Okay, I will spare readers another presentation of the “polar ice image” I so love in favor of the one above, an actual picture of the expeditionary ship now trapped in the Antarctic ice pack. However, the delicious irony of the plight that climate change Professor Chris Turney and his merry band of global warming alarmists find themselves in, with their vessel now stuck fast, is too good not to comment on. The rescue of the people on this “Ship Of Fools” is now draining away considerable time and money from the ongoing scientific research of several countries.
From a post by Pierre Gosselin at his climate science blog “NoTricksZone” (scroll down):
The first error expedition leaders made was under-estimating the prevailing sea ice conditions at Mawson Station, their destination. The scientists seemed to be convinced that Antarctica was a warmer place today than it had been 100 years earlier, and thus perhaps they could expect less sea ice there. This in turn would allow them to charter a lighter, cheaper vessel.
This seems to be the case judging by their choice of seafaring vessel. They chartered a Russian vessel MS Akademik Shokalskiy, an ice-strengthened ship built in Finland in 1982. According to Wikipedia the ship has two passenger decks, with dining rooms, a bar, a library, and a sauna, and accommodates 54 passengers and a crew of up to 30. Though it is ice-reinforced, it is not an ice-breaker. This is a rather surprising selection for an expedition to Antarctica, especially in view that the AAE website itself expected to travel through areas that even icebreakers at times are unable to penetrate, as we are now vividly witnessing. Perhaps the price for chartering the Russian vessel was too good to pass up.
What made the expedition even more dubious is that Turney and his team brought on paying tourists in what appears to have been an attempt to help defer the expedition’s costs and to be a source of cheap labor. According to the AAE website, the expedition was costed at US$1.5 million, which included the charter of the Akademik Shokalskiy to access the remote locations. “The site berths on board are available for purchase.” Prices start at $8000!
The expedition brought with it 4 journalists, [and] 26 paying tourists.
It is worth noting that this is primarily an Australian effort, as the public acceptance of AGW alarmism in Australia is still at about the level it was here in the states three years or so back.