French Polar Chief slams SpiritofMawson fiasco

This really has been a PR debacle of amazing proportions. The ship stuck in ice has captured something larger than I would have expected. Methinks the timing must be apropos.

Good scientists are distancing themselves from the publicity hungry climate lightweights and commentators on both sides of the fence are agreeing in their criticism.

A third effect we are barely starting to see may ripple on for months — that’s when mass-media victims realize that the “Russian Tourist ship” was really a boat load of Australian and New Zealander scientists, paid for mostly by taxpayers and loaded and advised by supposedly “expert” climate scientists. This misinformation was despite the boat having BBC, and Guardian media on board, and Fairfax press in one of the rescue icebreakers. Today I see evidence of the first two effects.

From Skynews. The French chief of polar science calls the Spirit of Mawson trip “pseudo-scientific” and laments the effect it is having on real research.

The head of France’s polar science institute has voiced fury at the misadventures of a Russian ship trapped in Antarctic ice, deriding what he called a tourists’ trip that had diverted resources from real science.

In an interview with AFP, Yves Frenot, director of the French Polar Institute, said he had no issue at all with rescuing those aboard the stricken vessel.

He said the trip itself was a ‘pseudo-scientific expedition’ that, because it had run into difficulties, had drained resources from the French, Chinese and Australian scientific missions in Antarctica.

Real scientists are angry:

The trip on the Akademik Shokalskiy was aimed at emulating a 1911-1914 expedition by the Australian explorer, Sir Douglas Mawson.

‘This kind of commemorative expedition has no interest from a scientific point of view,’ said Frenot.

Because of the rescue operations, French scientists had had to scrap a two-week oceanographic campaign this month using the Astrolabe, Frenot said.

‘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.’

 

From the Financial Times, recognition of the PR disaster. Christopher Calwell agrees with Andy Revkin, who finds some common ground with skeptics:

A cruise that will cost the climate campaign dear

Christopher Caldwell By Christopher Caldwell

“The rescue of passengers from a Russian ship is a setback for those who warn of global warming”
“Those who stood to reap the benefits of the voyage were able, when things went sour, to pass on many of the costs.”
“The episode is a setback for those making the case for what used to be called global warming – probably the largest such setback since emails stolen from the University of East Anglia in 2009 cast doubt on the scientific neutrality of several climate researchers.”
Caldwell thinks this is a setback almost on par with ClimateGate, which tells us how oddly important this farce is, but also something depressing about how commentators judge scientific credibility. The sea-ice saga of the wannabee Mawsons is a PR disaster, but even skeptics are not pretending this has much to do with climate science. ClimateGate was a scientific disaster unparalleled – we saw that the processes of science itself at the centre of the debate were corrupted, and the leading scientists were displayed at their worst. The saga of the Akademik Sholaskiy is a mere symptom of creative ways to waste money on immature, misguided self-aggrandizing adventure. Though as a PR stunt, skeptics could not possibly have come up with a better way to highlight the growing sea-ice around Antarctica that the models never predicted; nor to display the lack of pragmatic skill modern climate science has attained.
Given enough rope the poor intellectual standards, dismal ethics and lack of civic responsibility has inevitably exposed itself. But if the media had critiqued their irrational and self-serving behaviour over the last decade, a lot of public money could have been used on things that mattered.
It is a good development that sensible non-aligned commentators appreciate the enormous cost this ill-begotten mission is accruing. Perhaps they will be less likely to treat climate scientists as minor Gods in future.
One day, they might even ask them some tough questions.
(Note to Caldwell, after a long investigation there is no evidence at all, that the emails from East Anglia were stolen. Whistleblowers are protected by legislation in the UK, and the emails may well have been legally exposed, as FOIA claimed. Please write accurately…)
9.3 out of 10 based on 213 ratings

269 comments to French Polar Chief slams SpiritofMawson fiasco

  • #
    Dave Broad

    Antarctica is no place for a year twelve style field trip. Replete with the requisite youthful high jinks. It’s all over YouTube. A regrettable situation for modern science.

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      Dave-

      The relevance of the YouTube videos goes to the importance in the 21st century UN-backed vision of global education and use of the media to letting the visuals override the intellect. These Antartica videos take the planned weapon and shift its aim straight at the policy planners and their disregard of facts.

      Altering perception, instead of transmitting knowledge of reality, is the whole focus now because of psychological research that came out of the old USSR that this is a means of invisibly guiding future behavior. It is why tornado damage or heavy snowstorms or typhoons get cited erroneously as ‘proof’ of Climate Change.

      Like the bloody video of the classroom from a few years ago imagining blowing up students who were not climate believers, Stuck in the Ice and We Can’t Get Out is the image that just keeps coming to mind as proof there is another agenda going on.

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      • #
        Geoff Sherrington

        Robin,
        Yes. We must not lose sight of the main climate change factors requiring correction, which are poor science and a spun interpretation of it.
        There’s little joy in lampooning these people. We need to expose the science that was the basis for funding the expedition and open it to public audit.
        I, for one, am bitter that they have taken upon themselves to call it “Australian Antarctic Expedition”. I did not give them leave to represent me as an Australian. Even if I was asked I would have refused if the science they proposed to conduct did not cut the mustard.

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        • #
          Mortis

          I was going to comment that a little lampooning was fine as the science is being exposed but your comment about them misrepresent Australians struck a nerve because their are more than a few famous Americans about whom I feel the exact same way.

          Totally agree.

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        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          He who claims the mantle of his predecessor has no mantle of his own.

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      • #
        Peter Miller

        If you open the brochures excerpts, you will see this year’s trip (2014) from New Zealand to Mawson’s cabin will cost you between $20,000 and $40,000.

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        • #
          AndyG55

          So Turney found a way to charge a tourist trip to the taxpayer.

          And used pseudo-science to do it.

          Greedy, selfish trough-sucker !

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        • #
          lmxly

          Actually if you open the brochure you will see that “Voyages to Commonwealth Bay have scheduled departures in 2011, and January 2012.” This was the last season any commercial tourist voyage attempted to reach Commonwealth Bay (I was guide/lecturer on one of them, and we didn’t make it) because it is virtually impossible to get 50 people to Mawson’s huts due to the fast ice extending 50+km from shore, and the extreme instability of sea ice in the area. These were the ‘risks’ Turney knew about, but he took them anyway! And one thing I am sure of; if Greg Mortimer so called ‘co-leader’, veteran of many visits to Antarctic, (and on Skokallskiy itself which his company Aurora Expeditions used to charter) had been in charge of running this trip as a purely tourist venture, the ship would never have become beset. Tourism operators have the safety of their clients as their number one priority; and the schedule of future voyages as their second concern. Spare a though for those passengers who will miss out on their long planned trip to Antarctica, due to depart NZ on Shokalskiy on 17 January. There is no way Shokalskiy can make it in time – so there goes another insurance claim to be laid at the door, properly, of Turney’s AAE.

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          • #

            Judas Priest!

            This folly has quite literally turned into a disaster of epic proportions. The Russian ship, the French, the Chinese, AAD, the Americans, and every day a new addition to this ridiculous venture.

            However, just you wait for their arrival back at Hobart, or wherever. Every media outlet known to man will have their people there to interview these returning heroes, as evidenced when that so called hero returned from the infamous Arctic fiasco barely days back.

            This story will have no end. Pure gold for the media in a slow period.

            I can even see a battle looming between the women’s magazines all trying to outbid each other to get Turney’s wife on board for her harrowing ordeal with her children.

            All the morning TV, all the current affairs programs, and that much money will probably see the ABC relegated to the sidelines, probably just a courtesy call for 7.30 and Lateline.

            Turney will be painted as the hero. Just wait and see. I can see the talking head muppets on the morning and evening puff piece shows making comparisons with Mawson and even Shackleton, who must be rolling in his grave on South Georgia.

            This is just a great big joke.

            No one will even mention the disaster this has become for all those others involved.

            It makes you so angry.

            Just wait for the circus to begin.

            Tony.

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            • #
              llew Jones

              A lot of truth in what you say for the circus hands and intellectually disabled but I’m sure the very obvious driver of this fiasco is not lost on the majority of Australians who are already leery of the whole man caused climate change scam.

              Putting two and two together is nowhere near as difficult for that group of Aussies as it is for most of the alarmist climate scientists (given they may not want to come to the very obvious conclusion for a few “personal” reasons) and of course impossible for the lay alarmist fellow religionists who would certainly experience great difficulty with the arithmetic symbols involved.

              I mean these simpletons are firm believers in the irrational nonsense that a warming climate produces freezing cold weather. Warming climate?…. So they imagine despite the satellite data that reveals no significant anomalous GT behavior over a long period of time. (Ref UAH for the years 1979 to 2013)

              Could they put say one and one together you ask? No way Tony.

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            • #
              MemoryVault

              .
              All true Tony, and I suspect will come to pass pretty much as you have outlined.

              And to think the whole charade could have been knee-capped any time in the past week, with a simple, carefully-worded press release from:

              Tony Abbott, as PM (ultimate responsibility), OR
              Julie Bishop, as Minister for Foreign Affairs (international ramifications), OR
              Christopher Pyne, as Minister for Education (gross misapplication of Education Budget funds), OR
              Greg Hunt, as Minister for Environment (on behalf of BoM, CSIRO, Australian Antarctic Division), OR
              Warren Truss, as Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development (for AMSA), OR
              Malcolm Turnbull, as Minister for Communications (gross misrepresentation by the ABC).

              Instead we get crickets chirping.

              .
              Ah well, too late now.

              Now Abbott and his sorry band of emasculated eunuchs are going to have sit quietly, and meekly watch as Twerkey and his troop of girl guides get elevated to hero status by the ABC and Fauxfacts. Abbott will probably have to name Twerkey “Australian of the Year” at the end of the month.

              .
              I hear Twerkey has already planned his next “expedition”.
              Up the Amazon in a fleet of solar-powered hovercraft.
              Apparently the University of NSW has already approved funding – only a paltry $17 million.
              Morgan Freeman has been booked to do the voice-over commentary, and it will be released in 3D at Easter.

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              • #
                Dave

                MV,

                “All too late now.”

                There’s more than one way to skin a frozen turkey.
                I just sent my invoice to the UNSW for payment. Includes account handling fees. If all 12 million Australian Taxpayers put in a claim… well you never know what could happen. Because I know the government won’t do anything to chase up my claim.

                Stuff them, I AM NOT PAYING FOR THIS IDIOT.

                Captain Blooody Professor Turkey of THE SHIP OF FOOLS.

                If the UNSW don’t pay, I’ll sent the payment claim to a debt collector in the western suburbs of Sydney.

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              • #
                llew Jones

                I’m sure there are quite a few of us rusted on Libs who would like to have seen a lot more head kicking from Abbott and others in the Party over this and other AGW issues.

                However it is not we the super intelligent skeptics or the brain dead alarmists who need any help from Abbott et al but rather your average Aussie (the voters) who couldn’t give a stuff about the science but are, from my ongoing contact with a wide range of “average Aussies”, pretty sure, from their own often long experience in their particular Australian climate, that nothing much has changed or worth getting alarmed about.

                And they are pretty good at identifying a scam when they see one. For all the non scientific motives mentioned here and elsewhere.

                Thus powerful symbolism like giving Flannery and his team of alarmist propagandists the boot is, I suggest, a far more effective way of changing this vital segment of opinion than say a brilliant scientific dissertation from Abbott.

                Further “It’s all crap”, courtesy of Abbott, is I suggest the sort of skepticism that resonates more generally in the community than the stuff we skeptics and alarmists delight in.

                That does not demean any of the skeptic sites, which as others have suggested, are more likely to help politicians understand that climate alarmism is not all it’s cracked out to be as well as these sites being a vital source for the exchange of scientific ideas.

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              • #
                mareeS

                I know the Aurora Australis very well, MV. I saw it built in my city, I attended the launch. My husband worked with the shipwrights on the architectural renderings for Carrington Slipways before and during construction, and we still have many of the drawings. I know it’s based in Hobart, have been aboard in Hobart while my son served some time on it when he was at AMC. I probably should have put “humour” parentheses about them dropping off the nitwits in NZ, but thought people would have got the point about Turney’s company being incorporated there.

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              • #
                MemoryVault

                LLew Jones,

                And they are pretty good at identifying a scam when they see one.

                Agreed. And with fraudulent misrepresentation by the ABC, coupled to the utter silence of Abbott’s grovelment, when, precisely, does the “average Aussie” get the opportunity to “identify the scam”?

                In your own words, it is not us, nor the religious fanatics, that require Abbott’s assistance in these matters.
                It is “the average Aussie (the voters). So when are they going to get it?

                After the silence over the last week, obviously never.

                Apparently, for whatever reason (and I don’t profess to know why), Abbott and his grovelment are as happy with this scandalous cover-up as Twerkey, the UNSW, and the ABC.

                .
                Your comment, such as it is, reads just as it should, coming from a self-confessed “rusted on Lib”.
                Abbott, or any one his involved ministers, only needed to state the obvious.
                Since when did a blunt “we was conned” , and “we was robbed”, and “heads will roll”, need to translate into a “brilliant scientific dissertation from Abbott”?

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              • #
                Bones

                MV,we aint getting anywhere,the average aussie is still only getting warmer propaganda.This afternoon Natgeo had 2 wonderful hours of tv called “Worst weather ever”.A tv doco made by climate scientist,so it had to be true,with the same extreme cold,record breaking heat,melting arctic ice,7C temp increase this century.All this blamed on CO2 and the warning “we aint seen nothing yet”.Why I say we aint getting anywhere is this was made recently after Hurricane Sandy,so the warmer scare effort is alive and well.2 hours of tv program,how much money spent for what they THINK may happen.

                20

            • #
              mareeS

              Tony, they won’t be dropped of in Hobart, more likely Invercargill or Dunedin in NZ. Certainly there won’t be notice from anyone official, it will come from people who track ships (I do, a bit, because our son is a seafarer).

              At least this has gone from fiasco to infamy, which hopefully will deep-six the whole AGW lie.

              But you never can know for certain.

              Next thing will be the vanishing Adelie penguins, since the polar bear thing didn’t work.

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              • #
                MemoryVault

                MareeS,

                The Aurora Australis is the official resupply vessel for the Australian Antarctic Division. She home-ports at, and operates from, Hobart during the Antarctic Summer Season.

                She is on her way to Camp Casey to unload all the stuff that didn’t get unloaded because of this little jaunt courtesy Twerkey and his girl guides (she had only arrived – from Hobart – and begun unloading ops when the distress call went out). From Casey she will return to Hobart for what will probably be her last trip this season. There are supposed to be two more, but I can’t see it happening.

                Her scheduled movements are available from the Australian Antarctic Division’s website.

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            • #
              Ted O'Brien.

              The rage of those expeditions deprived of contracted resources will elevate the warming somewhat. France, China to start with.

              The Russians won’t be too happy unless they are fully compensated.

              Even the Australians may complain now that we have an accountable government. Then again, all their plans were made under the previous government.

              I daresay it will take the auditors a while to scrutinise the family outing.

              10

              • #
                AndyG55

                “now that we have an accountable government”

                yes its possibly better than the previous mess..

                but “accountable????” Are you being serious ?

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            • #
              Ted O'Brien.

              Tony, the expedition people are on their way home one way or another.

              In an emergency situation, how much of their kit would the helicopter accept?

              A very important part of their “work” is sure to be still on that ship. If the crew haven’t jettisoned it already.

              10

    • #
      DT

      A US Coastguard ice breaker is leaving Sydney to sail to Commonwealth Bay to try and assist the Russian and Chinese ships stuck in sea ice. The alarmists say the Antarctic ice is disappearing. Please note that the US ship already had a mission before being redirected to assist the stuck hard ships, that mission was to cut a channel for Antarctic bases resupply ships: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-05/us-icebreaker-called-to-rescue-ships-stuck-in-antarctic-ice/5185138

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    • #
      GAZ

      It could be a year twelve field trip – if only they remembered to bring along bananas an peanut butter milkshake.

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    • #
      mareeS

      Good riddance to the global warming-climate change-tax heist. It had to end. These people have been juveniles looting the productive world’s wallets for too many years.

      Can we now get back to making the earth a safer and more productive place for individuals who only wish to get on with their lives?

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  • #
    DT

    The Voyage of Fools will long be remembered

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    • #
      Manfred

      Finally, they reap what they sow.

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    • #
      MurrayA

      Don’t be too sure about it being long remembered: the alarmist believers are in full-scale damage control, and if their treatment of the Climategate emails is any indications, they will manage to erase the embarrassment in the long term. Remember, to keep the faith, and to make sure that all believers keep the faith, is all important for the AGW agenda.

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  • #
    Jaymez

    Real Antarctic scientists certainly aren’t happy with what has happened if this is anything to go by:

    “Three icebreakers weren’t able to rescue this Professor of Climate Change. At least one of those icebreakers was interrupted delivering vital supplies to other scientists. Here’s what hydrologist Joe McConnell told a journalist via e-mail:

    The Australian ice breaker Aurora Australis was here at Casey [Station, Antarctica] in the process of unloading the coming year’s supplies for the station, as well as a number of researchers and their science gear for this summer’s activities, when the emergency response request was issued. The Australians shut down the unloading very quickly and left within a few hours after the request arrived but only about a third of the resupply was completed and a lot of that science gear was still on board. …

    The short- and long-term impacts on the Australian science program are pronounced as you can imagine and I understand it is the same for both the Chinese and French programs since their icebreakers were diverted, too.

    I’ll be sitting down to New Year’s Eve dinner in a few minutes with a number of Australian researchers including the director of the Australian Antarctic Division Tony Fleming – many of these guys can’t complete the research they’ve been planning for years because some or all of their science gear still is on the Aurora.
    http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2014/01/02/professor-of-climate-change-chris-turney/

    And from what Chris Turney says in this YouTube clip, because the Australian Antarctic Research Div authorised his trip, and because the Antractic nations have a ‘gentlemens agreement’ it is likely that the Chinese, French and Australian Antarctic Research divisions (that is their Governments) will bear the costs of his teams folly.

    As far as him referring to the expedition as a ‘private’ venture – it was mostly funded by a Government Research grant , Government departments and various Universities which are tax payer funded. He has a strange idea of ‘private’ funding! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At0d_rcYljk

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    • #

      Jaymez, you say “As far as him referring to the expedition as a ‘private’ venture – it was mostly funded by a Government Research grant , Government departments and various Universities which are tax payer funded. ”
      Do you have links illustrating such funding, even numerating such funding? Thanks in advance.

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      • #
        Jaymez

        It is at their web site: http://www.spiritofmawson.com/aae-supporters/

        Supporters are listed though specific dollar amounts by ‘supporter’ is not. But as you can see they are almost all Government Departments, Government funded Organisations, or Government funded Universities.

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        • #
          Jaymez

          They have posted this latest video of Chris Turney’s scientific team meeting aboard the Arora Australis with the rest of the expedition listening on. Apparently he wasn’t happy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03SWGkxt72A#t=59 (language warning)

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        • #

          That whole website is enlightening. Turney’s kids are with him, and one is talking about sleeping and being lazy. They built igloos and took pictures of penguins. The whole thing reads like a giant party. If they had any sense, they’s pull the sight down before more damage is done.

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        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          Jaymez,

          That page is now empty, apart from the media and NSW Uni logo – any list that was there, appears to have been stripped. Covering tracks, as part of the damage control, perhaps?

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        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          No, I was wrong. It was just incredibly slow to load! Perhaps everybody has had the same idea. I have an archive of that page, if needed.

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        • #
          Manfred

          Hells Teeth!

          The NZ “Department of Conservation” are listed amongst the AAE supporters…using taxpayers money in this hapless climate junket.

          A classic example of politically motivated ‘mission drift’. One wonders where they’ll turn up next.

          A letter to The Minister is required.

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        • #
          Old Sailor Man

          By Government funded, you mean Taxpayer funded. Why not say so?

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        • #
          CARFAX

          Under ‘outreach’ on the web page

          ‘LESSON PLANS
          comming out soon’

          Can’t wait – they should be a hoot!

          30

          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            Good one CARFAX! They heard you.

            They’ve fixed it.

            Just goes to show how much they rely on Jo’s sceptics to keep them focused.

            20

  • #
    Stephen Richards

    Caldwell’s comment is loaded to the gunnels. He is not saying that the mass of ice is a sign of global cooling or a sign that global warming may not be real. No, he is saying that this trip make sit harder to defend. Idiot.

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    • #
      Sean McHugh

      but even skeptics are not pretending this has much to do with climate science.

      In terms of science, no. In terms of propaganda and facade, yes – up till the time they got stuck.

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    • #
      Sean McHugh

      Apologies Stephen, I was replying to Jo.

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    • #
      bullocky

      My thoughts too, Stephen. The real issue concerns the divergent relationship between the CO2 AGW paradigm and reality.

      Journalistic techniques abound in reporting politically charged issues. Here, Caldwell uses the old ‘distraction by circumlocution’ strategy.

      ….” Hey! Look over there!…..”

      His feigned piety speaks to his establishment credentials.

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  • #
    DT

    Please advise cabinet minister Greg Hunt that a con is climate change based, the climate changes all the time.

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  • #
    aussiebear

    What really gets to me is the reckless nature at how the whole lot of them don’t give a damn that they cost the contingency budget of Australia’s Antarctic program. (Spend someone else’s money and messing up other scientific work that needed the money.)

    …As Marge Simpson said in that hockey episode (“Lisa on Ice”): “I demand vengeance! I WANT VENGEANCE!”

    Or maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger put it better… => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYZDx3gqYak

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    • #
      Sean McHugh

      What really gets to me is the reckless nature at how the whole lot of them don’t give a damn that they cost the contingency budget of Australia’s Antarctic program.

      Damned right. No apologies, just reports on how they are in good spirits despite not having their favourite milkshakes.

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      • #
        helen brady

        They are claiming great leadership in keeping morale high. They should loose their jobs for incompetence.

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    • #
      Mortis

      (Spend someone else’s money and messing up other scientific work that needed the money.)

      Spending other people’s money is what libs/ecoloons do best.

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      • #
        george

        Considering The whole fiasco was put together under a Labour/Green Government I fail to see what the Liberal Loons have to do with it,EXCEPT footing the bill for the lefts stupidity as usual <:o)

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        • #
          Byron

          I suspect He means liberal in the American sense of left wing or “progressive” George

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        • #
          ExWarmist

          US English Definition: Libs = Liberals = Progressives = (approx) Ecoloons.

          In Aus – Libs approximate, some of the time, Conservatives.

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  • #
    Dave

    Why does Christopher Caldwell lament this as a setback to Warmists?

    The whole CAGW is infested with idiot fools like Professor Turney, Tim Flannery, Cook, David Suzuki all of who are the elite of the CAGW screamers. The are wealthy, ignorant and lazy, yet Christopher sees this one event as a setback (since the email leak).

    Climate Change promotes greedy fools, not scientists. But the public this time has seen the stupidity and lies promoted by them, the huge waste of dollars, the ABC, The Guardian and Fairfax all glossing over the truth.

    This is the icing on the cake. And if our politicans can’t see it, then they will be gone next election.

    Now the USA is blanketed in snow, but it’s only winter, Australia has a hot day, and it’s blooody climate change.

    I get very angry with the media who seem to promote this garbage. But I’ll be different this year 2014, the politicians are going to suffer greatly with my emails, phone calls, and visits.

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    • #
      Mortis

      …the politicians are going to suffer greatly with my emails, phone calls, and visits.

      I have a feeling you won’t be alone – this could be a really good year 🙂

      *knocks wood*

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      • #
        DT

        Remember that the Coalition has inherited a mountain of messes created by Union Labor Green when they were in office. The voyage of fools for example, carbon tax con another of many

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    • #
      mareeS

      “they will be gone next election”

      I joined the Liberal party specifically to get it elected after never having been a member of a political party in my life (though I have been a union member/delegate).

      The R-G-R Labor govts were so appallingly bad, one couldn’t have done otherwise for the good of the nation.

      I will remain a Lib member, if only to strengthen Tony’s spine, also for the good of the nation.

      Now is not the time to go soft. This must be explained to Abbott and people close to him, as I think blog attitudes take a bit more time than emails to get through. The wider world of politics is only now getting it about AGWCC, and how long has that taken?

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  • #
    Leigh

    What gets me is the total mainstream media cover up of who and what they were there for.
    The link is the three that should be handed the bill.
    Three more experienced global warming lead fruadsters you’d be hard pressed to find.
    http://www.spiritofmawson.com/aae-leaders/

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      Bulldust

      Are these guys too late for Climate Prat of the Year? It almost demands a special trophy category.

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    • #
      Tim

      Jan 5 2014. An article from Nicky Phillips, on board Aurora Australis (with financial support of the Sydney Morning Herald and writing for same,) only mentions the human tribulations and relief of the ‘passengers’ for their taxpayer rescue. She also selectively quotes…

      Aurora Captain Murray Doyle: “Since the Mertz Glacier was punched out by the B9 (iceberg) some years ago, it has changed the whole dynamic of the area.” Significant sized floes now build up year after year, he said.

      So it’s just a localised event, Nicky? Nothing to do with overall Antarctic ice extension. Well, that’s a relief.

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  • #
    J.H.

    (Note to Caldwell, after a long investigation there is no evidence at all, that the emails from East Anglia were stolen. Whistleblowers are protected by legislation in the UK, and the emails may well have been legally exposed, as FOIA claimed. Please write accurately…)

    For sure. If Newspapers and TV can call the American traitor Edward Snowden, a “Whistleblower”….. Then they can damn well the anonymous source of the ClimateGate Emails a Whistleblower too. Especially since there is no evidence of hacking or theft. Unlike Snowden.

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    mmxx

    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 this 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 – This 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.

    330

    • #
      Dave

      Thanks MMXX,

      Now I can add to my list of emails, visits etc.

      UNSW Executive Team.

      1. Professor Fred Hilmer AO The Big BOSS
      LLB Sydney, LLM Pennsylvania, MBA Wharton
      President and Vice-Chancellor

      2. Professor Iain Martin
      MBChB(Hons), MEd(Dist), MD
      Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

      3. Professor Les Field
      BSc, PhD Sydney, FAA
      Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

      4. Professor Prem Ramburuth
      BA, DipEd (S. Africa), MEd (Sydney), EdD (UNSW), Licentiate (RAM, London), Grad Dip TESOL (S. Australia), MAICD
      President, Academic Board

      5. Mr Jonathan Blakeman
      BCom, Dip (LGA) Auckland, Masters in Public Policy Victoria University of Wellington
      Vice-President, Finance and Operations

      6. Ms Jennie Lang
      BA, BEd, Master of Education Research Newcastle NSW
      Vice-President, Advancement

      7. Mr Neil Morris
      BA Newcastle NSW
      Vice-President, University Services

      8. Professor David Dixon
      BA Camb, BPhil Hull, PhD Wales
      Dean, Faculty of Law

      9. Professor Merlin Crossley
      BSc Melbourne, PhD Oxford
      Dean, Faculty of Science

      And not one Blooody Climate scientist amoungst them, how in the world did they approve this money $1.5 million for Prof Turkey to go troppo?

      All their emails on the website here.

      Get ready for a busy week you executive team bunch.

      310

    • #
      Val

      Yes, but the portrayal by SBS was nonetheless distorted. Without unbiased prior knowledge (for example, from the internet), viewers would not have even known that the fiasco, which was portrayed as a tourist trip, was supposed to be a scientific expedition, one funded by the taxpayer. Not much better than what I have come to expect from the ABC.

      150

    • #
      mareeS

      “privately funded”

      Oh dear, UNSW, you should never have said that. He’s your perfesser, now your reputation is in the skip with his.

      It was such a good idea at the time, the ABC embraced it for days prior to departure, and not one person from UNSW disavowed it.

      You are all in the can, and should resign, after repaying rescue costs to Australia’s taxpayers.

      51

  • #
    Ursus Augustu

    There is a wonderful scene in Annie Proulx novel “The Shipping News” in which the lead character has been given a more journalistic role at a local rag. He is at a loss at how to confect a story from the hum drum of daily life. His boss says ‘see those clouds down the bay’ – ‘er yes – but they are just the daily cumulus that develop’ – ‘no’ says the boss they are “DEADLY STORM THREATENS TOWN!”. ‘but, but they are not deadly storm clouds – what happens the nex day?’. ‘No problem – ” TWON SAVED FROM DEADLY STORM”.

    Won’t it be a treat when the penny drops for the MSM and the headlines are “WORLD SAVED FROM MASSIVE CLIMATE FRAUD”, “CAGW FRAUD EXPOSED!”, ” CLIMATE NUMBERS FIDDLED FOR FUNDING” and “CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENTISTS MANIPULATED MEDIA TO CONCEAL THEIR MEDIOCRITY”.

    How long before the MSM actually gets it?

    270

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Oh I believe the MSM gets it, they just won’t admit it or aren’t allowed to.

      130

      • #
        DT

        I believe that the $250 Million per year reduction in media licence fees gifted by KRudd when he was first PM is one reason for the silence, they have saved over $1 Billion to date. But of course we taxpayers will never see it acknowledged by the MSM. I understand that 2013 was a disaster for the print media as reader numbers kept shrinking. I have all but given up on mainstream Australian journalism with some exceptions.

        50

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      The MSM gets it’s funding from advertising. Reporters get most of their material from press releases, with some from interviews with people who want their names in the paper, and the rest they just make up.

      If UNSW puts out a press release, saying that the ship hit the ice swerving to miss a passing Polar Bear, some idiot Sub-Editor will want to publish it, because it fills up some of the space between the adverts.

      Or …

      The Editor will realise that this saga has gone too far on the social media to be ignored or belittled, as so the paper will revert to Plan B, and make a big splash about it, and how courageous The Climate Scientists were (tourists, what tourists?). But then the question will come up, about whether it was appropriate to put so many lives at risk? To which the answer will have to be that the benefits of the trip far outweighed the risks. The benefits themselves will never be mentioned, because they would never assume that their readers could not work it out for themselves.

      So they will fill the blank space between adverts with the appropriate number of words, but actually say nothing.

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      • #
        mareeS

        Rereke, the editor is as likely as the child-journalist to have just graduated from 2JJJ primary school or NIDA comedy kindy. Nothing credible passes for reportage at present, but the blogs are beginning to rectify that.

        Coverage of the ship of fools saga is encouraging.

        20

  • #
    PeterS

    Glad to see more real scientists starting to get the message. I just hope it turns into an avalanche so that the global warming scam artists are completely shut down and never to be seen again. A tall order but one that has to happen or else the monster will rise with even greater strength and the scam will keep wasting more billions of dollars. At the moment the AGW scam is still large and there’s a lot of energy being used by the liars to keep it running. I just hope all the real and honest scientists of the world come out with a single voice and discredit AGW once and for all, and the politicians listen or have their careers end.

    200

  • #
    AndyG55

    “but even skeptics are not pretending this has much to do with climate science.”

    Sorry, but it IS all about climate science.

    Just like

    Gleike’s identify fraud,
    Trenberth’s travesty and hidden heat,
    Mann’s hockey stick,
    Hansen’s mal-adjustments,
    Flannery’s gaia and no water speeches
    Just like the IPCC no glaciers by 2035 (or whatever)
    etc etc etc

    Its ALL part of the same idiotic scam !!!

    360

    • #
      AndyG55

      add to that

      Cook’s SkS
      Gore’s mansions,
      Suzuki’s ‘duh! what is temperature data ?’

      One could fill pages if one could be bothered !!

      240

    • #
      Sean McHugh

      Yes, I had trouble with that line too (see above). It seems at variance with the whole point of a previous article:

      Let there be no doubt, the mission was to document and record scientific changes in Antarctica and to broadcast that to the world. . . .

      If there is any doubt this was a climate science crusade read about it here:

      I suspect Jo makes a distinction between climate crusade and climate science, but it isn’t very clear in the above. One could read it as reinforcing the boat fools’ current back-flip defense, that the team should not be regarded as Antarctic global warming missionaries (to avoid embarrassment to the cause).

      I suspect several sceptical readers might still have a problem with that line. If so, it should probably be withdrawn or amended as it is precarious and is speaking on the sceptics’ behalf.

      50

      • #
        Sean McHugh

        Jo, I see it’s still there. Could you please help me and maybe others, reconcile these two statements?

        From a previous article:

        If there is any doubt this was a climate science crusade read about it here

        From above:

        but even skeptics are not pretending this has much to do with climate science.

        20

      • #
        Allen Ford

        Their own web site blows their cover, with this laundry list of “objectives” (already cited on another thread):

        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.

        All our science work has been approved by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service and the Australian Antarctic Division. We are incredibly grateful for all their help and support.

        … and they expected to get through this ambitious plan in a couple of weeks?!

        Give us all a break.

        20

        • #
          Allen Ford

          Addendum:

          What brainless funding body, whether Govt or academic, would OK this impossible list, given the limitations of the time and resources to accomplish anything of worth?

          20

    • #
      DT

      A political agenda based scam, remember that during his last appearance at the National Press Club former Green Senator Bob Brown outlined his dream of a world government, and no borders (sovereign nations). The Fabian socialists and communists and fellow travellers. Recently Michael Smith News revealed old ASIO reports about former PM Gillard and the Socialist Forum she established decades ago and that he mentor was a UK Lord and well known communist (I forget hus name). The Forum’s purpose was to provide a gathering place for Australian communists but under a less confronting political brand.

      50

  • #
    lemiere jacques

    Bien sûr…but why scientists don’t ask activist to stop pretending they are doing scientific stuff?
    Who would want to be associated with such a ship full of nuts? well in fact many scientists did saying nothing when other nuts went to artic and said it is the end of the world and why this guy didn’t complain before the fiasco of this “expedition”?
    Sorry i don’t approve the behavior of the scientist.

    Beside it is the law of the sea to rescue people whatever the aim of their cruise.

    The rescue in itself is not the point, the point is who will pay ?

    There is a problem with public funded science, they too have to tell fairy tales to public and politicians in order to get money.
    Frankly speaking is it that different from propaganda?

    Modern science is expensive and for instance in France, scientists are often unable to answer the simple question: beside truth what is your research for?
    I love science, but i always thought who pays the bill must decide.
    For a lot of scientists nowadays the first aim of science is to get a salary and this is a huge problem.

    science is still surrounded by a mythical and mysterious aura but as you can find more and more scientists doing really bad science with public money people will start to stop trusting “science”.

    i used to work in a lab years ago, we did experiments, we published results ,very bad ones, mostly because of detector array , then, the lab decided to make new experiments with a brand new detector array, i then answered are we going to redo our experiments? They answered me it was useless because it had already been done… I didn’t loose my faith in science but is did loose trust in publications and professional scientists.

    230

    • #
      Carbon500

      Lemiere Jacques: Thanks for your interesting comments. What I think is often overlooked and not realised is that as in any professional field, there are people who are good at what they do and also at the other end of the scale the downright lazy, the incompetents, not to mention unscrupulous. Once universities and colleges begin to appoint the latter types the rot sets in.
      Medical practitioners, lawyers and meteorologists for example – all professions with good and useless performers in their ranks.
      Many of the ‘trolls’ on this website clearly don’t obtain, read, and think about the points they make. Usually there’s a link to Youtube or Wikipedia (but in fairness sometimes to relevant material) – whatever, a discussion pointing out relevant features of the paper and how it contrasts with other findings is never entered into, only an appeal to ‘peer reviewed science’ followed by an arrogant assertion that they are correct.
      You don’t see points discussed as in a true scientific paper – ‘Bloggs et al (1965) found that…but this contrasts with work by Damper (1966) whose work supported the view that..’
      Add into the mix self-professed ‘experts’ in the media with a fervent unshakeable belief in ‘the science’ and you’ve got the current mess.

      160

  • #

    Biochar being the new geothermal, how fitting that Chris Turney, according to his site, “helped set up a carbon refining company called Carbonscape”. As with geothermal, investors are welcome. They won’t shut you out!

    Carbonscape’s website has such gorgeous fresh green colours, along with chocolatey earth tones. C’mon…You know you want some Carbonscape.

    160

    • #
      DT

      One of his shareholders is Tim Flannery, otherwise known as Tom Foolery, they are mates.

      100

    • #
      Michelle

      From memory Turney’s wife and kids own a heck of a chunk of that company. imo it can safely be said the Professor has a vested interest in finding AGW is the end of all ice on earth. This family working holiday funded with other peoples money really needed to find rocks and palm trees. Or at least not get stuck in ice that’s been there for years now. So much inconvenient ice no matter how the stuff happened to end up there or what type it is has really thrown a spanner in the works.

      50

      • #
        Dave

        Carbonscape:

        The company trough that Turney set up includes Tim Flannery.

        1. Catherine Ann TURNEY, Ian Stewart TURNEY, LATIMER TRUSTEES 2006 LIMITED 4,730,880 shares ~ 16.01%
        2. Christian Stewart Macgregor TURNEY 382,400 shares ~ 1.29%
        3. James TURNEY 290,581 shares ~ 0.98%
        4. Tim FLANNERY 159,733 shares ~ 0.54%

        This company should also pay for some of the costs.

        80

  • #
    RoHa

    I know the Russian and Chinese ships are still stuck. Is the Australian one actually moving?

    50

  • #
    Jaymez

    I wonder if Chris Turney has had time to watch this You Tube clip and see his chance at the 2014 Golden Hockey Stick Award slip away?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03SWGkxt72A#t=59 (language warning in subtitles)

    41

  • #
    klem

    Oh my, how I secretly love this whole story. Am I wrong to feel good about this?

    What I am waiting to see next is how the alarmists are going to spin it. Somehow this tourist debacle will be the fault of climate denier sabotage and we need carbon credit cards and wind farms to fight them (or something). Can’t wait to hear it.

    130

    • #
      RoHa

      Very wrong indeed.
      You and a lot of other commenters have been perfectly horrid about this. It is not funny at all. It is a major setback for Climate Science. These poor people were on a serious mission to show how much the Antarctic ice had melted, and ended up being trapped in it [mmphll] just because their predictions were a teeny bit out. Stop all that silly giggling and be grown-up about it. [Fffl tee hee gnnnff] It is easy to mock but – who said that? Own up now.

      30

    • #
      mareeS

      I love the story too, it has made me laugh because of what it has done to the AGW fraud, which hopefully is finished.

      But you shouldn’t be indulging in schadenfraude, because 22 crew are still aboard the Russian ship. They haven’t been “rescued,” because their duty is to their ship and each other.

      Our son is a mariner, so we are feeling for the captain and crew in these difficult circumstances. I hope they and the ship return to port safely (and that they are enjoying the leftover coffee and food goodies that the fools from UNSW and backers couldn’t offload along with their personal luggage).

      10

  • #
    JoeFromBrazil

    there is a coordinated agenda behind, supporting all this BS ?

    1) an expedition lead by a australian researcher goes to antarctica to get news and images about the global warming.

    2) days later, an australian research claim that by 2100 the temperatures will be 4C more warm.

    3) days later, an australian agency says that 2013 was the more warm year ever…

    Is this a “climate war” against the australian government ? Is the tail shaking the dog ?

    210

    • #
      AndyG55

      Our government is aiming to remove the unwanted economy destroying carbon dioxide tax.

      OF COURSE there is a co-ordinated effort against them !!!

      No question at all about that.

      150

      • #
        MemoryVault

        .
        Yeah, that’s why we’ve been inundated with press releases from Coalition politicians telling us the REAL story.

        sarc\OFF

        Grow up.

        66

        • #
          AndyG55

          There is definitely a coordinated push against getting rid of the Carbon Tax.

          Perhaps I should have said “Our government SAYS it is aiming to remove the unwanted economy destroying carbon dioxide tax”

          Let’s see what happens when the new Senate gets in. May depend on WA Senate re-election (is that happening).

          Not hoping too much though..

          If there’s a balance in the Senate I suspect that the Libs will just fold and we will be left with this economy destroying farce or a replacement that is even worse.

          40

      • #
        JoeFromBrazil

        well, if I were an Australian I would be proud of the government. It is a brave government that is not afraid to tell the truth with all the letters. The carbon tax is a creation of speculators and globalist bureaucrats without a flag. Disassemble this powerful machine manufactured outside the country is an arduous task and needs the support of the population. Congratulations!

        190

        • #
          MemoryVault

          Joe from Brazil,

          It is too late to get into a protracted argument with you about Australian politics. I need to go to bed.

          Suffice to say our previous government only introduced a carbon tax as an interim measure leading up to an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) over two years. All the “new” government ever promised was to do away with the carbon tax and move straight to an ETS. They only changed their tune and promised to scrap both the interim tax AND the ETS, half-way through the election campaign when it became apparent they weren’t going to win the election if they didn’t.

          Truth and honesty never came into it. Only political expediency.

          Read the last few articles on this blog, and the comments in them for an inkling of the current government’s desire, and willingness, to play along and hide this entire Antarctica fiasco.

          122

          • #
            JoeFromBrazil

            All right, MemoryVault. I got it. I’ll read the latest posts to try understand the situation. Anyway, its good to know that peoples yet dictates the politician script.
            Thanks,

            90

            • #
              Mortis

              its good to know that peoples yet dictates the politician script.

              I’ll second that. The only way this will unravel is the will of the people demanding it.

              And to the Aussies demanding it, good on ya! The US and UK now need to follow suit – pity it is going to take so long

              90

      • #
        DT

        The carbon tax was repealed in the Parliament however the Senate blocked the Bill. More to come this year when Parliament resumes. In my opinion the new government of just over three months has made impressive progress on a number of fronts. For example the Royal Commission commencing soon to investigate the union movement and many matters such as the AWU slush fund affair.

        60

  • #
    Svend Ferdinandsen

    Why was it needed to evacuate the passengers and not the crew? Former polar ekspeditions normally ekspected delays, and was prepared to get stuck in months and sometime a year.
    The ship seems to do fine, so it was just a matter of time until the ice would break up.

    130

    • #
      MemoryVault

      There lies the 64 million dollar question, Svend.

      Personally I believe the Russian captain had grown sick of playing nanny to a group of spoiled, unruly Australian children and their older but stupid big brother, and took advantage of an opportunity to be rid of the lot of them.

      Personally, I would have done the same thing.

      280

      • #
        Popeye

        MV,

        Would have been more supplies left for the crew as well – (and peanut butter and banana milk shakes too). 🙂

        Cheers,

        70

    • #
      Mark D.

      I wouldn’t expect the crew to leave the ship for any reason except sinking. Salvage laws could make this an even more interesting story IF the crew does abandon the ship.

      But then isn’t the monster ice breaker still en-route?

      30

    • #
      jorgekafkazar

      Confirming all your suspicions, Popeye, Svend, MarkD & MV:

      “…Antarctic Flying Dutchman
      “…[T]he passengers…have been taken from Shokalskiy simply because they were…a nuisance…and eating away food supplies which are required for the crew remaining on board….
      There wasn’t, and still isn’t any real danger to Shokalskiy.” –Mikhail Voytenko

      See Voytenko’s amusing article at: http://www.fleetmon.com/maritimenews/2014/2945/research-vessel-shokalskiy-may-become-antarctic-fl/

      30

    • #
      mareeS

      On polar expeditions 100yrs ago, scientific expeditioners were also crew, had to sail the ship, and get it out of trouble or die trying. No helos back then.

      These people…..

      00

    • #
      Bones

      The ships Captain took the opportunity to have the rescue after he realized the toilet paper was running low.He did not know the warmer wallys used it for mouth wipes as well,putting a severe strain on remaining stocks.

      00

  • #
    Robert O

    It looks as though the AGW industry has had a severe set-back, as with Climategate, but the propaganda war continues. On this occasion with world-wide publicity governments will start to question the AGW theory more seriously as public opinion is starting to question its validity. Politicians are followers, not leaders, of public opinion.

    90

  • #
    Paul Vaughan

    .
    “[…] as a PR stunt, skeptics could not possibly have come up with a better way to highlight the growing sea-ice around Antarctica that the models never predicted; nor to display the lack of pragmatic skill modern climate science has attained.”

    True.
    .
    On the last page of a new article I put forth a challenge to climate modelers.

    Sun-Climate 101: Solar-Terrestrial Primer

    Sun-Climate 101 outlines law-constrained geometric foundations of solar-governed “internal” (a counterproductive misnomer) spatiotemporal redistribution (stirring) of terrestrial heat & water at a fixed, constant level of multidecadal solar activity.
    .
    Those with sufficiently deep understanding will recognize this as a 4-dimensional geometric proof.
    .
    See particularly item #5 on page 3. The lesson: There’s stirring & accumulation even with a fixed, constant level of multidecadal solar activity due to the shifts & persistence of terrestrial circulation that are an inevitable consequence of solar frequency shift.
    .
    It’s trivial and it’s geometrically proven.
    .
    The attractor (central limit) would be the same whether scrambled by white noise, spatiotemporal chaos, &/or lunisolar oscillations (the latter of which stand out clearly in observations).
    .
    The utility of these fundamentals extends beyond generalizing the role of stellar frequency in planetary aggregate-circulation to assessing the vision, competence, functional numeracy, honesty, & relevance of climate discussion agents, including those abusing authority.

    70

  • #
    Peter

    It is possible that one of the paying voyagers or others will break ranks at some point and take legal action for a refund from the organisers/funders/insurers for a ruined trip( mental distress frostbite etc)and also reveal what was going on behind the scenes of staged togetherness. Who’s bright idea was it to arrange the cameo events for a watching world. Maybe the journalists from the BBC, Guardian or Fairfax onboard know. It all appeared forced to me. I have to say that I wouldn’t be happy about climbing up and down a rope ladder against the ships side wearing full winter gear thick gloves and heavy boots. One slip and an unforgiving surface to hit.

    Peter

    60

  • #
    Scott Scarborough

    They now define it as a “pseudo-scientific expedition” because it turned out badly. If they followed in Mawson’s path and found less ice and endangered penguins etc. you can bet your sweet ass that they would not be calling it pseudo-scientific.
    Following a famous expeditions path 100 years later and comparing notes with the original expedition is a very scientific thing to do! It only sounds pseudo-scientific to climate scientists when the conclusions do not support their theory. The head of the French polar science institute is the one who is being “pseudo-scientific.”

    97

    • #
      Mortis

      Following a famous expeditions path 100 years later and comparing notes with the original expedition is a very scientific thing to do!

      Only if it is done with the same seriousness and objectivity as the original, which clearly does not describe this debacle.

      120

    • #
      Backslider

      Following a famous expeditions path 100 years later and comparing notes with the original expedition is a very scientific thing to do!

      Perhaps it would be.

      The aim of this “expedition” was nothing of the sort.

      To use the name of a heroic true explorer for this party boat of fools is a travesty.

      40

    • #
      AndyG55

      No, it was a propaganda cruise using the guise of science to get government funding.

      30

  • #
    J Martin

    I’m surprised at the lack of information from AMSA on what happens next. So I have sent an email to them asking if the two ships are waiting for a change in the ice conditions and then will fee themselves or if another ship, perhaps the Akademic Federov will head their way. The Federov is a few days west of them, presumably carrying out re-supply of the some of the Russian bases.

    I also sent the same email to the Russian branch of the International Maritime Organisation, I did think of also sending a copy to the Russian embassy in the UK, but haven’t done yet as I think AMSA should surely know what’s going on and should reply. Should I hold my breath ?

    60

  • #
    leon0112

    Enjoy.

    http://youtu.be/03SWGkxt72A

    [remade Hitler video] ED

    40

    • #
      J Martin

      What is it a video of ? You should give some details, not just post a link. I don’t click on unknown links.

      [good point] ED

      61

  • #
    john robertson

    I am waiting for the official report via Pravda.
    Given the appalling selective vision of those on board reporters, I will ignore their feeble attempts and wait for the masters of propaganda to report in.
    I wonder how long it will take for these presstitutes to clue in?
    When they are frantically reporting to their last 4 viewers?
    Or talking chicken little knee-jerk to an empty room.
    Attention reporters, follow the advertising money, they know where the publics attention is.

    50

  • #
    MadJak

    I would completely understand if the French and Chinese governments decide to exclude australia from this gentlements agreement in future.

    After all, it is now completely obvious that Australia likes to do pretend adventure science for propoganda purposes – even at the expense of real scientific work.

    Maybe the other countries should just leave Australian academia to play pretend science and just focus their efforts on supporting the real researchers instead.

    110

    • #
      Popeye

      MadJak,

      This is a REALLY good point.

      There would be a definite camaraderie between the “real” scientists of all countries having a continuous presence in the region.

      I bet that they have all been in contact with each other laughing their heads off at this “ship of fools”.

      I hope they also included the “real” Australian scientists in their frivolity.

      Cheers,

      80

    • #
      Ross

      MadJak

      I agree with Popeye , your point is on the button. Given Turkey’s form to date I’d predict he’ll come home trumpeting on how great and brave he and gang have been, taking every opportunity to be in the limelight. It will further annoy the real scientists ( especially if they don’t get the remainder of their supplies) and maybe this will rattle the MSM into a bit of action.( I’m not holding my breath, though).
      Given Julie Bishop’s call for the possibility of charging Greenpeace for some the costs involved in getting the Aussie guys out of the Russian prison , you may even see the Govt. taking some action with Turkey and his group.

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      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        Australia has in the past charged people for resque operations. And since this area is under the Australian jurisdiction and was under the Australian resque flag, I suspect they will.

        At the very least, the other international icebreakers will be charging somebody for time and fuel.

        I do look forward to hearing the accounts of the paying PHD students on board. And hopefully the crew too.

        50

    • #
      PeterS

      Yes, I agree too. It should also give Abbott a big boot up the upside to wake him up and realise the AGW scam is real and huge. I’m still hoping he does act accordingly in a serious way but I also understand he’s a tad “slow” in the brain. Still he’s light years ahead of the opposition. As was said many times before, it’s a welcome change to have adults back in charge (albeit far from ideal ones; a partly good adult is far better than a moronic child with the intelligence of a rodent who pretends to be an adult).

      30

      • #

        Even the finest politician generally cannot change or clear up the mess overnight. Abbott has not been in long and may be discovering that throwing the bums out is a lot more labor intensive that earlier believed. Give him time and a bit of slack.

        10

  • #
    HamishM

    The ABC on Lateline in November described the party as “80 scientists” On Friday ABC1 breakfast they called them “tourists”.

    I suspect the irony was lost on them.

    80

  • #
    • #
      MadJak

      …the Clitanic

      ,

      Man, that sounds like a nasty disease down under.

      I’d bet it’s an itchy one too….

      Mwah Ha Ha Ha

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    Stuart Elliot

    I am sure that some alarmists will complain about being mis-represented by those who are following and commenting on this saga. And they are probably getting tired of the derision directed their way.

    Personally, I have no trouble with how this story is being treated in the blogosphere. After all, Turney Boat is fair play.

    (drum roll and cymbal crash) 😀

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  • #
    Manfred

    Meanwhile, elsewhere the weather warms. I wonde what the affected population think of the Turney’s AAE crowd.

    It hasn’t been this cold for decades — 20 years in Washington, D.C., 18 years in Milwaukee, 15 in Missouri — even in the Midwest, where bundling up is second nature. Weather Bell meteorologist Ryan Maue said,

    If you’re under 40 (years old), you’ve not seen this stuff before.”

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    • #
      Greg Cavanagh

      Yesterday (Saterday 4th) was the hottest day I’ve ever seen in my life (47 years) for this area area. It was 44C outside from 9am till 4pm.

      I seen 41 several times, 42 rarely, and I remember a 43 once before.

      I do however know it was the cyclone in WA pulling the trade winds up through central Australia so that we copped the full hot-dry of central Australia. It’s all perfectly natural, just a rare event to happen at the peak of summer.

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  • #
    Neville

    Turney and his group of pseudo science numbskulls are a disgrace and an embarrassment compared to all the genuine scientists doing it tough because of their stupidity.

    Btw just posted this at Jen Marohasy’s blog on SLR.

    Ole Humlum ( climate 4 U) has this to say about recent SL trends.

    “Note: Using the 3 year average shown in the diagram above, based on observed sea level changes, around 1999 the total sea level change from then until year 2100 would have been estimated to about 40 cm, in 2005 to about 30 cm (year 2005-2100), and in 2010 to about 22 cm (year 2010-2100). On July 14, 2012, the prognosis would be about 16 cm sea level increase until 2100. It is interesting that this simple empirical forecast has shown a steady trend towards lower values since about 2002.”

    Ole seems to be saying that trends since 1999 have moved from 40cm by 2100 to 16cm by 2100 in July 2012. That’s 16 inches in 1999 to a lower estimate of about 6.5 inches by July 2012.
    If he’s correct then that trend has decelerated from 40cm to 16cm in just 13 years. If that rate continued for another decade we could then expect little SLR by 2100.

    So where is the dangerous SLR from CAGW we’ve been told about for the last 30 years and where is the dangerous warming?

    BTW just heard that there isn’t much warming in the USA at the moment. Some parts could experience record cold temps of minus -50C in next 24

    50

    • #
      AndyG55

      I vaguely recall seeing an ancient Chinese or maybe Japanese SL chart.

      It seemed to indicate an oscillation, and eyeballing put the next peak about 20-40 years away then down hill again.

      This would fit in quite neatly with Ole’s calculations.

      20

  • #
    Ross

    Just reading in a comment on BishopHill that Turvey is a graduate of UEA —another one !!
    It must have a requirement that all grads go through it’s propaganda training unit.

    70

  • #
    Frankly Skeptical

    Listen Up Folks from an ABC interview in Sept :
    http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3846720.htm

    “CHRIS TURNEY: Well, the fundamental issue is if you didn’t have carbon in the atmosphere, the planet would be about minus 50 degrees centigrade, give or take – that’s what you’d have. So a little bit of carbon warms the planet, and that’s good, it’s where we’re at today – an average planet temperature of about 14, 15, degrees.

    If you put more carbon in the atmosphere, you’d expect the planet to warm, and basically that’s what you see.

    Now there’s all sorts of research questions about where the details are, the rate of change, and the like, but that’s a fundamental premise.”

    Remarkable! Turney if you were unaware is reported to be a climate change specialist.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      Why is ANYONE listening to or even interviewing this twit !

      Maybe its all part of the SPIN, just to get in front of the cameras !!

      20

    • #
      Frankly Skeptical

      OK. First lets be kind and assume he means carbon dioxide instead of “carbon”
      Turney is saying that CO2 that is 0.04% of the atmosphere is causing a rise in temperature from about –50C to 14C (ie 64 deg C difference). That would indeed be a powerful effect if it were true – but:

      Chris here is a question for you: What is the substance notated as a “greenhouse gas” that is actually responsible for this rise in temperature that represents about 4% of the atmosphere. That is, about 2 orders of magnitude (i.e. one hundred times) greater than the CO2 concentration?

      From: the textbook – Physics of the Atmosphere and Climate – M Salby Cambridge University Press 2012 page 248-249:

      Anthropogenic gases (CO2, methane, nitrous oxides, halocarbons, ozone) cause additional warming of the Earths surface by 3 Watts per square meter [3Wm2]. But this warming is reduced by aerosols to about 1.5 Wm2.

      Quote: “ The residual +1.5 W/m2 represents net warming. It is about 0.5% of the 327 Wm2 of overall downwelling LW [ Longwave Radiation] that warms the Earth’s surface. The vast majority of that warming is contributed by water vapour. Together with cloud, it accounts for 98% of the greenhouse effect.”

      Sorry to say Prof Turney but your theory is fatally flawed.

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  • #
    Just Thinkin'

    OT…Well, maybe.

    Channel 7 has just had Flim Flam on as the expert on Climate Change.
    I almost thought that O’Keefe was going to trot out “Dr Karl”!

    No, just good ‘ol Flim Flan.
    Spruiking his usual rubbish; ably abetted by O’Keefe and hanger-on; whatever her name is.

    All this new ice in our southern SUMMER.
    The irony of it all.

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  • #
    AndyG55

    Seems the US ice-breaker has been called to the rescue

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/01/04/usa-to-the-rescue-us-coast-guard-ice-breaker-asked-to-assist-antarctic-rescue-vessels-trapped-in-ice-due-to-spiritofmawson-fiasco/#comments

    And the US will almost certainly try to get their costs back, as will the Chinese.

    Looks like this little propaganda jaunt will almost certainly out cost Flannery’s hot rocks !! For the same benefit.

    30

    • #
      Dave

      AndyG55,

      I think it was MV in a previous post, who said along these lines.
      “There will almost certainly be international ramifications given our already tenuous claims to a large chunk of the continent.”

      The rescue ships now involved are:
      1. MV Akademik Shokalskiy – Russian – The Ship of Fools. 12 days still stuck
      2. MV L’Astrolabe French vessel – involved 4 days
      3. MV Xue Long -Chinese Icebreaker – stuck – 12 days.
      4. MV Aurora Australis – Australian icebreaker – involved 11 days
      5. The Polar Star – USA Icebreaker – on it’s way – 6 days involved
      6. The Federov – a very large Russian Icebreaker (20 days away) involved 7 days.

      That’s Chinese, Russian, American, French and Australian ships & icebreakers all involved for this stupid bunch of fools.

      I think the payout may be made in Antarctic Territory, as MV indicated.

      The only road for the current Government is pay out in cash (which none of these countries want) and then deduct all payments from the institutions involved, including personally making the idiots pay, who dreamed this scam up.

      5 nations, involved in the rescue of 52 dead set IDIOTS from the SHIP OF FOOLS. Unfarkingbelievable.

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  • #
    Greg Cavanagh

    I’ve been thinking about their argo expedition to Mawson’s landing site. It was a 160km round trip.

    So 80km one way. I don’t know what speed the little argo’s travel at so I’ll be generous and say 25km/h. That’s a 3.2 hour trip one way, assuming no challenges along the way.

    I’ll further assume a 1 hour stay, and a 3.2 hour return trip. 8 hours absolute minimum.

    This trip was always going to end badly. I can’t see anyway it could have been pulled off successfully.

    50

    • #
      Michelle

      I read either from an entry at wuwt or here that they lost one of the landing vessels. They only had two working landing vessels instead of three. That’d add quite a bit of time to the excursion. I’d like to know who made the call to continue reloading the equipment when the Captain was giving the hurry up. Just load the people and get the hell out if the weather turns imo. A lot less costly and embarrassing to abandon the equipment and f off pdq than get caught in ice phaffing around. That’ll come down to the cause of this train wreck I believe.

      The greatest insult to all others is their total lack of awareness of how incompetent they appear to be.

      30

  • #
    clipe

    The Flannish Armada?

    60

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  • #

    I found on most tours of the Antarctic, passengers have to have insurance:

    VAE requires participants to be adequately covered by a medical insurance, including aero-medical evacuation from Antarctica.
    http://www.victory-cruises.com/antarctic_ocean_nova_small_ship_expedition.html

    This was also on the expeditionsonline page for some of the tours: Emergency Evacuation Insurance for all passengers to a maximum benefit of USD $100,000 per person. It was included in the cost. How much it actually helps, who knows.

    I learned a couple of very important things:
    Antarctica is by no means an untouched area. There’s plenty of “touching” going on.
    Modern humans have no concept of actual exploration–they think a boat with a chef is somehow mirroring explorers of the past. At least a couple of the cruises had “camping”.

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  • #
    Andrew Griffiths

    Andrew Griffiths Reply Klem #18
    The Germans have a word schadenfreude,literally harm joy,I know its naughty,but I’m loving reading about the whole sorry story. Also, does anyone know if the Centre for Climate Change Excellence has anything to do with UNSW,whichever way,it is a pretentious title for any organisation. Best Wishes to all you bloggers out there and keep up the good work in 2014

    00

  • #
    Tim

    The cost must all be surely worth it when he releases his invaluable data to the scientific community.

    He’s a wee bit busy at the moment talking to the media and his shareholders, but I’m sure he can’t wait to speak to other scientists.

    20

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    handjive

    I ‘believe’ this could be the yolo swag moment for the Cargo Cult of Global Warming.
    It’s all downhill from here.

    10

  • #
    Bite Back

    I saw on the Fox News Channel just a short time ago that the US Coastguard is now on the way to help rescue these numskulls from their self inflicted imprisonment in the ice they sailed into by their own free will choice. How stupid can we get? Let them hike to open water and pick them up in whatever boats can be mustered up then charge them for passage back to dry land.

    10

    • #
      Manfred

      Numbskull

      Cognitive paraesthesia leading to intellectual constipation, resulting in phartingly funny institutional outings that require expensive laxatives to fix.

      30

    • #
      AndyG55

      NO, The US Coast Guard is aiming to help the Chinese Ice breaker that came to help originally, and Russian vessel that the climate cowards have been removed from.

      10

      • #
        Manfred

        Actually sounds like a nurse, followed by a plumber, followed by the fire brigade endeavouring to assist a case of toilet seat entrapment.

        20

    • #
      Bite Back

      So I will clarify then.

      No matter who the Coastguard is going to rescue I think it’s not our job to do it. Period.

      All those at risk have been pulled back to relative safety. From there they need to stand on their own feet. The USA is not the insurer of last resort. We have more than enough trouble saving us from ourselves.

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      • #

        The US coastguard ship was already on it’s way to break open a path to Murdo Sound to resupply a US base. This is not significantly out of it’s way. If you research how often these ships around Antarctica get stuck in ice (the Aurora Australis was stuck twice in the last two months), you see it’s not uncommon. Most don’t ask for rescue. They just wait. If the Coast Guard were not already on the way, it seems unlikely a call for assistance would have been made. It’s really not unusual. Only the party barge masquarading as a science expedition was unusual.

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        • #
          Bite Back

          If it’s an extra 10 feet or a thousand extra miles, what difference? When we bail out foolishness we’re only encouraging more of it. Being a good neighbor doesn’t require enabling someone’s pathological needs. And that is exactly what this is.

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          • #

            So you wouldn’t dial 911 if your clumsy neighbor fell off his roof?

            10

            • #
              Bite Back

              Since this persists, yes I would dial 911. But I would not pay his hospital bill, which is what we’re doing the equivalent of right now. Once there was no significant danger to anyone I would stay away. To do anything else is to be enabling the foolishness.

              Don’t ask what I would do if he continued to fall off his roof.

              The following is true:

              I had (and still have, at least for my part) a friend who was and may still be an alcoholic. He showed up at my door one Saturday morning desperate for a drink and asking for money. I told him no. He then tried to put a guilt trip on me about friendship, going on for nearly a minute. I told him, you cannot expect your friends to enable you to continue drinking. Real friends don’t do that. Either you lick your alcoholism or it will lick you. When the answer continued to be no he turned and left. I haven’t seen him for some time but the last time I did he had been sober for several months.

              What may seem like cruelty to the emotional seems more like good judgment to those who can think straight.

              10

              • #

                I won’t ask.

                I understand the alcoholic example. What I am not understanding is why we leave a ship that came to the rescue and the crew on board the ship that is now empty of the idiots who caused it. Seems more like we’re boycotting the bartender, not the alcoholic.

                It really doesn’t matter to me–it’s going to happen and that’s that. I don’t have to like, approve of it or anything else. Maybe for next time, yes. But not for this one.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                Sheri, the tourist ship is the one in trouble, I may get damaged by the ice.
                The Chinese ice breaker is in absolutely no danger.. its just stuck,
                and if the Russian vessel does become unviable, the Chinese will be able to air lift the crew off.!

                There is absolutely nothing the Aurora could do to help either of them plus the US Polar Star is on the way.
                The Polar Star should be able to get both ships out. If not then they will have to call in one of the really big Russia ice breakers.

                The Aurora is only able to leave because the Chinese vessel is there.

                The BIG IMPERATIVE is to get supplies to the Antarctic bases.
                Once that’s done, the Aurora has to go back to Hobart anyway.

                10

              • #
                Bite Back

                I seem to remember that the US Coastguard was created and charged with patrolling OUR coastal and inland waters, enforcing the rules and providing search and rescue when necessary. Have they any business going so far afield? Not under the current circumstances.

                I think we have no real interest in the situation and unless someone is in real imminent danger, we should stay out of there.

                If someone disagrees about our interest in any of this I’ll be glad to correct my understanding. But this is the way I see it and I’ve already stated why I see it this way.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                My understanding is that the Polar Star was already scheduled to do some work down there in the American Antarctic territory…. supplies or something.

                And think, if the US Coast Guard was only for patrolling US coastal waters, why have you got such a massive big ice breaker? 😉

                00

              • #
                AndyG55

                Bad Whoops.. Alaska is of course part of the US. Doh to me !

                Ice breaker needed for upper Alaskan coast, maybe the upper east side of the continent as well as for supplying you Antarctic territories.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                pps.. I think you will find that the Polar Star was already on its way before this even started. It had a re-supply booked in Sydney.

                00

              • #
                Bite Back

                And I’ve still not been shown a reason to go off rescuing careless fools who’re not in danger of anything now but having to wait a while for a ride home.

                And what were they going to resupply? I doubt that it’s something worth the price to the USA taxpayer.

                00

          • #
            AndyG55

            I think Turney and his 2 main helpers should have stayed on the tourist boat until it was rescued.

            But that wouldn’t have happened because the captain was would have wanted to protect the sanity of his crew. !

            Imagine having to put up with the whinging for even a few days !!!

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        • #
          AndyG55

          The captain obviously DID NOT want to be stuck with that lot for any more time than was actually necessary.

          I pity the Aurora crew, they have to off-load some stuff at one of the Antarctic bases before they can haul the fools’ asses back to Hobart to get the “fingernails on a blackboard” sound out of their ears.

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  • #
    A C

    as I said yesterday and I see Pierre Gosselin agrees (on NOTRICKSZONE)
    “Expect bogus commissions to clear Turney

    I suspect in the end that a commission, even two or three of them, are going to be set up to investigate the whole thing. Then after some months each will issue an authoritive report claiming that although Turney could have done things better, all in all no serious violations were committed and he’ll be cleared. Of course everyone will know that the commissions were bogus. And later, with no one watching, future expeditions will be carried out under far stricter oversight.”

    When these “scientists” got evacuated to the Aroura Australis they were joining a whole bunch of like-minded people (remember the photo with the word “Green” on the deck) who will quickly realize they will have to cover up for these turkeys because their funding future is on the line as well.

    As Gosselin says – Expect a bogus investigation to circle the wagons behind them and tidy up the mess

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  • #
    Dave

    Important News Flash

    The Fourteenth Annual Weblog Awards are open for nominations.

    The 2014 Bloggies – go here and nominate.

    JoNova, nominated check. Need heaps more.
    Then voting begins in March.

    Go JoNova – Tackling tribal groupthink

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  • #
    pat

    the basis of any penguin-population-decimated papers to come!

    BBC’s Owen Bennett-Jones: are there more penguins or fewer (than a hundred years ago)?
    Turney: tragically fewer. we got in (Mawson’s hut) yesterday lunch-time and, to our dismay, we found the penguin population looks like it is decimated compared to a hundred years ago.
    Turney: ARGO – we put tracks on them. just sails over slush.

    (5 mins): 20 Dec: BBC World Service Sound Cloud: Re-tracing the steps of a scientist in the Antarctic
    http://soundcloud.com/bbc-world-service/re-tracing-the-steps-of-a

    greetings to the crews of the Xue Long & Khokalskiy. trust all is well.

    contingency plans in China:

    4 Jan: CRI English: China Sets up Team to Rescue Stranded Icebreaker
    The State Oceanic Administration (SOA) announced on Saturday the team will map out rescue plans and make “all-out efforts” to coordinate rescue operations, despite there is no immediate danger to personnel aboard Xuelong, which has abundant fuel and food supplies.
    The SOA also ordered its marine forecasting department and meteorological center to step up the collection and analysis of meteorological data, so that weather information will be updated and forwarded to Xuelong in a timely manner…
    Currently, Xuelong is located at 66.65 degrees south latitude and 144.42 degrees east longitude. It is surrounded by floes up to four meters thick and is about 21 km away from unfrozen waters, according to the SOA.
    Qu Tanzhou, director of the State Oceanic Administration’s Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, said the planned expedition by Xuelong is inevitably affected and changes are expected to be made to the vessel’s mission after it gets out of trouble.
    “If the ship is stranded for a very long time, which is very rare indeed, then we’ll have to evacuate the people onboard and leave the vessel there,” he said.
    http://english.cri.cn/6909/2014/01/04/2361s806546.htm

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    • #
      AndyG55

      The turkey can’t have spent more than a couple of hours at Mawson’s hut, how can he possibly comment on the number of penguins in Antarctica. There could have been a huge population just a few hundred meters away.

      This guy is NOT any sort of scientist.. he’s a fraud !!!

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      • #
        Backslider

        how can he possibly comment on the number of penguins in Antarctica

        Oh! I thought he was commenting on the number of penguins inside Mawson’s hut 😛

        20

    • #
      Mark F

      I learned the hard way that “decimated” means “reduced by 10 percent”. It sounds ominous, but I’d be surprised if the error ranges then or now could possibly be less than 10 percent.

      20

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    pat

    VIDEO: APPROX 38 MINS: Professor Chris Turney’s Brainfood lecture, June 2013:

    LISTEN FROM 24 MINS: DOODLE4GOOGLE COMP. SUPPORTED BY COMMONWEALTH BANK. JUST LAUNCHED TODAY.
    AVAILABLE 10,000 SCHOOLS NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIA. THE TEACHERS FROM WINNING SCHOOLS IN NZ AND AUSTRALIA JOIN THE EXPEDITION. BERTHS FOR SALE. FLYERS OUTSIDE. IT ISN’T REALLYMEANT TO BE A CRUISE SHIP PER SE (PAUSE) IT IS A CRUISE SHIP…. WE’LL BE USING GOOGLE+. GO ON YOUTUBE OR GOOGLE+, U’LL BE ABLE TO WATCH US BLAH BLAH. DAILY MOVIES FOR TEACHERS. THEN THERE’S SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY, EXPENSIVE, NOT PROHIBITIVE, I DIDN’T LIKE THE BILL WHEN I GOT IT. (SHOWS SATELLITE VIDEO EXCHANGE WITH TEACHER IN SYDNEY – TURNEY LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING HOME & HAVING A DECENT COFFEE). WE ARE PLANTING A HECTARE OF KAURI TREES IN NZ, DEDICATED TO AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, WHICH WILL HAVE THE ADDED BENEFIT OF FIXING THE CARBON USED TO RUN THE EXPEDITION OVER THE NEXT 50 YEARS…IT WILL BE ALL FIXED.

    ABC Big Ideas: Chris Turney: In the Footsteps of Mawson
    http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2013/08/05/3817179.htm

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  • #
    Turtle of WA

    Eco tourism is one of the most ridiculous habits of the Gruppy (green yuppie). Gruppy faith says that belief in global warming is necessary to assuage their guilt for living in prosperous times. The carbon tithe goes some way toward ridding guilt, but the gruppy finds it necessary to go on eco-pilgrimages to the north and south poles and to anywhere where there are glaciers that melt. The carbon emissions from these little jaunts to the holy land are just part of the glorious mystery.

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    pat

    google news has this on main News page as “Highly Cited”! why?

    2 Jan: MotherJones: Chris Mooney: Dear Donald Trump: Winter Does Not Disprove Global Warming
    So as is their seasonal wont, here come the climate skeptics…
    http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/01/blizzards-dont-refute-global-warming

    Wikipedia: Chris Mooney
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Mooney_(journalist)

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    • #
      AndyG55

      This Mooney guy is a BA (in English)

      why the heck is he on the board of the American Geophysical Union !!!!!!!

      No wonder the AGU is heading in a rabid downward spiral if this is the sort of person that gets into board positions.

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    • #
      bullocky

      Mooney
      and ….Clooney
      and a ………… BIG LAMPOONEY!

      (sorry!)

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  • #
    handjive

    JONOVA *EXCLUSIVE!

    World’s First Global Warming Refugee Evacuation

    * I lied. It’s not exclusive.

    20

    • #
      AndyG55

      If they keep sending boats to the Antarctica in summer,

      …..how long would it take to get to that magical 500,000 climate refugees that they once swore would happen !! 🙂

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  • #
    Amr Marzouk

    To quote a friend Rob Darroch they were
    “Gored by their own glaciers ” in memory of Al Gore.
    What a fun saga. Await the movie.

    50

  • #
    Leo G

    The turkeys are shooting back, but true to form they’re firing blanks.
    See the hilariously wrong 5-point rebuttal of Prof Turney’s critics in a Guardian article by Oliver Milman (Thursday 2 January)
    My take on the 5 pointedly wrong points:
    1. Antarctica is an enormous frozen continent that covers about a fifth of the southern hemisphere. Wrong- It covers a 20th of the hemisphere.
    2. Essentially, the Antarctic is a continent of ice surrounded by cold water. Absurdly wrong- there is a land mass above sea level.
    3. Antarctica has lost about 100bn tonnes of continental ice a year since 1993. Wrong- Estimates of Antarctic ice loss vary from 29 Gt/yr to 256 Gt/y, but most of the losses are from non-continental shelves. The best current estimate of total ice loss is 69Gt/yr, including non-continental shelf basins. Including only the continental ice, Antarctica is probably gaining ice at a rate of up to 65Gt/yr.
    4. The MV Akademik Shokalskiy was not suddenly enveloped by ice due to rapidly plummeting temperatures but was pinned by ice carved off from the Mertz glacier, a well-established ice formation. Nonsense, whatever pack ice east of the B-98 Iceberg originated from Mertz, the consolidation around the vessel occurred in conditions of new ice formation and snowfall. Look at the photos of ‘expeditioners’ stamping fresh snow to provide a landing place for the rescure helicopter.
    5. The Australian Antarctic Division has been collecting data on ice flow, thickness and other such things in east Antarctica for more than 50 years– Exaggerated nonsense. The oldest continuously used station is Mawson, used for meteorology, aeronomy and geomagnetic measurements. Then Davis, continuously occupied since 1965, used for upper atmosphere physics research. Casey, the transport hub, has operated continuously since 1988.

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    • #
      lmxly

      1. you are right – he meant 5 % not a fifth.
      2. You are wrong – the vast majority of the landmass of Antarctica is depressed below sea level by the wight of the ice on top of it. Less than 1% is actually rock/land which pierces through this ice. The distinction is essentially between the Arctic – an ocean surrounded by continents, and Antarctica – a continent surrounded by oceans.
      3. This is still an open question.
      4. You are confused. The photos show both a) very rough, rafted multi-year ice that probably came from E of Mertz glacier and b) snow on top of it. These two phenomena are not mutually exclusive. i.e. snow can fall on ‘old’ ice just as readily as new ice! It is highly unlikely that NEW ice would have formed so rapidly and in such a wide area (the ship was initially 2nm from the ice edge, and then 20nm from it a day later) and so thickly – up to 3 m – to trap the ship. Most basements are due to ice movement rather than new ice formation.
      5. Wrong again. Mawson is the oldest continuously operating station on the Antarctic mainland. It was established in 1954 and by the 1960s had become the base for exploration of the coast east to the Amery Ice Shelf and west into Enderby Land, for major traverses of the Antarctic hinterland, and for aerial reconnaissance of the interior, including the Lambert Glacier and the Prince Charles Mountains. Over 20 years ago I spent five months in the Prince Charles Mountains and also organised two traverses of the Lambert Glacier, Antarctica’s (and the world’s) largest. Casey has been operational since 1969, supplanting nearby Wilkes which was established for the IGY in 1957-59. Law Dome, inland from Casey, is the site of deep ice core drilling since the 1960s. All these stations are in East Antarctica.
      I’m not sure what being right or wrong on these points really add to/detracts from the merits of Turney’s expedition – but facts are facts so one might as well get them right!!

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      • #
        ianl8888

        2nm

        So what’s an “nm” ? nanometre, perhaps ? Senseless

        Perhaps one should have one’s facts right before one posts, do you think ?

        And what, exactly, are the merits of Turney’s “expedition” ?

        10

        • #
          MemoryVault

          nm = nautical miles

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          • #
            ianl8888

            I’m acutely aware of what was meant

            I’ve done a 3 month geological mapping stint in West Antarctica (don’t much care to repeat this as penguins, seals and sea lions become very boring after about 48 hours – I will admit, though, that watching penguins do their “jet poop” thing has its’ amusing side)

            My point (perhaps not made as clearly as I’d thought), is that units need to be defined in a general website. “nm” could easily be misconstrued by the uninformed as a typo for “km”. This “expedition” has suffered as much from disinformation reporting as it has from the Jolly Hockey Sticks approach of the hapless participants

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          AndyG55

          nm = nautical mile !

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        Backslider

        the vast majority of the landmass of Antarctica is depressed below sea level by the wight of the ice on top of it

        Could I please have some of whatever you are smoking?

        20

        • #
          MemoryVault

          Backslider,

          Always best to check before challenging an expert on his home ground.

          Apparently most of Antarctica’s land mass is actually below sea level but only because of the weight of the ice above it. If the ice melted the land would eventually rise about 1,000 metres. Of course, it would take a very long time, – about 10,000 years.

          I didn’t know any of that ten minutes ago.
          Google is my friend.

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            Backslider

            That is a total load of codwallop! Antarctica has the highest average elevation of any continent on the planet. Yes, there is the Bentley Subglacial Trench, but that is by no means “most of Antarctica’s landmass”.

            As for “an expert on his home ground”, I think he’s a big bullsh*tter.

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              MemoryVault

              Have a look at Andy’s graphic.

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              • #
                Backslider

                You have a look at it, this time put your glasses on. Then come back and again tell me that “most of Antarctica’s land mass is actually below sea level”. You will find that somebody else here has already given the numbers, not like your guess looking at a graphic.

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            AndyG55

            If its below sea level and open to the sea, is it really land mass ? hummm !!!

            Too much thinking !! My brain will hurt in the morning !

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        Leo G

        Good advice to get one’s facts straight. One should also get one’s reasoning straight too, don’t you think?
        The fact that a proportion of Antarctica’s landmass is depressed below sealevel does not imply that a significant proportion of the bedrock is not above sealevel. Your claim that the vast majority of the continental bedrock is below sealevel is quite false. BAS now estimates the mean bed depth of Antarctica at +83m, the continental area including iceshelves at 13.9 million sq km, and the area below sea level at 5.5 million sq km. A glance at the recent BAS survey map demonstrates the overall picture (yellow and red areas are above msl).
        You think I am too confused to accept the expeditions account of how the vessel came to be trapped in sea ice? The claim was that MV Akademik Shokalskiy arrived at Commonwealth Bay with the open sea no more than two miles off. A blizzard?? came up while expeditioners were exploring floating ice alongside the vessel and before they could be called aboard, the ice packed around the ship and they needed a rescue. Give us a break!
        Did I say Mawson wasn’t the oldest continuously operating station on the Antarctic mainland? No, I implied that it wasn’t used consistently over that period to collect information about ice flow and ice thickness.
        The AAD program at Law Dome hasn’t been continuous since the 1960s- the program was 1962-65. And the purpose? Not measuring ice movement.
        As for Casey Station being continuously operated since 1969, my sources indicated that the Wilkes replacement station at Casey became non-operational in winter by 1979 and, after an 9-summer reconstruction program, reopened in 1988.

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        AndyG55

        I thick this give a pretty good overview of the Antarctic land/sea masses.

        http://e360.yale.edu/images/slideshows/bedmap_consortium_antarctica.jpg

        I’m not interpreting it for anyone because this wine was rather nice and seems to have all disappeared 🙂

        10

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          MemoryVault

          this wine was rather nice and seems to have all disappeared

          Good to hear I’m not the only one plagued by mysterious wine evaporation lately.

          Thanks for the graphic – very graphic.

          00

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            AndyG55

            Peter Lehman Semillon.. YUM !!..

            but only 1″ left in this glass ! 🙁

            oh, no..

            none left !! catastrophy !!!!!

            00

            • #
              MemoryVault

              I warned you!

              In this weather whites evaporate even quicker than reds – and they disappear fast enough.
              I bought a lovely Cabernet Sauvignon to have with the spag bol Thumper has spent all day making.
              Unfortunately, it’s all evaporated, and Thumper is just now ready to serve up.

              Fortunately, I have some more . . . .

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                AndyG55

                “Thumper is just now ready to serve up.”

                Wow,, way to much information !!!!!!!!

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                AndyG55

                I have a really nice 2007 Tahbilk Shiraz on the shelf

                Unfortunately lacking the young lady to cook the spag bol! 🙁

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    davey street

    Have a read of the letters in the Weekend Oz yesterday. It didn’t take long. A Dr (of what, I wonder) Douglas Mackenzie of (where else but) Deakin A.C.T. spruiks the greatest load of tosh you will ever read saying the massive Antarctic ice increase is, wait for it, due to “carving of glaciers” caused by global warming (“unusually high temperatures in Antarctica” says he). I mean where do they get these dills from ? Clearly, he is terrified the taxpayer funding keeping the Australian climate change bureaucrats employed will dry up. Do anything and say anything is what Graham Richardson, godfather of the Australian Labor Party always says is the answer when it comes to electioneering, elections which if Labor/Greens win, means massive funding increases for anyone remotely connected with the nonsensical fraud that is global warming, now morphed into climate change because there wasn’t and isn’t any remotely significant warming.

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      AndyG55

      Abnormally warm.. ??

      Does he mean -48°C instead of -50°C ????

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      Backslider

      I am still waiting for the science which shows how ice melts at extreme sub-zero temperatures…..

      70

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        lmxly

        It will melt at any temperature under pressure. Ever done that experiment of cutting through an ice block with a weighted wire ? Or heard of the lake discovered under 3 km of ice near Vostok in East Antarctica?

        17

        • #
          Backslider

          It will melt at any temperature under pressure.

          While it is under pressure, yes, but not at “any temperature” nor “any pressure” for that matter.

          We are however talking about ice melting on the Antarctic continent (due to supposed warming) and flowing into the ocean….. where are the pics of all this meltwater from Antarctica running into the ocean?

          My science tells me it would freeze as soon as it escapes from pressure.

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          • #
            Popeye

            BS – TOO true – just like a beer out of my garage fridge freezes up sometimes when I rip the cap if it’s been in their too long. (Doesn’t happen often :-))

            Pure science!!

            BTW – enjoying the blog.

            Cheers,

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          • #
            AndyG55

            pps.. I know its a Wikipedia link, but this is a standard phase diagram for water, wiki was just the first one I grabbed.

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              AndyG55

              ppps.. for the uninitiated. those Roman numerals give different crystalline structures of ice.

              Most of them have the close to the same density.. but some don’t !!

              iirc correctly, there is actually one form of ice with a density of just over 1.. ie .. IT WOULD SINK if you could ever get find it and put it in water.

              Intersting hey !! 🙂

              (Don’t woory.. that will never happen in your whiskey !!)

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          AndyG55

          Darn, hadn’t finished..

          You can see there is a very small section between about 1-6kBar (1000 – 6000 times atmospheres.. that’s heavy, dude!) where the melting point is lowered to a value of about -20C, apart from that, higher pressures cause the ice to stay solid even at very high temperatures.

          30

        • #
          AndyG55

          Further, since the wire is very fine it may actually be possible to get to that tiny little range of pressure where the melting point is below zero C

          Remember P=F/A .. and the contact area of the wire is very small and if the force is large enough.. well, sure its possible

          Seems that little experiment was concocted by someone who knew a bit about phase diagrams 😉

          30

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          AndyG55

          As for the lake, I suspect it has formed under a very thick ice cap supported on solid land. Their may be some slight warming from below or something.

          (Volcanoes do exist in Antarctica y’know, so no reason to think their couldn’t be ‘warm’ areas or rock.

          We just don’t know.. so it’s REALLY BAD SCIENCE to go inventing things..

          that’s how the AGW/CO2 joke got started, afterall !!!

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        • #

          Which would mean that the use of “melting ice” when it’s -33 degrees C applies only in a very specialized set of circumstances, not general ones. A fact conveniently omitted from virtually all statements on melting Antarctic ice.

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          • #
            AndyG55

            No Sheri, the phase diagram clearly shows that ice cannot be melted even under pressure at less than -20°C and only under a very specific range of pressures.
            (That little green bump about 2/3 up the chart)

            This is to do with the polymorphic crystalline varieties of ice.

            You can “sublime” ice by dropping the pressure to less than 8 mBar.
            but that won’t happen in the atmosphere except at very high altitude.

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            AndyG55

            ps.. this phase diagram only applies to pure H2O ice.

            There may be a few “wobbles” when it comes to sea ice, due to impurities,
            but the formation of ice does tend to separate them out to a reasonable extent.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                Glad to be of help.

                If anyone ever wants to tell its possible to melt ice below zero C, just drag up the phase diagram and explain.. That’ll leave them stumped. 🙂

                Phase diagrams are very useful for some engineering “stuff”.

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        bullocky

        Backslider,

        You may remember the 10:10 Video.

        A seminal lesson in science, it showed how matter explodes with ‘no pressure’.

        It was by far the best instalment in a one-part series.

        (sarc)

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      Jaymez

      Of course if the good ‘Dr’ knew anything he/she would have used the term ‘calving’. They also have no ability to differentiate between some areas of West Antarctica and the rest of Antarctica.

      Most people don’t realise the land area of Antarctica at 14 million sq km is 1.82 times larger than Australia. When the sea ice peaks there is another 19 million sq km of ice. A couple of glaciers in the volcanically active area of West Antarctic are negligible in the scope of Antarctica yet so many focus on that.

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    michael hart

    One thing still not clear to me: What is the nature of the relationship between Turney and Australian Antarctic Expedition. Is it an entirely non-commercial or non-profit arrangement?

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    • #
      Joe V.

      Does a term like CAAE begin to suggest itself ?
      Fortunately Catastrophic in these circumstances meaning only for the CAGW cause and anyone and anybody, scientific, governmental or otherwise, associated with it.

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    John Of Cloverdale WA

    To Davey Street #55, or, rather Prof whatever (some Arts faculty probably) from Deakin A.C.T. …. :
    “This is information that underpins the models we now use to work out how the ice flows across the continent,” explained Hamish Pritchard from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
    “The Antarctic ice sheet is constantly supplied by falling snow, and the ice flows down to the coast where great bergs calve into the ocean or it melts. It’s a big, slow-speed hydrological cycle.”
    “To model that process requires knowledge of some complex ice physics but also of the bed topography over which the ice is flowing – and that’s BEDMAP.”
    Link

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    Geoff Sherrington

    Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is supposed to provide data for planning expeditions like this ill-fated one to seek global warming in the Antarctic and places on the way.
    Macquarie Island is one such place on the way that can be used for an example. The BoM have been collecting daily temperature data there since 1948.
    In year 2009 I emailed Dr David Jones about conditions on Macquarie Island, where I’d been looking at temperatures since 1968 for another project. Both Tmax and Tmin were flatlining over that term of 40 years.
    Here is part of an email from me to Dr Jones on 1st July 2009. “How is the temperature at Macquarie Island going? Are we, the public, likely to be rewarded soon with an explanation of its apparent impunity to regard climate change seriously?”
    Dr Jones replied a few days later “Macquarie Islands data shows strong warming – about 0.5C in the last 50 years.”
    If Dr Jones had been advising the Australian Antarctic Expedition, he would have been wrong. The BoM data show that the last 50 years, 1960-2009 inclusive, have these temperature differences –
    Tmax 0.2 deg C
    Tmin 0.2 deg C
    T average 0.2 deg C
    So the comment of Dr Jones was high by 250%. Simply, 0.5 degrees is NOT 0.2 degrees.
    In the following years, from 2010 to 2013 incl, the temperatures have been near the mean of the prior 50 years, with no show of global warming recently as shown next.
    T average of 50 years was 4.9 deg C
    2010 T average was 5.1 deg C
    2011 T average was 4.8 deg C
    2012 T average was 5.1 deg C
    2013 T average was 4.9 deg C

    One can therefore draw the logical inference that a Party accepting data like these and not checking, would be misled by the summary of Dr Jones, who signed off as Head of Climate Analysis.
    Together with other examples not given here, one is entitled to postulate that some BoM officials are of a mindset that “wishes” global warming to happen, with their belief trumping the hard data.
    I wonder if this happened to Prof. Turney? Was he chasing illusions of global warming that were not in the data?
    Simply for interest, the temperature at Macquarie Island has been in steady decline since 1970 as shown by the Bureau’s data graphed here.

    http://www.geoffstuff.com/Macquarie%20Island%20Temper.JPG

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    Ted O'Brien.

    If this ship is ultimately lost, would Prof Turney be subjected to a coroner’s or some such inquest?

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    • #
      PeterS

      Probably not but he should be, together with his masters and side kicks. Make no mistake about though, he and the others will try their best to turn it into a success story. The worry is much of the gullible public will once again fall for the AGW scam or at least be neutral about it. Again, Martin Armstrong says it very well in relation to another topic but can be applied here too; “the attention span of the public is less than a fly. At least a fly is persistent – the public forget and move on. I suppose we do not find shit as memorable as a fly.”

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      Popeye

      Coroners inquest ONLY if someone were to die.

      Could be judicial or parliamentary inquiry in other circumstances though.

      Cheers,

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    • #

      Yes, the companies will try to claim on their insurance. The insurance companies will look for culpability and will sue for compensation. As Prof Turner and others are employers of rich organizations who can pay, the lawyers will want them to pay for the rescue, the loss of facilities and possibly the loss of boats. It will depend on culpability.

      Leading a group of total novices with no training into Antarctica is absurdly risky. Taking tourists across unsurveyed sea ice on possibly untested multi wheeled vehicles even more so. One vehicle nearly sank with its driver when being towed across water. Another tourist nearly disappeared in a crack in the ice and into the water, according to Senator Rice. Then Prof Turney has already said he was aware for three years that the bay was blocked with sea ice, that there was a huge glacier which had lodged itself in the bay, changing currents and that it was one of the windiest places on earth, so the ice can move quickly. This is all an admission of guilt, especially if he refused or ignored the advice of the ship’s captain as reported by Senator Rice. Then his claims of valid necessary science would be examined, to see what valuable work he was doing which was not already done by the many professional bases running year round and whose work has suffered as a consequence. He has flagged his fall back defence is peer review of his forthcoming papers, which seems to mean that he can whip up support for his work among his friends. I think the lawyers would want it from the Australian, Chinese, American and French Antarctic bases so badly affected by his reckless adventure. Unlikely.

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    Peter H

    What is this con artist, Chris Turneys relationship with Australia, is he a dual national, or is he english. When did he come to Australia?

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    Probably the hardest thing for Professor Turney to explain are all the journalists. From what I have read
    2 x The Guardian
    1 x BBC
    1 x Fairfax

    Real science is boring, so what sensational news enticed four Green journalists and a Green senator elect aboard? Were they expecting to see the missing sea ice?
    What will the President of China think when he realises his brave men have rescued a boat load of eco-tourists.

    I have found one very experienced Antarctic person, Greg Mortimer, who has led 80 trips to Antarctica with his own company. You have to wonder what he thought of this one, as it has given Antarctic tourism a very bad name.

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    gbees

    More spin from Turney …..

    Expedition leader Professor Chris Turney has been criticised for inexperience and for taking risks by entering Commonwealth Bay.

    However, writing for the British Observer newspaper, Professor Turney says the expedition was not a “jolly tourist trip” but represented serious science, which had two years of planning behind it and achieved much before it became stuck.

    “During the expedition we pioneered a new route into the huts and were able to deliver two large teams to work in the area, including undertaking important conservation work on the huts,” he wrote.

    “The AAE is not a jolly tourist trip as some have claimed, nor is it a re-enactment.

    “The AAE is inspired by Mawson but is primarily a science expedition; it will be judged by its peer-reviewed publications.” INDEED IT WILL.

    Professor Turney said the passengers were grateful for their rescue but said the circumstances which saw their ship lodged in ice were unforeseeable.

    “Unfortunately, events unfolded which no amount of preparation can mitigate,” he said.

    THIS ONE TAKES THE CAKE …. “Unluckily for us, there appears to have been a mass breakout of thick, multi-year sea ice on the other side of the Mertz Glacier; years after the loss of the Mertz Glacier tongue.

    “There was nothing to suggest this event was imminent. We have had regular updates on the state of the sea ice in the area and had been monitoring the region for the last year.”

    SO IT WAS YEARS OF ICE LOSS FROM THE MERTZ GLACIER THAT CAUSED THE BUILD UP OF ICE WAS IT? OH DEAR. SUCH SPINNING …..

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    Dave Broad

    Have any of you read this new spin piece? Stacked with inaccuracies. Written by none other than Stephan Lewandowsky.

    https://theconversation.com/an-icebreaker-gets-stuck-in-the-ice-photos-are-used-to-mislead-21736

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    • #
      Dave

      Unbelievable?

      Professor Turkey gets stuck in ever increasing sea ice, and this Cognitive Psychologist has the proof that it’s all global warming.

      How desperate are these people.

      This Professor Turkey and the SHIP OF FOOLS is really getting to them.

      Then there is this:

      “There is a solid body of evidence that Antarctica is melting (a consequence of global warming) whereas sea ice around Antarctica is increasing.”

      They are sacrificing Lewandowsky, to take the heat.

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        Michelle

        From Stephan Lewandowsky Chair of Cognitive Psychology at University of Bristol who receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Royal Society.

        The University of Bristol Provides funding as a Founding Partner of The Conversation.
        bristol.ac.uk

        … An ice breaker gets stuck in ice – we’ve all seen the pictures – and somehow this is
        an embarrassment to “global warming scientists”…

        ummm… as I understand it MV Akademik Shokalskiy is not an icebreaker and that’s part of the issue.

        MV Akademik Shokalskiy is an ice-strengthened ship. According to Lewandowsky the good Professor Turney and his fellows set out to study the growth of extensive fast ice. Then he explains: “extensive fast ice” is a form of sea ice, and it is obviously sea ice in which the expedition is now stuck.

        Yep. Stuck. That’ll be ICE STRENGTHENED Akademik Shuleykin. Not ICEBREAKER Akademik Shuleykin. Stuck up past her nuts that have deserted the stuck boat, er ship.

        From Lewandowsky:…In other words, the expedition is experiencing the very conditions it set out to study — namely the various kinds of sea ice that scientists know are increasing around Antarctica, while the icecaps on Antarctica are known to melt.

        I’ll repeat that bit. “The expedition is experiencing the very conditions it set out to study — namely the various kinds of sea ice that scientists know are increasing around Antarctica, while the icecaps on Antarctica are known to melt.”

        According to Lewandowsky “Scientists” know the sea ice is increasing around Antarctica.

        And the folly folk set out to study this sea ice they believe is increasing in an ice strengthened ship.

        Not an icebreaker.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akademik_Shuleykin_class_oceanographic_research_vessel
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_class

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    ROM

    Maybe somebody has already posted this but 250 posts to scan to find if so ????

    Steve McIntyre in his usual unemotional and detailed analytical manner has posted on Lucia’s Blackboard blog the following interesting snippet re Charter hire of boats / ships.
    If he is right then there are a whole range of people and outfits including the UNSW, that might be looking at paying out some very big bikkies indeed to a whole lot of folk with a whole truckload of lawyers in the middle of the ensuring legal fracas collecting their no doubt lucrative cuts from the proceedings.

    Buy Pop corn futures. This has a long way to run

    And despite the suggestions that Turney will be cleared I now very much doubt that as it is becoming clear from numerous sources that there are now far too many scientists and organisations connected with the Antarctic research including International Antarctic Treaty science organisations who would be fairly insulted if Turney was cleared and instead got a kick upstairs.

    They will want blood and will want to see the use of the maximum punitive legal action available against Turney and his equally stupid turkeys so as to set an example for others who are stupid enough, ignorant enough and / or arrogant enough to try the same stunt and still expect the researchers from the Antarctic nations to drop everything and speed to their rescue if they get a bit of ice in their panties or run out of vodka and milkshakes.

    From The Blackboard

    Trapped in Ice: CC story of 2013.
    _____________________________
    Steve McIntyre (Comment #122283) January 5th, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    There’s another legal issue that I havent seen anyone discuss yet. In nearly all marine charter parties, the charterer is obliged to return the vessel to the specified port on or before the appointed time, and the cost of delays is to the charterer’s account. Sort of like returning a rental car.
    At some point, the Russian owners are going to be sending demurrage invoices to the charterers. It looks like the vessel is going to miss its next charter – which will be lost revenue of over $1 million or so.
    Some events in a charter are insurable. Whether demurrage costs arising from the particular delay are covered would depend on the precise language of the contract. If the demurrage costs are not covered by the insurance, then the shipowners, who are not charities, will look to someone to reimburse them.
    My guess is that the charterer is Adventure Associates, a company co-owned by Greg Mortimer and some associates. However the trip operator was the AAE, which appears to be some sort of joint venture between University of New South Wales and Adventure Associates. It would be interesting to know who received payment from the passengers.
    Adventure Associates probably doesn’t have deep pockets. It was purchased last summer by Greg Mortimer, a distinguished mountaineer, and previously seems to have had several owners.
    Anyone trying to get paid will look for the person with the deepest pockets, which, in this case, is the University of New South Wales. Adventure Associates would probably go bankrupt rather than pay the demurrage. So the Russian owners would include the university as a defendant, arguing that they were jointly responsible for leading the expedition – which appears to be the case.
    Dawdling by the scientists on Dec 23 could also come into play. If sued, Adventure Associates might cross-claim against the University of New South Wales arguing that either Turney’s directions or the dawdling scientists caused or contributed materially to the vessel being caught.
    Seems to me that there are more shoes to drop.
    _________________
    lucia (Comment #122284) January 5th, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    Steve McIntyre
    Seems to me that there are more shoes to drop.
    Yes. For these sorts of reasons, I expect there will be numerous investigations by different parties, each with different interests. We are likely to see lawsuits which means legal discovery according to whatever rules of discover govern in countries where suits are filed. Those who were on the ship can anticipate being interviewed by people who will be trying to tease out evidence that could help ‘their’ side of the legal case.
    This is not going to be pretty for Turney who seems to have pretty good pr/marketing abilities under ordinary circumstances. But those skills often fail when motivated groups are working to get information– and motivated people will wish to because it will matter to their bottom lines in terms of ($$). These people will also not be easy to smear as “denialists”. They will simply be business people. Also: most won’t care what anyone labels them. They will care about 5 to 6 figure $$ amounts involved in various potential awards.

    [end]

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      Greg Mortimer would have known better and is amazingly experienced. After taking 80 expeditions to Antarctica, Greg would have known to cut the trip short if there was any sign of trouble. As Turney lectured so many times, it is a very dangerous place and lives can swing on a single bad decision.

      So what did he really think of taking really soft tourists out for a spin on uncharted sea ice in Commonwealth Bay with a storm closing in? What did he really think when they sank the first ARGO while being towed or when a tourist nearly fell through a crack in the sea ice as reported by Janet Rice? THen they only had two argos and lost a lot of time. Was Greg locked in business with a charismatic madman who just wanted to see Mawson’s hut, no matter what the cost or risk to everyone else? It looks like Turney’s schoolboy fascination with Mawson was behind this whole exercise and the foolish entry into Commonwealth Bay. He even knew the risks were very high. Now Greg is facing bankruptcy while Turney is a secure employee of the UNSW and thus an untouchable public servant whose boss can afford to buy both boats. Yes, we will hear a lot from Mortimer as the many million dollar bills come in. At 61, it is the end of his brilliant career as an explorer and businessman and he will be very angry.

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  • #
    Jon Reinertsen

    TdeF,
    Turney is an Adjuct Professor. I.e. a part timer, he is not a full time employee with tenure. If you look at the UNSW Climate mob website you will find he is well down the pecking order. I suspect his contract is now (quietly) up for review.

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    […] French Polar Chief slams SpiritofMawson fiasco « JoNova […]

    00

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    Visiting Physicist

    OPEN LETTER to PROF CHRIS TURNEY, University of NSW, Sydney

    Dear Prof Turney

    I am a physics graduate who in recent years has turned his attention to very comprehensive study of climate, climate models and the alleged greenhouse radiative forcing conjecture. I have written to you personally and now make this matter public herein and elsewhere on various climate blogs.

    I make the following points …

    (1) Any study of temperature records for various inland cities (such temperatures being adjusted for altitude) will reveal that the mean daily maximum and minimum temperatures are lower in the more moist regions, because the greenhouse gas water vapour cools, as does carbon dioxide to a very small extent.

    (2) The total solar energy reaching the top of the Venus atmosphere would not be anywhere near enough to raise its surface temperate to about 730K so such cannot be explained by radiative forcing.

    My challenge to you is to find anyone with sufficient knowledge of thermodynamics who can in any way support the conjecture that radiative forcing determines planetary surface temperatures.

    (This has also been emailed to Prof Turney directly with a note that it is being posted on about 15 climate blogs.)

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    Adrian O

    [climate goose]
    Chris Turney went up on a fence
    To show humans’ climatic offense
    But a giant ice wall
    Made his theories fall

    And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men
    Cannot put Turney’s science together again
    Threescore men and threescore more
    Cannot make things back as they were before

    01

  • #
    Adrian O

    [climerick]
    A climate professor named Turney
    Went on a melting finding journey
    His companions were whiny
    And his science was tiny
    So now Turney’s journey put climate on a gurney

    01

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    Adrian O

    [antarctic zen]
    noisy humans leave theories stranded in eternal ice

    01

  • #
    Adrian O

    [climate goose]
    Ring-a ring o’roses,
    Global warming pauses,
    Ice up! Ice up!
    It all falls down.

    01

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    Kevin White

    The Impossible Polar Expedition
    ===============================

    To dream … the impossible dream …
    To sail … through those frozen ice floes …
    To run … where you only see penguins …
    To wear … my most warm thermal undies …
    To prove … the unprovable lie …
    To love … with my wife here beside me (glad I brought her on the cruise now) …
    To tweet … when your arms are too weary …
    To take … the unwatchable selfie …
    To check … how much Flannery has invested in my carbon capture company …
    To plant … one million proud Kauri trees in New Zealand …
    To reach … for a banana and peanut butter milkshake …

    This is my quest, to follow Al Gore …
    No matter how hopeless, no matter how far …
    To fight the great warmist cause, without question or logic …
    To be willing to march in the footsteps of Mawson … burning gallons of fuel

    And I know if I’ll only be true, to this glorious quest,
    That my heart will lie like a warmist does best,
    when I’m laid to my rest …and the world less one pest:
    That one man, scorned, while this warm planet cooled,
    Still strove, with his ship full of fools,
    To reach … for that great Polar Star …

    00