THEY went to the Arctic lamenting global warming, but ever since they got there they have been wishing for warmer weather.
I have been feeling sorry for the three Brits who set off for the North Pole in February. I’m all for adventurers pushing themselves to their absolute limits but after pulling a 1,000 kg sledge all day, image having to crawling into “a frozen sleeping bag” on “a raft of sea ice” knowing there is a polar bear nearby. I guess there is always a percentage of us that feel the need to suffer for the common good.
Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and photographer Martin Hartley were dropped somewhere in Canada at the end of February to pull their fully laden sledges more than 1,000 kilometres to the North Pole. The objective of the adventure is to measure ice thickness and draw attention to the issue of global warming. I suspect that the latter objective, drawing attention to global warming, is why the team includes the photographer.
Called the Catlin Expedition, it has run into unusually cold weather with a dip in Arctic temperatures over the last couple of months, but apparently temperatures are now recovering along with the spirits of the adventurers.
Given the team set off concerned the planet was overheating, they could perhaps be a little happier about the recent unusually cold weather.
***********************
Notes
Arctic diary: Explorers’ ice quest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7897392.stm
Graph from Anthony Watts, http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/04/04/bad-news-for-catlin-expedition-satellite-data-shows-arctic-cooling-in-feb-march/ . Click on the image for a better/larger view.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
That’s over a 2C drop in 4 years; gad, that CO2 is powerful stuff.
James Hansen must be feeling like Baghdad Bob in 2003. And Al Gore has more than his reputation at stake. He’s put a lot of his financial eggs in the fear-mongering basket. I hope that The Goracle and his global-cooling-denial cult followers decide against having a mass kool-aid-drinking farewell party in South America.
If only they had taken some solar cells. The power could have kept them warm and toasty. An electric bob sled could have been handy as well.
They don’t get it saying you are going to do this sort of thing is the important thing. Actually doing it is a madness which can easily kill one or all of the party. The ice moves all the time and can break under you. If you fall in you have 4 minutes to live. Going to the toilet is dangerous certain parts of the anatomy can become snap frozen! Polar bears may be cute and cuddly as cubs but they grow to over a 1000kg and want to eat you. If you carry a gun for protection it will freeze and not work.
A delusional endeavour but I guess that should not surprise us.
🙂 🙂
well said.
Prince Charles, the patron, in his wisdom says, “for the sake of our children and grandchildren I pray that we will heed the findings of the Caitlin Arctic Survey.”
Yeah, that it is “Stupidly cold!”
It’s like the Copenhagen conference – the press release precedes the event.
Poor old Charlie. He never made it did he.
I am going to create an award, “The Denier Who Provides the Shortest Trend as Evidence”. So far, this topic is the clear winner.
SJT:
“The Denier Who Provides the Shortest Trend as Evidence”. So far, this topic is the clear winner.
Short trend?
Scientists are putting their lives on the line to do research, and all they get here are snide digs. What a disgrace.
Yes, Jennifer it is warming up nicely now in the Canadian Arctic for these intrepid trekkers. Today’s temperature at Resolute in the high Arctic is minus-33 C. They are probably peeling off their parkas to enjoy this balmy day as I write.
SJT: “Scientists are putting their lives on the line to do research, and all they get here are snide digs. What a disgrace.”
Wrong, SJT. These people are trying to publicize a cause. Their stated purpose for this stunt is to show how global warming is thinning Arctic sea ice. They had already determined the conclusion; now they are hoping to find evidence to support it. (Perhaps they will have to measure the ice thickness in their sleeping bags). That is not how scientific research is supposed to work, as I understand it.
SJT: “Scientists are putting their lives on the line to do research, and all they get here are snide digs. What a disgrace.”
Concur with JMD. Additionally a single time series of ice measurements are worthless. All they are showing is ice thickness this year which is compared too? Nothing. And yet their website claims that the data will be fed into climate models.
At best they may be establishing a baseline for future measurements. Still, risking life to do this is nothing more than a publicity stunt. The US Army has been measuring the ice thickness for about five years via bouys and that data is readily available. BTW the Army data shows that the ice has getting thicker in the last four years. Expanding the US Army research to encompass a wider area of the Arctic would be far more useful and could be accomplished without needlessly risking life. But then, such an approach is not dramatic enough to capture headlines and titilate the alarmists.
SJT. “Scientists are…”
Sceintists? Really?
Oh well, there shouldn’t be much chance that they get eaten by polar bears as there are so few bears nowadays.
These people are the worst kinds of fools and liars.
I don’t know Eyrie; the mob spreading doom about Antarctica via the imminent demise of the Wilkins are pretty handy; of course the thoroughly discredited Steig paper ‘proving’ the Antarctic has been warming for the last 50 years is being trundled out to prove the Wilkins is collapsing due to AGW; pity about this aspects;
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/antarcticvolcanoes2.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AntarcticaRockSurface.jpg
The Wilkins has always been a different ‘country’ to the rest of Antarctica; one underpinned by volcanoes and which represents 0.39% of the total area and a small proportion of the West which has seen its snow cover double since 1850. Just pure hyperbole and misrepresentation.
“Scientists are putting their lives on the line to do research, and all they get here are snide digs. What a disgrace.”
You mean measuring the depth of an ever moving ice floe?
For WWF propaganda purposes?
For more fundraising for WWF?
SJT: ‘I am going to create an award, “The Denier Who Provides the Shortest Trend as Evidence”. So far, this topic is the clear winner.’
Surely out-trumped by Obama claiming the North Dakota ice floods as evidence of the need to take action on climate change, or claims about the Vic bush fires, etc, etc?
sjt
“Scientists are putting their lives on the line to do research, and all they get here are snide digs. What a disgrace.”
Indeed it’s a disgrace! it’s a disgrace that attention seeking, self promoting wankers are using public monies for something that is already available from various sources, including the US navy!
SJT, you really should check your spelling, before you post.
I know you meant to say, “A bunch of d#ck heads, bunging on a damn fool stunt”, but it didn’t come out right.
There are complications with Australian predictions also……
“It was April and the Aboriginals in a remote part of Northern Australia asked their new elder if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.
Since he was an elder in a modern community he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky he couldn’t tell what the winter was going to be like.
Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the tribe should collect firewood to be prepared.
But being a practical leader, after several days he had an idea. He walked out to the telephone booth on the highway, called the Bureau of Meteorology and asked, ‘Is the coming winter in this area going to be cold?’
The meteorologist responded, ‘It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold.’
So the elder went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.
A week later he called the Bureau of Meteorology again. ‘Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?’
The meteorologist again replied, ‘Yes, it’s going to be a very cold winter.’
The elder again went back to his community and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.
Two weeks later the elder called the Bureau again. ‘Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?’ he asked.
‘Absolutely,’ the man replied. ‘It’s looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever.’
‘How can you be so sure?’ the elder asked.
The weatherman replied, ‘Our satellites have reported that the Aboriginals in the north are collecting firewood like crazy, and that’s always a sure sign.’
Hmmm … a half degree cooling ‘trend’ over a miniscule three years … and the denialwit stupidverse goes wild !!
Man, that sure beats the hell out of this one don’t it ? http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/trends-in-arctic-temperature-1880-2006
Closer to 1C and point to point 2.5C; as to the 1930s being cooler, I don’t believe you; the ‘adjustments’ made retrospectively to temperature records by the ‘authorities’ are as impressive as your diatribes;
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/arctictemps.jpg
According to the new issue of Geophysical Research Letter will Arctic be icefree during summers within 30 years.
http://sermitsiaq.gl/klima/article80747.ece?lang=EN
And in Nuuk Greenland it’s only -3 C today.
BBC’s Richard Black described the Heartland Conference importance as ” comparable to a government in exile”.
Not to belittle the team but they are not scientists. One photographer and two explorers who make their livings as motivational speakers. This publicity stunt will bring them much business.
The science part is a ruse.
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/meettheteam
Cohenite, that arctic temperature graph looks like a step change at 1920 and cyclical warming/cooling since.
Thermometer location/exposure change whatever around 1920 anyone?
Yeah, you’re probably right Eyrie; maybe someone used the thermometer to keep warm.
Geoff, that is haa-larious! I’ve filed it in the archives, crediting you. Thanks, mate.
So … er … icecap’s graph for 1880-2004 is showing a warming trend of 2C but magically, WUWT’s 3 year micro-fragment of cherry picked data instantly turns that around to show “1C and point to point 2.5C” cooling. WTF ??
Surely those brainiac sciencey guys at WUWT aren’t suggesting we’re headed for snowball earth by mid-century ? A massive drop like that over three years can only be bad news in the long run !
Go on cohenite … incorporate that WUWT nano-shard into the longer term icepap data and plot a trend line for 1880-2008. What would it show ? Yep, warming would be my guess too.
Anyway, do ‘icecap’ know their fellow traveller, Watts, implies their careful analysis and nice graph are just plain old shite ?
Good old denialists … as oblivious to inconsistency as ever.