top “sticky” post for awhile since interest is high – new stories will appear below this one – Anthony
UPDATE: Josh channels the boat people
UPDATE2: Another irony is discovered, this one doubly deep. See update 2 below.
UPDATE3: see WUWT and Weatherbell help KUSI-TV with a weather forecasting request from ice-trapped ship in Antarctica Akademik Shokalskiy
 Former Akademik Shokalskiy has been renamed in Al Gore’s honor. Satirical image by: Ollie Cromwell @TheRedRag on Twitter
As we reported previously on WUWT here and here, the saga of the “climate scientists/tourists trapped in ice” continues to fascinate many. Now a second ship has given up on rescue, after the Chinese ship “Snow Dragon” gave up two days ago. The Aurora Australis has abandoned rescue of the trapped Russian “research”vessel in Antarctica and a helicopter evacuation in now being ordered. This episode has taken on a heightened comedic fiasco-like quality.
Now, with such a fantastic failure in full world view, questions are going to start being asked. For example, with advanced tools at their disposal (that Mawson never had) such as near real-time satellite imaging of Antarctic sea ice, GPS navigation, on-board Internet, radar, and satellite communications, one wonders how these folks managed to get themselves stuck at all. Was it simple incompetence of ignoring the signs and data at their disposal combined with “full steam ahead” fever? Even the captain of the Aurora Australishad the good sense to turn back knowing he’d reached the limits of the ship on his rescue attempt. Or, was it some sort of publicity stunt to draw attention? If it was the latter, it has backfired mightily.
One might argue that with photos like the one below, this whole “Spirit of Mawson” research expedition, is little more than a media stunt.
Source: [ twitter.com ]
Even after the ship was trapped, these reporters still had a party like atmosphere going on:
Source: [ twitter.com ]
Yesterday, Andrew Revkin tweeted something that I agreed with, especially since so many of the people trapped in the ice on the ship seem to have a nonchalant, almost partly-like atmosphere going on.
[iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" title="Embedded Tweet" width="500" height="210" style="background-color: transparent; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(238, 238, 238) rgb(221, 221, 221) rgb(187, 187, 187); margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; max-width: 99%; min-width: 220px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902) 0px 1px 3px; position: static; visibility: visible; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"][/iframe]Yes, the cost and risk is significant. These folks trapped on-board don’t seem to be cognizant of that issue, following the #spiritofmawson Twitter feed, it’s like watching reports (with pictures and video) from a high school class party.
And here’s the kicker. Even the public saw through the charade at the beginning. Trying to get crowd funding from the public for this trip failed miserably as this Indigogo campaign shows:
Source: indiegogo.com
Maybe it had to do with the ridiculous image of Professor Chris Turney in full cold weather gear standing in the midst of a tropical forest.
Right after the ship got stuck and there was a realization that the world was watching, one scientist on-board, Dr. Chris Fogwill, of the University of New South Wales, decided that it would be an opportune time to hit the public for money again:
Source: spiritofmawson.com
And again, the public has seen through this, and today, the campaign remains stuck at $1000 with just a few donors. People are realizing that there’s no real science being done on this trip, and that it seems to be little more than a chartered party boat for Antarctic enthusiasts and media.
Now, with the ship to be evacuated via helicopter, will the Akademik Shokalskiy join the list of recent ships that have been sunk in Antarctic waters?
Ships that have sunk in Antarctic waters in recent years (h/t to David Archibald)
The Brazilian yacht “Endless Sea” sank in Maxwell Bay, Ardley Cove on Saturday 7th April, 2012. It was used for “scientific and educational expeditions”.
The sunken remains of the 76-ft Mar Sem Fin, aka “Endless Sea”, which sunk on April 7, 2012, lies at a depth of about 9 meters (30 ft) in Ardley Cove, Antarctica.
In November 2007, the Linblad Explorer hit sea ice and sank.
In April 2013, the Chinese factory fishing ship Kai Xin caught fire and sank near Bransfield Strait at the Antarctic Peninsula.
And there are others, these are just a few recent ones.
With so much concern for the pristine environment of Antarctica, one wonders how much environmental damage these sinkings are doing.
And when the trip is nothing more than a party for your friends and media, disguised as a “scientific expedition”, one wonders if there shouldn’t be some moratorium on such trips.
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The #spiritofmawson hashtag is now getting competition from the hashtag#ClitanicDisasterin honor of the trapped climate scientists that the MSM won’t mention as being climate scientists.
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UPDATE 2:
reader Aphan writes on 2013/12/31 at 7:16 pm
I don’t know if anyone was posted this yet, but the IRONY just gobsmacked me.
The British “explorers” on board the MV Explorer who were “commemorating the Spirit of Shackleton” found themselves repeating HIS adventure when their ship struck a piece of submerged ice and then SANK in the Antarctic in November of 2007! None of the passengers or crew were lost. But HOW AMAZING is it that both the “Spirit of Mawson” trip AND the “Spirit of Shackleton” cruise trips ended in disaster from sea ice?????
jamescairdsociety.com
nationalgeographic.com
I mean…come on. What are the odds?
wattsupwiththat.com
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Katabasis says:
December 30, 2013 at 10:16 am
One of the most striking features of these activist jollies for me is just how woefully unprepared for the worst they all seem to be. And I mean this to the point of frightening ignorance. The Guardian/BBC journalist Alok Jha for example, describes in graphic detail what happened to his hand when he exposed it to the elements outside “to type an email”. His surprise at how quickly he started to lose the use of his hand is absolutely evident. Has he never heard of frostbite?
But then what should we expect from a bunch of people who are presenting the image of partying it up, tweeting pictures of them setting up a “media hub” whilst at least four crews are desperately working out how to save them?
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Rob Gappa says:
December 30, 2013 at 10:51 am
It’s interesting to note that its the peak of summer down there and the ice is increasing not receeding. Maybe they should start studying Global Cooling!
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Denys Beauchemin says:
December 30, 2013 at 12:48 pm
They steered their ship by computer models, not real data.
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LamontT says:
December 30, 2013 at 12:54 pm
It is obvious they used computer models to figure out what conditions where and then plotted their courses based on those modeled outcomes. They clearly couldn’t be bothered to check real time conditions or actually look out a window or perhaps pull up satellite data. That might have contradicted the computer models and we all know that climate scientists can only rely on computer models and not real verifiable conditions.
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