The saga just keeps going. The Chinese Icebreaker is now also stuck, and has asked for help so the Aurora Australis with 52 extra passengers rescued from the Russian Charter boat have to stay nearby to help. Twenty two Russian sailors are still trapped on board the Russian boat — the Akademik Sholaskiy. Plus other scientists in Antarctica still don’t have their equipment. Costs for everyone involved are continuing to rise. Though there is a free-for-all on social media…
Image first seen at Elmer Beauregard@m4gw
But seriously, trom The Australian by Graham Lloyd:
TAXPAYERS will foot a $400,000 bill for the rescue of a group of climate scientists, tourists and journalists from a stranded Russian research vessel – an operation that has blown the contingency budget of Australia’s Antarctic program and disrupted its scientific work.
The Antarctic Division in Hobart said it was revising plans and considering airlifting urgently needed scientific equipment that could not be unloaded from Aurora Australis before the ship was diverted from the Casey base to rescue the novice ice explorers just before Christmas.
The climate scientists and passengers aren’t free yet, their boat is waiting around to help the Chinese icebreaker.
The rescue bill continued to mount yesterday as the return of the Aurora Australis to Casey base was delayed after the Chinese vessel Xue Long notified rescue authorities it had concerns about its ability to move back into open water due to heavy ice.
The Australian icebreaker was put on standby late yesterday and ordered to remain in open water as a precautionary measure.
As usual, under the Treaty of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), ships must respond to a distress message, and the costs are a “matter for the ship owners after the event… These can include fuel costs, crew costs and loss of revenue.” SMH.
Ultimately the costs could be millions:
In a debriefing on the rescue mission yesterday, Australian Maritime Safety Authority general manager John Young said the ships involved in the rescue would each be responsible for their own costs.
The costs, which would run to millions of dollars, could ultimately result in legal action between the ships’ insurance companies and the owners of the stranded Russian research vessel that sparked the rescue.
I wonder what the fine print says on the agreement between the Australasian Antarctic Expedition and the Russian Charter boat?
Meanwhile the silliest things are popping up:
It had to happen: Hitler gets stuck in the ice too… (great intro 😀 ) h/t Janama
UPDATE: Another one, We’re all going on a polar holiday
Could the Queen not rush through a knighthood for Chris Turney for services to global warming scepticism? #spiritofmawson
— Jaime Jessop (@Balinteractive) January 2, 2014
A simple solution.
Pay the bills, what ever the cost, Australia has an obligation that the “tourists” ignore.
The sting in the tail.
ALL currently funded projects covering “global warming”,”climate change” are to have their funds resumed to pay whatever is required to cover whatever accounts are due. The collectivists should be happy to support their compatriots in their “tourist venture”.
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Didn’t they take out travel insurance like other tourists?
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Jo,
I do hope the drama continues…
It certainly gives their profession a black eye!
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Both eyes.
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I have not yet had the operation which requires you to be able to read Skeptical Science on a regular basis, but I thought it might be amusing to see what their take on the antics in the Antarctic might be.
I was not surprised to find a blank, but what I was surprised at was to find this ‘highly prophetic’ cartoon from late December, it is a real beauty at how wrong climate alarmists can be in their forecasts:
http://www.skepticalscience.com/2013-SkS-Weekly-Digest_52.html
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You don’t need an operation Peter – there’s a pill for it.
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MV
Many thanks for the kind thought, but after due consideration I think I will pass on your kind offer of the pill.
The 2-3 people who appear to respond to a typical SKS article will probably be interested, if they have not already taken at least one.
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Oh I see what you mean. There are a couple of comments after all to that one . Strangely I don’t find the cartoon more than mildly amusing, on a rather innocuous if childish level.
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Dont worry about the pill,where do we line up for some Dark Money.
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Au contraire! The black eye and joke is on all tax payers. In a matter of a few weeks, all this will be forgotten. For it to be a serious stain on the global warming scam artists, PM Abbott would have to change the rules of the game and force the bills to be paid by the culprits and their supporters only. I don’t see that happening, in which case they will continue on with their game at taxpayers expense. Sorry but I’m afraid the joke is on us, not them.
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This should get Turney a big promotion at his University!! (sarc…)
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I’m pretty sure they will.. (not sarc) !
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Besides the big bucks of the icebreakers, there are the small dramas of the PhD students. 12 out of 18 had no legitimate research reason to be there. One of them, for instance, is doing research on urban microclimates and presumably wanted to study the capital of Antarctica.
They’ve missed their flights home. They may have missed teaching duties. They’ll need to explain why they went over budget. Questions will be asked what they were doing there in the first place, and who approved their trip. These are big sums of money on a student budget.
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“They may have missed teaching duties.”
Down here, Unis are on their long summer break.
Most teaching will not re-start until late Feb, Early March.
“These are big sums of money on a student budget.”
However, you can almost BET that they have found some way of funding the student back-handed from some sort of slush fund but making it appear they are funding themselves.
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Where did you see the 12 of 18 had no legitimate reason to be there? That sounds about par for the course with this group and would love to have that info 🙂
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You can look up their research profile on the Spirit of Mawson website.
There are 18 PhD students on this expedition. Six (1/3) work on the Antarctic (although it is not obvious that this trip would have resulted in useful data, or would have been the best way to gather such data). The other twelve (2/3) work on the North Atlantic, Australia’s coastal waters, brain injury, Iceland, New Zealand’s North Island, urban climates, pedagogy, the Equatorial Undercurrent, pharmaceuticals, time series statistics, microbiology, and Siberia.
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I thought 74 out of 74 had no legit reason to be there
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What IS a legitimate reason for participating in a junket and media circus?
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Actually, it may well be substantial for Australia but it is in fact the tiddliest drop in an torrent of cash funneling out of the US. Perhaps you should ask them for a slice? The torrent is about to turn into an Ocean. Delusions that ‘the tide is turning’ toward rational science based policy are just that!
“Climate change is one of the most urgent and profoundly complex challenges we face,” he wrote. “That’s why, everywhere I travel as Secretary of State – in every meeting, here at home and across the more than 280,000 miles I’ve traveled since I raised my hand and took the oath to serve in this office – I have made this issue a top priority.”
Without directly mentioning those scientists and others who question the “consensus” on climate change, Kerry reiterated his view that the science is incontrovertible and implied that anyone arguing otherwise lacked “conscience or common sense.”
“Today, all the scientific evidence is telling us that we cannot afford to delay the reckoning with climate change,” he said. “With each passing day, the case grows more compelling and the costs of inaction grow beyond anything that anyone with conscience or common sense should be willing to contemplate.”
Kerry pointed to the most report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released last September, and summed it up as follows: “Bottom line: Climate change is real, it’s happening now, and human beings are the cause.”
“In the face of these risks and these warnings, it is time for all of us to do what the science tells us we must, to do what our faiths require of us, and to do what our fragile planet demands of us: It’s time to take strong action to combat a truly life-and-death challenge,” Kerry stated.
But officials want that to change this year, as UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres made clear while speaking at the opening of the GCF’s new headquarters in South Korea
on Dec 4.
“Governments now have a crucial tool at their disposal to leverage billions in finance for developing counties to green their economies and increase their resilience to the inevitable effects of climate change,” she said.
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When you have a President who ignores the US Constitution and a SECSTATE who lives off his wife and threw another soldiers metals over a wall to protest the Vietnam War and hence assisted the North Vietnamese, what do you expect. As the World is seeing, this Prez and his team are a world wide embarrassment. All we can do is apologize to all of you. Fortunately, his days are numbered. Then we can hopefully begin to repair his damage to the US.
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Liberal policies and ideas are like liberal talk radio shows. After a while no one listens to them anymore and they are cancelled. I can only speak for myself, but to our true foreign friends, I as a U.S. citizen apologize to you for the way the Muslim in OUR White house has slighted you and screwed up the economy of the USA, which affects the rest of the world. In 3 or so years from now, the people of the USA will elect a person who has the qualities to govern our country and bring the people of the USA closer and return confidence in the word of a U.S President, to our true foreign friends. God Bless the USA and to our friendly nations throughout the world.
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Jo, While I was wondering at WUWT about when the set of playing cards with the photographs and quips of the 52 Clitanic tourists is available who would be my favorite(Currently I am leaning towards milkshake boy but wait to see who will be on the Joker Cards). Coming here it occurred to me that the Australian Government could utilize the revenue stream from the sales of these cards and other novelty products to offset the costs of this latest Green Folly to the Australian taxpayers. -Paul
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I was almost expecting that the long suffering taxpayers of OZ were going to have to pick up the tab for this. It sort of just adds insult to the original injury of having to fund the junk science in the first place [via public funds etc].
I think there should be a public campaign which prevails upon the Education Minister to require the University of NSW to repay all costs incurred in undertaking this “rescue”.
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Not a public campaign which will inevitably fizzle out.
Surely a full ‘Public Inquiry’ into the past and present use/abuse of taxpayer funds by several of your universities in the pursuit of their deluded climate “science” thingummy.
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Don’t whinge on Jo’s site; take a few minutes to tell the minister you are very unhappy at the misuse of our hard earned dollars. His address is ….
greg.hunt.mp@environment.gov.au
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Isn’t Mr Hunt one of them?
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You could strap Hunt to one of his luvvie wind turbines and you still wouldn’t get his attention. the guy’s a lost cause …..
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Been there , done that..
The guy is as useless as a sack of jelly.
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AndyG55, you can eat jelly …
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not after its been in a manure sack for 40 years (or whatever)
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Yes AndyG55 – agreed – but unless we try there is NO hope. I am truly weary of whingers who are happy to bitch to fellow travelers on some topic but are not prepared to make the additional effort to try to effect change. If enough people reading this blog write to the minister he might, just might, sit up and pay attention. What’s the alternative? Roll over and give in? Suggest a better approach then I’ll do it.
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You were doing alright up to there Apox, then you went delusional.
For as long as Australians go on voting for political party hacks nothing is going to change.
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I don’t agree Andy,
I wrote to him about his silly statement on Ocean Acidification a couple of months ago. He responded; and he studied the evidence. He hasn’t mentioned it since.
That’s what we should expect.
My suggestion to you and others is to write to him or email him and give him the scientific facts. How else do you expect to get the facts to him? I’m not for leaving it to BoM, or the incompetent Chief Scientist who doesn’t know that a cyclone is called a typhoon or hurricane in the NH.
30
.
Well, off you go Sam.
YOUR idea, YOU implement it.
You could start by sending him an electronic copy of Jo’s “The Skeptic’s Handbook”.
Mind you, I think he got sent his first copy well over three years ago.
Along with every other member of the LNP.
I think if Jo had a dollar for every copy of the Handbook sent to Federal AND state LNP politicians since – including Hunt, she and David would be happily retired by now.
But don’t let reality get in the way of a good fantasy.
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I already have MV.
Are you leaving it to BoM or the incompetent Chief Scientist?
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Neither – I sent them a book too.
Every state and federal politician got a hard copy (pre-internet days).
Sent signed-for, Registered Post, just to make sure they got them.
Cost me a fortune.
That was back in 1990 – 24 years ago almost to the day.
Made no difference then, won’t make any difference now.
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Hey MV, don’t sell yourself short.
When do you think the term “crap” was used about so-called climate “science”? It certainly wasn’t before 1990.
Similarly, just remind me, who was described as “talking through her hat” and when? Before or after 1990?
Further, who said: “the climate link to bushfires is complete hogwash?
And, if that’s not enough who said: “No more “socialism masquerading as environmentalism”?
So, you see, MV, you are having an effect. If we back off you can rest assured that the spinmeisters will interpret that as a declining concern and hence an opportunity to pander to some more outspoken group.
That’s how it works.
00
Meanwhile back in My Country, Australia, we are informed that 2013 was the hottest year ever, Queensland is facing the hottest days ever, other places are experiencing the hottest period ever. The unprofessional MSM led into deception by the alarmists and even the deceitful BOM. I would like to direct them all to a taxidermist.
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UHA gives an interesting slant at Australia’s “hottest heffer”
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/2013map.png
All the extra heat appears to be in the centre where nobody in their right mind ever goes.
The major population centres are pretty much “normal”.
Will be interesting to see if we can get a response from UHA about where Australia ranks heat wise in the UHA record.
ps, Also note that the warm areas appear to be the Antarctic, and a section in the north Pacific and maybe a bit in Russia. Hardly Global !!!
Elsewhere, Bob Tisdale sees no El Nino events on the time horizon.. in fact the Nino3,4 region continues its downward trend.
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Hi Andy,
Must say I don’t follow global temps on a regular basis, however the first thing I noticed outside Australia, like you, was the Antarctic. Am I wrong or did I not here of below normal temperatures in the frozen south at some this year.
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“some time this year”.
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Hi Bob,this year Antarctica had its lowest every recorded temperature but you wont hear of it from any warmer wally(can I use wally,JO?)I am waiting to see how this affects the so called global mean temperature.
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Thanks Bones.
In the eighties where I live we were in the middle of a drought, this was in a major city that usually has ample storage, but the dams were extremely low, they were running adds on the media to not be a wally with water.
I was part of a crew that hosed down the foot paths in the early hours of the morning, water tanker with 186 cubic inch six cylinder engine revving between 1600 and 2000 RPM driving the pump, it was not quiet, weekends were great, spew, urine, and sometimes worse, I digress. This one morning we disturbed a resident who charged out of his residence and gave us a good tongue lashing and called us all water Wallies, wasting water and all, which I guess would officially make me a “wally” and I definitely don’t take offence at the term.
By the way we were using water from a spear point and pump being close to the coast,so really not a Wally at all.
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The practice of washing the footpaths was discontinued in the mid nineties , environmentally unfriendly they said, streets have never been as clean since.
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It was discovered this year data mining old sat scans, but actually occurred in July 2010.
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That puzzles me too.
The BoM 2013 Mean Temperature Anomaly map shows large areas in the centre over 1.5C, some areas up to 2.5C above average while the UAH anomaly map shows a smaller area up to 1.4C.
I realise the two maps relate to different base periods (BoM 1971-2000, UAH 30-year norm) but it is curious nonetheless.
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“DT”,
Fodder for the sheeple from the LAMESTREAM MEDIA. It is no wonder that thinking people are departing these types of media outlets in droves.
All they feed the public is BS !!
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Well I almost spat my coffee out when I read this from Sky News http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=939155&cid=BP_RSS_TOPSTORIES_3_PolarchiefslamsAntarcticcruise_040114
And the words “Pseudo scientific expedition” are used!!
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An apt description 🙂
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This Sky News article is well worth a read, as it makes a complete mockery of the ABC, BBC and Guardian spin on Turney’s jaunt.
Turney has single handedly, through his gross incompetence, managed to wreck at least two countries’ Antarctic summer scientific programs.
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Here is the “come back” to all those pushing the hottest year in Aussie
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/central-england-temperature-stats-for-2013/
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Is there no end to the rationalising?
‘Expert’ comments on the BBC’s radio news programme ‘The World at One’ by travel writer Sara Wheeler, who has spent seven months at the South Pole and written about the Arctic and Antarctic. According to her, the ice which trapped the ship was there because global warming had caused ice to “drop off” glaciers and surround the ship.
And from Turney:
“…what you’re doing is you’re putting that fresh water from the Antarctic ice sheets into the oceans. It’s lighter, it’s less dense than salt water, so it floats to the surface relatively, and then it’s more vulnerable to freezing. And hence you get an expansion of sea ice cover. So that’s one idea that we’re testing at the moment.”
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“Global warming caused ice to drop off glaciers and surround the ship”.I would be interested in knowing if this was a random event or the deliberate act of intellegent ice.If the ice is ganging up on us then humans are in a great deal of shlippery stuff
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Ice drops off shelves and glaciers when they’re growing into the ocean. When they’re receeding, the water just drains out the bottom. No splashing involved.
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typo: receding
receeding00
Your lucky…here in Canada out on the lonesome prairie we too are having a heat wave. With the wind chill it registered -42 C yesterday and last year on the same day it was -48 C. Temperatures here have risen 6 degrees from last year…hahaha.
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There is a very funny update on the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch on morningmail.org
The ex-parrot is no longer a Norwegian Blue but a “Climate Change”
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Belfast, If there existed a well organized and financed climate reality campaign that skit would have been produced on video, gone viral and be featured on all primetime news channels. Very good! -Paul
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Speaking of ‘dead parrots’, killed by excess heat in Queensland, 80 years ago …
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Great Links Tom, thanks, that site is truly a trove, “treasure trove” that is.
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Being technically stupid I cannot find the video. Can you please give the full link?
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Its a dynamic field:
First we had Global Warming,
..Then Climate Change,
…Then Climate Disruption,
….Then the Pause gave us Global Warming Disruption,
And now, Chris Turney’s special contribution ………..
………..CLIMATE CHANGE DISRUPTION!
(it’s worse than we thought)
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The only benefit that i see is that this so called scientific mission by the UNSW, Gardian, Fairfax, the ABC and the Greens has been outed as a complete fraud. It was nothing but a publicly funded private charter to the antarctic. Its a disgrace and the University needs to have its funding looked at if this is how it wastes public funds.
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From what I have gathered it was little more than a secondary school ‘field trip’ writ large, with attendant media.
I don’t know how many proper research stations (or how many personnel) run 365 days a year in Antarctica but I imagine it’s quite a lot. Do we hear much of them as a rule? No we do not.
It is a disgrace that genuine science can be degraded by frauds.
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The most laughable about the trip is all these climate experts on a ship loaded with scientific equipment designed to predict weather decades into the future could not predict the ice pack mere days or hours in advance. doh!
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Can someone please explain why this Australasian Antarctic Expedition was funded at all?
The Australian Department of the Environment has a fully funded Australian Antarctic Division. The AAD is responsible for delivering Outcome 3 of the Department’s Strategic Plan 2013–2017, “Advancement of Australia’s strategic, scientific, environmental and economic interests in the Antarctic by protecting administering and researching the region”. The Australian Antarctic Division is also responsible for delivering the Australian Antarctic program (AAp) in accordance with government priorities as articulated in the plan.
Over 300 staff (permanent and temporary) are employed, including:
– support centre, policy and science personnel based at Kingston in Tasmania
– the summer and wintering expeditioners serving in the Antarctic and subantarctic (and a fully equipped ice-breaker)
– key program scientists located at the University of Tasmania
Australia maintains three stations on the Antarctic continent – Mawson, Davis, and Casey – and a subantarctic station on Macquarie Island. All have modern buildings with living quarters, research laboratories, power houses, stores, workshops and other operational facilities. Remote field bases operate during the summer research season, supporting coastal, inland and traverse operations.
So Australia has a well-funded and well-managed Antarctic research program.
What was Prof Turney hoping to achieve with a poorly equipped expedition that could not be achieved through the AAD program?
From his Spirit of Mawson website:
We are going south to:
1. gain new insights into the circulation of the Southern Ocean and its impact on the global carbon cycle
2. explore changes in ocean circulation caused by the growth of extensive fast ice and its impact on life in Commonwealth Bay
3. use the subantarctic islands as thermometers of climatic change by using trees, peats and lakes to explore the past
4. investigate the impact of changing climate on the ecology of the subantarctic islands
5. discover the environmental influence on seabird populations across the Southern Ocean and in Commonwealth Bay
6. understand changes in seal populations and their feeding patterns in the Southern Ocean and Commonwealth Bay
7. produce the first underwater surveys of life in the subantarctic islands and Commonwealth Bay
8. determine the extent to which human activity and pollution has directly impacted on this remote region of Antarctica
9. provide baseline data to improve the next generation of atmospheric, oceanic and ice sheet models to improve predictions for the future.
And all of those objectives were going to be achieved in just one month at Commonwealth Bay, something that Australia’s permanent AAD has not achieved in many years of Antarctic research?
Is it possible that the AAD was not reporting enough alarmist news about how hot it is getting in the Antarctic?
451
He said even more on “lateline” – the presenter and he took it as a given that there was climate change – he was just going to measure how much.
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That’s an interesting list Robber.
I would assume from the list that they were going to spend at least ten years down there, however I doubt that.
Does anybody know exactly how long this little jaunt was going to take if things didn’t go awry?
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Their website talks about three years worth of data from Mawson’s expedition. My understanding is that this one was only going to be a few days over one month.
They could not possibly achieve anything of significance in regard to research in that short a time, particularly with a massive list of objectives which would require at least ten years of research to produce anything of value.
This was just a happy holiday for a few warming alarmists to try and make a name for themselves.
They certainly achieved that, however not in the way they had hoped – now known as a big bunch of lunatic idiots and thoroughly despised by real Antarctic researchers.
“The Love Boat” – Yves Frenot, the director of the French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor
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“They could not possibly achieve anything of significance in regard to research in that short a time, particularly with a massive list of objectives which would require at least ten years of research to produce anything of value.”
It gets worse. From what I read, there was no meteorologist on board. So who was measuring? The cook, an undergrad…? And what with? A finger held in the air? Surely the had proper recording apparatus.
70
Belfast,
There was one, it was Janet Rice, the Greens senator elect. She has a degree in Meteorology, but never used it.
And apparently didn’t on The Ship of Fools either, to busy at the red wine bar, singing and hugging penguins etc.
70
“A finger held in the air?” Impossible Belfast as all the “researchers” had any spare finger stuck firmly in an icehole.
50
You too can get a gold star… just say all the things that I have already said and you will do well!
01
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lmxly extremely well said and your ire is well founded, you have my respect.
40
Well said ! 🙂
30
lmxly
January 4, 2014 at 10:02 am ·
Thank you for your comment, Imxly.
I was most interested in the reaction of the Antarctic researchers, the real ones that is, a couple of whom I have known over the decades since full time Australian Antarctic research began, to this extremely costly in actual research opportunities to the real Antarctic scientists let alone as well the financial cost to the limited Antarctic research funding including that of the French and Chinese as well.
The loss of research opportunities and the shortened time period that is normanally only available in that time frame of perhaps 3 months in the Antarctic is a seriously bad blow to many Antarctic researchers
Extending right through to the actual real financial cost to the Australian, French and Chinese tax payer funded rescue operations and in all of the other Antarctic co-operating nations who in one way or another will be affected by this moronically created situation directly resulting from the desire of Turney and some / all of his other eco-loons desires to big note themselves as Antarctic explorers and researchers.
Unfortunately as I posted last night in the “careless risks” No 12 comment [ a short post as I lost the lot when hitting the submit button GRRR! You should all be grateful after my usual deadly long posts !!]] the numbers of Antarctic tourists are increasing rapidly and will continue to increase to the great detriment of the very fragile Antarctic environment which takes so long to recover as the intense cold slows down any biological activity ; ie reduces the ability to recover to a fraction of the recovery speeds of biological activity in a warmer climate.
Sometime in the not very distant future and in fact the sooner the better, the Antarctic treaty nations will have to impose a tourist limit per season or find some other system of restricting tourism and most importantly forcing any tourism company or organisation or any so called “scientific expeditions” [ which is how the tourism operators as per Turney and his climate catastrophe turkeys got around the tourism label ] which are not fully approved by the Antarctic treaty nations is brought into effect to prevent or very severely limit Antarctic tourism.
A start as can be seen in the quote below from the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition article Antarctic Tourism has been made by limiting ships with more than 500 passengers from embarking on land.
_________________________________
[quoted ]
Background
Tourism in Antarctica, Cuverville Island, Antarctic Peninsula
Although the majority of these tourists still travel in small or medium sized vessels, the industry is rapidly diversifying. Large passenger vessels (which often lack ice-strengthening fea
Alongside this, niche-marketed “adventure tourism” has developed – just about anything you may want to do involving parachutes, skis, motorbikes, can now be pandered to by commercial operators. Large numbers of people now land at key wildlife and historic sites in Antarctica and, increasingly, light aircraft, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles allow penetration further in from the coast. So-called “fly-sail” operations, whereby tourists are ferried by aircraft to ships in Antarctica, have also begun.
Although tourist trips to Antarctica began in the late 1950s, tourism remained at low levels until the early 1990s when it began to increase dramatically.
From a base of 4,698 tourists in the 1990/91 summer, annual numbers have risen to 36,875 over the 2009/2010 season.
Although tourist residence time is shorter, this means that vastly more tourists than scientists and support staff on national programs now visit the Antarctic each year.
Industry figures project a continuing increase in tourism numbers through this decade, although the recent economic downturn appears to have slowed increases dramatically.
As larger and larger ships are used for Antarctic cruises, the risks to the environment and human life grow.
Two recent accidents, the sinking of the MS Explorer in 2007 and the temporary grounding of the Ocean Nova in 2009, raise concerns about the prospect of similar accidents with much larger ships. Both ships had experienced crews and were lucky that there was no loss of life or environmental damage, but larger ships would likely not be so fortunate.
Significant quantities of fuel oil from a large ship could spill into Antarctic waters in the event of an accident, and the Antarctic is also not conducive to quick rescue.
fter the Explorer sinking, an Argentine navy commander commented that, “people cruising around Antarctica should know that we have no real ability to rescue them if they get into trouble.”
ASOC believes that these risks should be taken seriously – just because a serious accident has not occurred yet is no reason to be complacent.
The recent decision to prevent ships with more than 500 passengers from embarking on land is a positive initial step.
&
Current Tourism Issues
What makes Antarctica a particular concern is that there is no regulation of tourism at present.
Apart from an obligation to conduct prior Environmental Impact Assessments – which tourism operators are required to do – there is essentially no constraint on where you can go, what you can do, and how many of you can do it.
The practical consequence of this is that tourism is already exerting pressures on the Antarctic environment, and the increasing commercial interest is changing the nature of the Antarctic political regime.
Remarkably, for close to a decade after the adoption of the Protocol no state sought to seriously examine the Antarctic tourism industry or suggest any need to effectively regulate it. In the absence of such interest, the industry developed an entrenched and influential position in the Antarctic Treaty system.
Encouragingly, a number of key Antarctic states (led by France and New Zealand) have recently recognised the importance of tourism regulation. But the industry, and its association (IAATO) still argue that industry “self-regulation” is all that is required.
[ end quote]
________________________
It is only a matter of when, not if, there is another Antarctic tourism disaster on the scale of NZ flight TE 901 where 257 passengers and crew perished after the aircraft crashed on Mt Erebus.
A couple of suggestions to stop, prevent or severely / drastically limit non Antarctic research vessels ie tourism vessels and tourist carrying aircraft from being allowed further south than the 60th parallel which is close to the northern limits of the Antarctic winter pack ice.
Certainly each tourism operator should be required / mandated to carry a million or so dollars insurance for each tourist they bring into Antarctic waters and antarctic airspace.
[ Imagine the reaction and pressures on the antarctic research community to drop every thing and turn al resources to rescue if an aircraft crash on the scale of flight TE 901 occurred again and there were known to be survivors. along with the un-flyable conditions that TE901 persisted in going into ]
This would provide the assurance that all costs of any rescue would be covered and al costs or losses of dedicated research funds borne by the various Antarctic treaty nations in any rescue would be fully recoverable and the researchers who could not or did not carry out or complete their research programs due to very limited in both time and capabilities resources being diverted to rescue operations would also be fully reimbursed.
Only tourism operators approved by the Antarctic treaty nations should be allowed to take small contingents of tourists down below the 60th parallel .
And that access should be limited in both time period and the number of trips and the numbers of tourists.
And tax the tourism touts heavily for access to the Antarctic which would go towards setting up operational rescue systems and to compensate both nations and researchers for the time, trouble and trauma created by the usual irresponsibility of your usual money grubbing [ Antarctic ] tourism operators.
61
ROM;
Given your warning, I hesitate to tell you but … install Lazarus add-on and you will never lose a post again. Backed-up keystroke-by-keystroke in real time. Set retention for as long as you want.
An equally useful, at least, utility is ClipMate. Everything you copy is saved. As long as you want.
00
Imxly,
You obviously don’t understand the modernist rationale, which people like Prof. Turney illustrate to a tee. Narcissistic people like this are never personally responsible for any wrong doing, being automatically absolved from responsibility for any consequences whether foreseeable or unforeseen, whereupon the “fates” clearly must have conspired against them or they were merely victims of ill-fortune or “bad karma”. Because the Australian taxpayers are perceived through the prism of being merely an extension of themselves and their ego-centric perception of their own importance, there is obviously no need for an actual apology for any wrong doing, malfeasance or misrepresentation, and such considerations pale into insignificance anyway when compared to the undoubtedly vital and ground-breaking research they are undertaking. As perpetual fonts of wisdom, they have no obligation either to truth or facts or reality, but can shape or mold any inconvenient reality to conform to their preferred narrative.
Hence, their 8 day piss up on a Russian frigate ill-equipped for the journey, and delayed by their own lack of contingency planning and survival skills, assumes the mantle of legendary status to rival the exploits of a Mawson or Shackleton, as these “intrepid” and “valiant” researchers brave the vicissitudes of an unstocked minibar and an intermittent internet connection, not to mention braving the dangers of narrow ships corridors and the absence of chiropractic-endorsed innerspring mattresses.
These are clearly brave souls on a noble quest at the vanguard of scientific discovery, Imxly. So, wish them well and godspeed, for they are the better aspect of mankind being as beacons of enlightenment in an otherwise barren wasteland of intellectual lightweights and timid souls such as we.
160
Wish I’d said that.
01
Logical or Illogical?
Quote: Hottest year shows need for carbon tax: Labor, Greens
Using the same ‘climate science logic‘:
Extreme un-seasonal summer ice, in summer, in Antarctica during ‘hottest summer ever’, is evidence the carbon(sic) tax is too ‘extreme’.
– Australia carbon(sic) tax 2.2 years old
– 25 years world wide carbon(sic) taxes
Logical 3rd option: carbon(sic) tax has nothing to do with climate and is fraudulent.
Jail the frauds.
230
What is the chance of Turney ever getting a government grant again?
20
Overwhelming, even if he has to wait for another Labor/Green Government. As the Grants Committee is still dominated by Greens, Warmist’s and environmentalist, he probably is already at the top of the list.
You watch this fiasco, spun into proof of Global Warming adversely changing conditions in the Antarctic.
110
You betcha!
I have already read (somewhere!) the explanation for the record sea ice levels in Antarctica are due to “fresher water at the surface due to melting cause by global warming, which in turn freezes more easily, thus causing even more ice!” [paraphrased]
Ridiculous, isn’t it?
100
Yes!
60
Backslider,
If it’s so bloody fresh why don’t some of the warmists PROVE it by dipping a glass into it AND DRINKING IT IN FULL!!
And pigs might fly.
Cheers,
10
The thing is this, if you look at the “Spirit of Mawson” website, it says this:
I have asked a few of our trolls as to what is wrong with this statement, but none of them are game enough to bite 🙂
30
Sea level is unaffected by melting float ice, pretty much, but it would cool the “warm water” considerably, and hence the land, and expose more polar SS to be able to radiate into space causing more cooling. Kind of like trying to runaway in quicksand.
00
Hey I think you might be on to something there.
“Don’t eat the yellow snow, right where the Penguins go…”
“…and the Penguin wee wee has blinded me, temporarily. ”
So there we have it. Chris Turney and co must have eaten the yellow snow. This explains everything.
(Apologies to Frank Zappa as I paraphrased a few lines from “Yellow Snow”)
10
Come on Popeye!
Be realistic!
Why should any intrepid, risk taking world class Antarctic explorer and researcher attempt to drink sea water when after his / her day’s research speeding in 6 wheel drive Argo’s across the dramatically and catastrophically warming Antarctic ice sheet in the harshest conditions on this planet, drink water when the mini bar was open and vodka martinis’ are being served.?
31
Oh f**k why do you have to enunciate my worst fears?
10
Based on past records — pretty good. Indeed,give it time, he may head up a commission one day and get $180k a year for 3 days a week… the worse the predictions the higher the reward.
60
Will he have wasted as much money as Flannery’s geothermal façade??
Time will tell !!!
10
LOL! Sounds like Hansen and Mann in the US!
00
I for one think that this adventure deserves its own song or at least a parody based on the following.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR7qxtgCgY
10
I’m not sure if Jo and readers are aware that the climate change group at the UNSW which planned, managed and undertook this fiasco are from the department of BEES (biology, earth science, and environment). BEES has recently received an approved budget of several hundred million dollars of taxpayers money to build a new science building at the UNSW. This will clearly be a monument to this stupidity.
Should the Australian taxpayer be rewarding these people?
I’d like to see the climate change group in BEES be disbanded and separated from an otherwise excellent school and any new funding focused on real science by genuine scientists.
210
Maybe the Government will withdraw the funding for the new climate science cathedral to pay for this stuff up. “Of course I jest”.
70
Um, there’s nothing left to “separate” after it’s disbanded. Just sayin’.
00
I am reasonably sure the real purpose of the Turney scientific expedition was to search for proof that the polar bears had died out in the Antarctic because of global warming. So, the jaunt was a success after all.
Well, it’s no more ridiculous than what he and his spin doctors will be claiming for the expedition’s successes in the weeks and months ahead
111
Never mind. It was worth it, just to see this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=03SWGkxt72A
40
Doesn’t take long, that piece of cinema must be the most used for parody’s ever.
20
That’s because there’s an app for that.
50
Sometimes life’s challengers are just too easy.
30
Despite that the subtext is priceless, it’s a very funny one, though I’m still chuckling at the earths atmosphere being sucked up a 1x1m tube by a Christmas light… Can’t wait for Futurama to do that one!
00
Well done Julie Bishop and the Aussie Govt.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/20597009/aussie-government-defends-arctic-activist-response/
60
Hi Ross,another one for the irony list.Greenpeace activists held in Russia not allowed to go home,we have Russian ship that wants to but can’t go home.
00
Take it out of
Kensington Tech’sUniversity of New South Wales’ budget.30
After all the hooha is over, I wonder what the carbon footprint will be for this folly?
The hypocrisy is just off the scale…..so situation normal then.
90
New Release from AMSA:
Aurora Australis released from tasking in Antarctica
The Aurora Australis has been released from search and rescue tasking by RCC Australia early this morning and continues to make its passage to the Casey base to complete a resupply. It will then continue to Hobart.
And the 50 odd refugees on board will demand, breakfast, lunch & dinner plus drinks. Hope they release what the Masters of both Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long report back to the owners for insurance purposes. Will no doubt involve Capt Gilligan Turkey.
90
I heard they’re confined to quarters for the duration. They’ll be aphasic and drooling by the time they arrive.
00
Hello Jo, by now, I am sure we have all heard the BOM claim that 2013 was the hottest year on record. (for Australia) Forgetting for a second how the record has been adjusted, it was with some curiosity that I was looking at a post over at WUWT which has the satellite data for 2013. Now, the BOM claims that the temp anomoly in 2013 was 1.2 Deg C. Eyeballing the temperature contours from the satellite data, it is practically impossible that this is true, and it would appear to have been closer to 0.6 Deg C.
70
Apparently those trying to get REAL research done in Antarctica aren’t amused by the fact that three ships badly needed to get supplies into the continent during the brief summer window are now tied up with these theatrics.
http://notrickszone.com/2014/01/03/french-le-monde-follows-revkin-blasts-turneys-antarctic-joy-ride-for-disrupting-real-antarctic-science/
110
Apologies, I see this has been covered above.
10
For the record, here’s a comment from France.
“After describing how the botched expedition and the ensuing helicopter rescue, Le Monde writes how the relief operations are now “endangering several major research programs being conducted on different scientific bases of the sixth continent.” There’s only a 3-month window available for supply ships to make vital deliveries. Time is of the essence when it comes to logistics in Antarctica. On the Turney expedition, Le Monde quotes Yves Frenot, the French Director of the Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV): It is a tourist pseudo-scientific expedition. It’s a little ‘cruise fun’.” Glaciologist Jérôme Chappellaz of the Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l’Environnement, who is still at the Casey Antarctic base, said: The expedition was presented as being scientific, but there are tourists on board who paid to go on a trip.” Because of the distress call coming from the Turney’s chartered expedition vessel Akademik Shokalskiy, Le Monde writes: “Vital supplies comprising hundreds of tons of food, fuel and equipment could not be fully discharged from the Aurora Australis, which was requisitioned in emergency.” The supply disruption is not the only thing that irked scientists on other Antarctic bases in need of vitally important supplies, but they later had to watch booze-cruise, spring break like going-ons onboard the ice-bound Akademik Shokalskiy. Le Monde quotes Mr. Chappellaz: At Casey, when the colleagues learned the ‘Australis’ had been requisitioned, there was a little panic. What was most shocking was the manner in which the members on the Shokalskiy expedition communicated: on screens we saw them partying, singing, etc. – without at any time seeming to ask what they were putting in peril.” Le Monde also quotes glaciologist Joe McConnell (Australian Antarctic Division) in the New York Times, who stated the rescue operations will also likely cause considerable disruptions for French and Chinese programs because their vessels had also also been diverted. Le Monde writes that the cost of the Chinese and Australian ice breakers are close to $80,000 per day – each! And that doesn’t include the crew! Right now the Chinese Xue Long is trapped in ice and no one can say how long before it will get out. M. Chappellaz vents: It is not normal that this expedition, which uses science as a pretext for adventure-tourism, is jeopardizing multi-annual research programs.” Finally Le Monde raises concerns that the pictures of a stranded “climate science vessel” trapped in deep ice may be leaving a long lasting false message on the subject of global warming in the minds of the worldwide public. Finally, perhaps these two reports from the New York Times and Le Monde provide hope in that in the future they will start to distinguish between the sophomoric alarmist climate scientists who want to change the world in a rush, and those that are truly serious about doing real science. – See more at: http://notrickszone.com/2014/01/03/french-le-monde-follows-revkin-blasts-turneys-antarctic-joy-ride-for-disrupting-real-antarctic-science/#sthash.wH0xgyUB.dpuf
150
The party atmosphere calls into question the need for immediate rescue. After all, the crew are still there. What was so important about getting these turkeys off this ship? Couldn’t it have waited till after Australis had finished its supply mission to the real scientists?
50
OOOps, crosspatch has already spoken, missed it before I posted. Apologies Geoff.
20
One thing seems to be proved – that species cannot adapt to rapid climate change.
In this instance the species (Prof Turney and his ‘crew’) left their natural climate (a/c and CH offices and laboratories) to discover the real world for a change – result?
‘catastrophe’ – as it happens, mainly for others.
60
Here is the actual quote from the director of the French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor
This translates to:
The “Love Boat“…. love it!
71
Your French is deplorable! The words ‘un cruise d’amuse’ translates as ‘a fun cruise’; not Love boat – that’s your own idiotic spin!
25
Try Google translate you dork.
10
C’mon guys, we’re all supposed to be on the same side.
20
Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, it’s the Love Boat (French Version).
I guess that your French could do with some polishing, huh?
21
the French probably didn’t feel they could use “Le Croisière sexe” 😉
maybe “La Croisière amour” ?
20
I think that the French are smart enough to pick up on the innuendo…. others perhaps not.
00
And why exactly do people go on a “fun cruise” ? What are their expectations. 😉
30
““La croisière s’amuse”. ”
Well, yes.. it has certainly been very amusing !
Hilarious, actually ! 🙂
20
They had to be removed from the Shokalskiy because they were running out of food. Presumably before any Mawson-type cannibalism broke out.
80
I guess they’re now breaking into the food on the Aurora which was destined for the bases. A sudden arrival of 57 more mouths must be quite something. The cook(s) will be loving them. What an honour and privilege to have such types aboard.
100
Robber and others commented on the implausible “serious science” nature of this escapade.
The organisers gave the game away by including that media contingent from only pro-CAGW biassed green/left leaning organisations.
Apart from pseudo-science adventurism, the trip was surely to provide a hefty new supply of new startling “evidence” of the effects of AGW on vulnerable and remote Antarctica. Lots of “be very alarmed” articles and video for myriads of believers that would also nurture more teaching (indoctrination) and research grant funding.
I wonder if the fare paying passengers were given any status as research assistants or partakers of professional development by the organisers. Such categorisation could be convenient come income tax return time by claiming some of the fare costs as a tax refund?
60
A judicial inquiry would seem to be in order, including all financing and the status of each passenger.
The useless and Warmist Greg Hunt should not be allowed to have anything to do with any investigation.
Turney must surely step down from his UNSW post, for the sake of decency and for what remains of the reputation of the UNSW. He comes across as a partially educated zealot, unfit to run a school outing let alone pretend he’s conducting research according to the principles of the Scientific Method.
70
Don’t pay one red cent. They made their beds, now let them live or die in them.
60
Hey, how kewl is this, even if it is off topic.
The article at this link is from my local media outlet here in Rockhampton, The Bulletin, so it’s me who is subject to these astounding temperatures.
Trust the media to inflate things, with just the addition of one word, and allow me to place it in block quotes to bold that word which alters the whole meaning.
60 to 64C.
Oh dear.
I suppose they could even get a journalist to have a thermometer, and then focus a magnifying glass at the base bulb, and see if they can get it up to 100C.
Tony.
101
I like this bit:
So now the warmists have a new measure of temperature, just to make it even hotter “DIRECT sun temperatures” …. LMAO!!!
I think that we should balance this out with a “DIRECT wind chill temperature” when we measure Antarctic temperatures 😛
So who exactly is this “Local weatherman Mike Griffin”? Can we get him sacked?
30
My blog’s home base is Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, and yes that is the home of TMI. The temperature there right now, at 11PM (their local time now) is Minus 12C. It’s still going down and will reach Minus 16C. The maximum for Saturday (day time their time) is hoped to be Minus 2C at around 4PM. Snow is expected on Sunday and Monday, and the overnight low Monday night is forecast to be Minus 18C.
Give me strength.
41C here right now. I know which I’d rather.
Tony.
31
Where’s “The Hoth” (aka Brian Hother) – he’s gone missing….
Maybe he’s just taking a little “pause” in his CAGW postings.
30
Maybe he has heat stroke from all the “heat”……..
wishing !
20
Seeing as my taxes are probably going to be bailing these turkeys out we may as well keep laughing at the situation.
http://youtu.be/Bv0gglFSUOc
20
Can we please drop the misconception that this jaunt had anything to do with “science”?
It was, from beginning to when it went pear-shaped, a propaganda exercise designed to counter growing climate skepticism, run jointly by Twerkey, the University of NSW (UNSW), the BBC and the ABC, with backup from the Guardian and Fairfax newspapers.
The UNSW provided $1.5 million in seed capital. Twerkey provided the pseudo-scientific veneer, the ABC provided the technicians – camera operators and sound technicians, and the BBC provided one of their chief talking heads as “anchor” – one Andrew Luck-Baker. Given this guy is the BBC’s latest incarnation of Sir David Attenborough, you can safely assume he had his own hair stylist and make-up artist on board as well. Plus a twenty-something “research assistant”.
Also on board were journalists from the Guardian and Fairfax – more of them later.
There is never enough money for these block-buster extravaganzas – just ask George Lucas. Plus they needed some “extras” to be filmed doing “scientifical” things in the background, while Luck-Baker interviewed Twerkey in different locations, discussing dying penguin colonies and receding sea ice, and all manner of things that “proved” climate change.
So Twerkey hit on the idea of advertising for PhD students, science teachers and the like, to pay their own fares (or more likely, for their faculties to pay for them out of public funds), so they could be unpaid
TV film extrasexpedition research assistants. The response was so overwhelming Twerkey had to employ taxpayer-funded professional explorer Greg Mortimer to vet the applications and pick the “best team”.Those lucky enough to be amongst the “Chosen Few” paid between $8,000.00 and $19,000.00 each, for the privilege, the amount depending on how much of the voyage they were partaking in – it was apparently broken down into “legs”.
The end result of all this was meant to be a BBC documentary on the “Effects of Climate Change on Antarctica”, which would be screened jointly by the BBC and the ABC. Obviously advance publicity would boost audience viewing numbers, hence the presence of the Guardian and Fairfax reporters, who were supposed to provide a continuous supply of articles for the print and online versions of their respective newspapers.
How do we know all this? Because the ABC, the BBC, the Guardian and Fairfax were running stories on this “largest and most expensive Australian Antarctic Expedition ever”, fully a month before it ever left. Only back then they were all “climate scientists”, not “passengers” or “tourists”.
To the best of my memory, this is the largest, most blatant, fraudulent misuse of public funds in my lifetime. That they were funds allocated from the Education Budget at a time when we are being asked to throw even more billions into that socialist-controlled cesspit just makes it even more astounding.
That this fraud was an attempt to use Australian taxpayer’s funds to produce a climate change propaganda film to be used by the ABC and BBC, both publicly-funded bodies themselves, just adds to the indignation. That the effort has now led to the ruination of not one, but three countries’ Antarctic research for this year, simply heaps on more shame. That the entire disgusting sham was hidden from public view by outright lies propagated as “news” by the ABC, adds a completely new dimension to the concept of dishonesty.
But as outstandingly disgusting as all those facts are, none of them represent the absolute bottom of the sewer. That place is indisputably reserved for the members of our duly elected “conservative” government, who individually and collectively have managed to remain totally silent as all this has unfolded. Ten days of drama and revelation of wrongdoing involving millions of dollars and with ongoing international ramifications, and not so much as a peep.
.
So bring on your red thumbs, all you Liberal Luvvies. After this display of wanton cowardice any of you who still think this mob of gutless, lazy, corrupt trough-swillers are any different for the last lot of gutless, lazy, corrupt trough-swillers, is in serious need of psychiatric help.
820
Brilliant wrap-up..
Should be forwarded to ALL politicians.. and I mean the Greens as well
And to ALL news agencies.
200
Stop making fun of them, you nasty ‘conservatives’.
They were only trying to save the planet!
30
Great.
Whatever those d*ckheads were looking for down there it wouldn’t have couldn’t possibly have been due to long-term climate change.
20
May I have your permission to re-blog this via my newsletter?
Thanks
Grumpy
40
Go for it, Grumpy.
Once I post something on a blog, as far as I am concerned it’s in the public domain.
No need even for personal accreditation.
It would be nice however (though not a requirement), if you linked back to the main article on JoNova.
http://joannenova.com.au/2014/01/australian-taxpayers-will-pay-400000-cost-for-climate-scientists-ship-stuck-in-ice-total-cost-millions/
60
Posted and dispatched. All links honoured (honored?).
Thanks.
http://grumpydenier.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/these-items-caught-my-eye-5-january-2014/
11
I think each of the rescued should have to sell their homes/ assets to pay for their rescue. The PhD students should have their resume’s permanently marked that they were taken in by the academic charade of pseudo-science. I know it isn’t possible, but I can dream.
110
[…] the Antarctic summer ice, the trip for climate reporters was paid for by the Australian tax payers: Australian taxpayers will pay $400,000 cost for climate scientist’s ship stuck in ice. Total cost …. The point of the trip was to gather support for climate change and show how fast the polar ice is […]
10
MemoryVault has it pretty much right. over at Bishop Hill, there’s a growing awareness that Daily Mail & Daily Telegraph – both conservative – have been as remiss in their reporting of this CAGW fiasco, as the so-called CAGW media directly connected to the trip (which includes Google).
imagine the years’ worth of concocted studies & newspaper/tv headlines this lot were working on – for an idea, see Robber’s list of potential topics above.
as for Sky carrying what appears to be a Le Monde story, surely there is a followup story for Sky – contacting the “counterpart” in Australia who is “spitting tacks with anger” for comment!
Sky: ‘The Chinese have had to cancel all their scientific programme, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out.’
check how much England is spending (and how many they are employing) on their Enviro Agency compared to others in the EU!
Bishop Hill: The bureaucracy’s media defenders
The news this morning is that the Environment Agency is going to cut 1500 jobs in a bid to cut costs. In response. the mainstream media are beating their breasts and wailing about impending disaster..
This news does, however, give me an opportunity to link to Inside the Environment Agency, a blog set up by agency insiders to expose the corruption, inefficiency and graft that goes on inside the agency. It’s an amazing read and I thoroughly recommend it…
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/3/the-bureaucracys-media-defenders.html
70
Pat mentions The UK Telegraph’s failure to correctly identify the true identity of those rescued.
One Journalist, Harriet Alexander, published a story Friday the 3rd, January in which she refers to them as passengers.
One reader has gone to town on her twitter account.
The second link will only be available for a limited time.
20
“by the end of the decade”? why not immediately?
3 Jan: UK Telegraph: James Kirkup/Bruno Waterfield: Europe wants to block UK wind farm subsidies
European climate action commissioners say state aid for renewable technologies should be phased out by the end of the decade
Taxpayer support for solar energy must also be cut, the commission will say.
The commission, which oversees the European single market, is preparing to argue that the onshore wind and solar power industries are “mature” and should be allowed to operate without support from taxpayers…
“I never thought I’d say this but the commission is absolutely right about this,” a Conservative minister said.
“It’s absurd that taxpayers are being made to subsidise wind technology.” …
Despite British enthusiasm for reducing subsidies, politicians in other EU states may resist pressure to withdraw public support for renewables.
Connie Hedegaard, the EU’s climate action commissioner, said the eventual aim was the end of state aid for wind power. “One of the things Europe has to do better is how we subsidise renewables,” she said.
“That is why the commission is reviewing state aid guidelines for energy, including renewables.”
“My view is that if you have mature technologies, renewables or not, they should not have state aid. If they can manage themselves why have state aid?” …
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/renewableenergy/10548157/Europe-wants-to-block-UK-wind-farm-subsidies.html
30
There is a sting in the tail. Removing the feed in tariffs and other subsidies makes all renewables unviable. However the “renewable directive” still stands. By 2020 (for the UK) 15% of ALL energy use must be from renewables. If this production cannot be “cheapened” then the cost of fossil fuels must be raised. This would require a carbon tax – long desired by the EU but, to date, resisted. As I said on WUWT,
this is a back door entry in more ways than one.
30
***note it is the writer who thinks it is Winter in Antarctica. note the writer cannot link to any CAGW sceptic website where all the investigating has taken place; instead, he portrays sceptics merely as gloaters on CAGW websites!
3 Jan: UK Financial Times: Christopher Caldwell: A cruise that will cost the climate campaign dear
(The writer is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard)
Amid the worldwide relief that the passengers are now en route to Tasmania on the Australian supply ship Aurora Australis, another note is audible. Many websites where readers normally take climate change for granted have been inundated by posts from gloating disbelievers. ***The Australian group belittled the winter that nearly killed them and got a comeuppance, say the detractors. Such posts appear on the many YouTube videos uploaded by passengers (“For all your self-aggrandising bluster, you will go down in history as Turney’s turkeys . . . You are an international laughing stock”), on the Spirit of Mawson Twitter feed (“If the #spiritofmawson has taught us anything it’s the low level of intellect among those who have ‘settled’ the science”) and even on the New York Times’s Dot Earth blog, where the writer Andrew Revkin notes that the incident has “energised climate change contrarians”…
COMMENT BY FreeOregon: It’s SUMMER in Antarctic, not winter…
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/04276fd8-69ca-11e3-aba3-00144feabdc0.html
30
This story has reached zerohedge
The comments are nearly uniformly sceptical.
40
Ex-Warmie,
Thanks for the link- best comment, IMO- toned down for the kiddies of course, defines a “progressive” as someone who would step over a dying homeless person to save a feral cat.
That one’s gotta hurt.
20
(1) Find the passenger manifest of this trip.
(2) Send them the bill.
(3) Find everything about them and show the public.
They like to waste our money. As a taxpayer, we’ll respond in kind and waste their academic, political, etc reputations/resumes.
The Australian taxpayer is not to be f**ked with. This is a clear message that must be sent to all activists.
…Just watch them scurry like cockroaches. (They can only do evil deeds when no one is paying attention. Then they play dumb when they are caught.)
90
When you read the results from Landsat 8 from WUWT, you can see the reference to record Antarctica temps. Also noted that it beat a previous record from I believe 1983. If so, then where is the GW, as in nonexistent. I asked NOAA for the mutidecade temp track for Antarctica as Dr. Easterbrook noted that there had been zero warming in Antarctica for 30 years and in fact the Southern Oscillation had in fact been cooling. I have yet to get it. Here’s his article. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/09/coldest-ever-temperature-recorded-on-earth-found-in-antarctica/
40
Maybe ” Turkey” did some research before they left and thought they would sail into Commonwealth Bay just like Mawson. With all the nasty AGW it was bound to be ice free as it was then. /sarc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-9yJ6-6aEs
60
Take heart my friends -there are many people who share our opinions! …. And the Australian newspaper!Three cheers!
130
Here is my account of the climate alarmists that were rescued from Antarctic summer sea ice.
http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?id=324
20
Your link throws up a 403 Forbidden page.
20
I hope that you copied that page. It is gone now!
20
Australian SBS News coverage of the story at 6.48 pm 4 January refreshingly reported some of the wide criticism levelled at the expedition’s organisers by French and other national organisations.Those groups undertake serious year-round Antarctic research.
Their logistical support programs were seriously disrupted by the imposed need to rescue the MV Akademik Shokalskiy’s passengers from the University of NSW’s vainglorious attempted blockbuster expedition to escalate the shock factor about CAGW.
This issue is opening up in the global spotlight in terms of the expedition’s bona fides as an objective scientific study.
SBS also made a pointed statement that the expedition was “privately funded”. That claim doesn’t ring true from any analysis of the escapade’s funding I have been able to find to date.
University of NSW, please release the detailed funding base of this escapade. I don’t believe that taxpayer funding has not been channeled indirectly or directly into this Spirit of Mawson fiasco that is playing out in the Antarctic summer of December-January 2013-14.
PS – The is a message to the Chancellor/VC of UNSW. Don’t let your UNSW spinmeisters take over the public information reins on this. Prof Turney has put Uni of NSW so far out on a plank of global public scrutiny of this growingly contested issue of CAGW that any bandaid coverage attempts will be fully exposed in the fullness of the Australian taxpayer-driven inquiry.
20
The track of the Xue Long up to half an hour ago:
http://i43.tinypic.com/e88tg0.jpg
The ship has been zig zagging in 15 different directions over an area about 50 metres wide.
Does anybody know why the Aurora Australis turned off its transponder on 25 Dec 2013?
00
Maybe the gps just isn’t very precise down there. It does take 3 or 4 satellites to get a reasonable position fix, they may not be available?
00
Yes, and the polar regions don’t get good coverage from the GPS constellation – PS it takes the number of fix dimensions + 1 so for a 2D fix you need 3 satellites and for a 3D fix (ie with elevation) you need 4. It because in the equation you need to resolve X,Y,Z, and T (Time), there are 4 unknowns so you need 4 equations.
00
It’s interesting that the positions are more X fixed and Y variable.
It does look like accuracy errors involved, where the X is more difficult to calculate, and Y slides up and down.
00
The ship transponders transmit position, course and speed. You can hover over the apex of each course change and at the time I did the screen capture it showed a variety of directions and speeds. If this was merely a GPS inaccuracy on a stationary ship I would expect to see the same direction all the time and a speed of zero. And I don’t see that, so I suggest the ship was moving around in an attempt to break free. However it’s mostly broadcasting a speed of zero or 0.1 knot right at this moment, so I guess they are waiting for the Polar Star, which is currently opposite Bendigo.
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Hi Jo
So I take it you and guys here are still pursuing Tony Bullimore, Thierry Dubois and Raphael Dinelli for the money: about $15 million it cost to pull them out of the Southern Ocean, I believe. And don’t forget Isabelle Autissier: there goes another $6 million. Oh, and more recently there’s Mike Golding, he needed assistance from the RAN and Yann Elies had to be rescued as well at an estimated cost of $1 million. $400,000 sounds like small change.
And all this sympathy for the Scientific Researchers at Casey who have had their work so rudely interrupted. What work is that?? Research into Climate Change and its impact on the Antarctic: you know, that research you willingly misinterpret and so gladly ridicule and deride because it apparently shows a warming climate. And the scientists themselves, Government employees with those easy jobs, as you say bleeding the taxpayer dry with all their research grants, sucking, on the “Government Teat”.
Please, spare us the faux outrage.
[There has always been healthy debate about the Australian tax payer wearing the costs of rescuing adventurers who take unnecessary risks in the pursuit of their own personal pleasure or self promotion in competitions and the like. It is hard to argue against a proposal where all such participants and competitors should be required to take out insurance to cover the cost of rescue and if they cannot afford to do so then they should not undertake the voyage. If they do so without insurance they should expect to be pursued for the recovery of the costs to the full extent of the law.
Where it is a government sanctioned scientific expedition for the benefit of the people it is reasonable to expect the taxpayer to accept the cost of any rescue. But the nub of this case is that the scientific value appears to be questionable as being pointed out by real Antarctic researchers who have had their research severely interrupted by this ill-concieved escapade.
You haven’t been paying much attention if you think Antarctic researchers have been demonstrating a warming climate because the evidence of increasing sea ice and stable temperatures does not reflect the predictions made by the UN IPCC and the projections by climate models — Mod]
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Hi Long Distance, stick around and read a bit more.
We object to the $1.5m wasted in the first place for a junket and PR jaunt with journalists to tell us how stupid we are about the climate. I don’t believe Bullimore, Dubois, or Dinelli asked for our funds to go on their trips? I didn’t see them dancing on deck telling us how much fun they were having after they got stuck either. Nor did the media pretend their mission changed after it got embarrassing.
If I’ve misinterpreted anything, do tell, otherwise I’ll assume you are just repeating the misinformation on so-called science blogs that think science is done by consensus.
We support real research, and want more funding for scientists who understand the scientific method.
I ridicule junk science. What do you do?
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Briefly,
Universities accept private donations as well.
Here’s a list of donors : http://www.giving.unsw.edu.au/unsw-honour-roll#millionabove
There is no evidence public money was used in this instance.
You were however complaining about the cost of the rescue, see the title of the thread. That is why I referenced the stranded yachties, and they were all racing for prizemoney, and all had sponsors. So why are you not chasing these people and their sponsors for the costs involved in their rescue, after all it was taxpayer money that returned them safely to land.
With regard to the science, you only have to read your own blog to see the contempt in which Government Scientists are held.
It’s late, goodnight.
06
Good try.
See the top ten supporters
Climate Change Research Centre
Australian Government ARC
Department of Conservtion NZ
Exeter University UK
The Kauri Museum NZ
Landcare Research NZ (Caring for Antarctic trees?)
Mawsons Huts Foundation
SA Museum
University Waikato NZ
Total revenue of UNSW was $1.1b in 2012. So how much of that was donations?
I don’t treat any real scientists with contempt. (But the government funded people who hide their data, won’t reveal their methods, and break laws of reason — you think they are worthy of respect? I think they don’t deserve the term “scientist”.)
As for the yachties, are you arguing they were partaking in a waste of time publicly funded venture and taking unnecessary risks as well?
We can debate whether they should have had insurance, but that is another topic…
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It was a PROPAGANDA JAUNT paid for immorally from taxpayer funds, and it went very wrong because of the arrogance and ignorance of the people involved.
They deserve EVERY BIT of ridicule that gets heaped on them.
Hopefully a significant part of the costs of the rescue will be slated home to them and/or the organisations that backed them.
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Just picked this up from a commenter on WUWT. AA is now out of the ice.
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=VNAA
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They had about 2 weeks worth of fresh food. After the New Year party, suddenly, there was only 5 days worth of food. Lawrence Topham was complaining about bananas and peanut butter milkshakes (being not available). As soon as they went aboard the Australis, Jha had consumed a host of sweet delicacies and ice-creams.
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Aurora Web cam shows the ship is in clear water, and heading north at 65 degrees S now (previously it was 67 degrees S).
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora
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Any news on the Chinese vessel ?
00
ps .. I hope the crew of the “tourist ship” are ok.
I have a feeling they could have a long wait !
Anthony Watts said about 8 days until the wind changes and MAYBE starts to loosen the ice.
It that doesn’t happen, the ship may have to be abandoned.
That will make it a VERY EXPENSIVE little propaganda exercise !!!
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Does anyone know what the other words were in the snow on the heli-deck? (Not the snow angel – the words that we can only see the tops of, below the word “Green”.)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHCutuHK0ZQ&feature=player_embedded
short but sweet !
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Why do so many insist on calling the Chinese ship “Snow Dragon”? Her name is quite clearly “Xue Long” – or is that too difficult to say? How about “Academic Shokalskiy”? A lot longer, more syllables and harder to say – why not call it “Professor Smith”? Or the “Aurora Australis” the “Southern Lights”?
Poor quality journalism writ large.
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The stranded vessel is commonly referred to now as The Global Warming “Clitanic” = Climate + Titanic. As the global warming cultists are well aware, their entire campaign has been about branding, propaganda, bending data to suit never proven conclusions, all with the objective of what can only be referred to today with all due respect as the “illegitimate” use of research dollars. Clearly the worm is turning as one segment of research has turned on them and is devouring the deception: namely satellite data. Simply check the Landsat 8 data for Antarctica = recent planetary record cold observed (some global warming!) They can’t shake this data, and as it gets into the public domain without their ability to hide or alter the data, or control who publishes (Climategate), their credibility diminishes. The problem and educational mess we have to clean up is the cultists effectively cleverly promoted the never proven global warming theory to infect numerous education systems around the world. This is no different than what happened in cold war communist countries with their Pravda-type propaganda campaign. It’s a long project but the gig is up and they are losing. The most effective strategy is to crush them with facts and data every day. Their folly, such as the rebranded Global Warming Clitanic, has to be turned on them to highlight their ongoing deception. Thanks Australia for taking the lead in denouncing the wasted resources and illegitimate use of research dollars and diminishing these bogus IPCC conferences. Side note: If the Global Warming Clitanic gets crushed in the ice, who is going to clean up the oil spill? Last time I checked that ship is not solar powered.
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Who in the “Australian elite” signed off on this expedition??????????????????????????????
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Send the bill to The Guardian!
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[…] because the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long which also responded to the SOS call is now itself also trapped in the ice: The saga just keeps going. The Chinese Icebreaker is now also stuck, and has asked for help so the […]
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Is this article perchance Prof Turney’s answer to global climate change. http://www.rexresearch.com/carbonscape/carbonscape.htm “The invention came about when scientist Professor Chris Turney was attempting to cook dinner in a hurry and accidentally blew up the family microwave. He realised he had created pure carbon, and immediately saw its potential in the marketplace.” “Carbonspace’s prototype machine, dubbed “the black phantom” was manufactured by a local design and engineering team, and can be fitted into a 40-foot shipping container. This means that it can be taken into remote places.”
A schematic drawing in included. It shows trees being used to make charcoal. No. I am not kidding.
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Bob,when this super microwave is on location in a forest,with generator,would it be powered by solar or wind.What is the final product used for.
00
Sorry Bob,I did’nt read further down on the link.The idea is to reduce trees to charcoal and bury it.Sounds as economical as wind energy.
00
Farmers have ploughed the remains of their crop into the ground for millennium !!!
And seriously.. burning trees to create charcoal???
Nature can do that all by herself thanks, Prof Turkey !!!!
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Bullocky post #11
I fear you may have unknowingly given the High Priests of Warming a new fear line, as in:
‘It’s a dynamic field’ …..of Global Warming. Or imagine the power of this from Prof Cap’n Turney:
‘It’s a dynamic field of Cimate Change Disruption’
I expect to see it quoted soon.
(It could indeed be worse than we thought).
Peter
10
Sounds like the rescue is going to put a lot of greenhouse gases into the air. Think of all the endangered species that will die just so these Global Warming fanatics can live. They should wave off any attempts are rescue and sacrifice themselves for the good of the planet.
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[…] http://joannenova.com.au/2014/01/australian-taxpayers-will-pay-400000-cost-for-climate-scientists-sh… […]
00
It has been a long cold winter so far up here in Canadia. This is wonderful entertainment. I’ve
wastedinvested dozens of hours scouring JoNova, WUWT, SDA and Real Science.Thanks to this Jo Nova for all of the hard work over the years. Good stuff.
Not sure how to post an image here. I am reminded of an old Far Side cartoon, the Bozone Layer. The universe needs protecting from the likes of Turney.
[Provide a reference to the image, using the ‘link’ control.] -Fly
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Okay…tried embedding an image. Here is the link.
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/jamessavik/cartoons/BozoneLayer.jpg
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First the Chinese, then the Aussies and now the US are being called in to help the Ship Of Fools.
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Ya, whaddya think this whole thread has been about? Deign to read a few posts before adding simple-minded observations.
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Why not just leave the warmers where they are so they can report first hand on the loss of Antarctic ice?
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Trying to duplicate the Mawson expedition that made the route in a wooden ship a century ago without a squadton of modern icebreakers. Epic fail and still hawking the AGW nonsense.
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I think that the Russian Cli-tanic captain made a good-faith effort to do his job. When he became aware of the sea ice situation, he ordered everyone to return to the vessel ASAP. If the tourists and ‘scientists’ had complied, we probably would not be having this discussion.
Unfortunately, the captain grossly overestimated the emotional maturity of his charges. It is very possible that the social irresponsibility of these passengers is representative of Warmies in general. If so, that fact undermines their stature in proclaiming that Gorebull Warming is “the great moral issue of our time,” doesn’t it?
If there is a next time, the captain would be well-advised to hire one security guard to shadow each paying passenger. When the return-to-ship order goes out, there will be compliance. Even if the bloody passengers return in handcuffs and at gunpoint.
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[…] Thanks to the Australian AGW scientists aboard the trapped ship, Australian taxpayers will foot the bill for the Ship of Fools. http://joannenova.com.au/2014/01/australian-taxpayers-will-pay-400000-cost-for-climate-scientists-sh… […]
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