Russian Itar-Tass: Global Warming Boatpeople To Be Air-Lifted From Sea-Ice-Surrounded Akademik Shokalskiy!

The German online Westfalen-Blatt quotes Russian news agency Itar-Tass:

After a failed rescue attempt by an icebreaker sent to free 74 participants of an Antarctic expedition that became trapped in polar ice, a large number of them are to be rescued by air.

It has been decided to rescue 52 passengers and four crew members using a helicopter from the Chinese “Snow Dragon” ice breaker, so reports the Itar-Tass news agency Monday, refering to the Russian Foreign Ministry.”

It appears the Russians see no further purpose for the scientists to remain on their MS Akademik Shokalskiy research vessel, which they’ve hired out to them, and will leave behind a bare crew of 18 in the hopes of salvaging the ship. The Akademik Shokalskiy has been trapped in unexpected dense, thick sea ice since December 24.

Stormy forecast

Whether conditions will allow a helicopter rescue on Tuesday is questionable. The weather forecast for Mawson shows blizzardy conditions through Tuesday. Currently winds are blowing at near 70 km/h from 120° east-southeast. Temperatures will fall over the course of the next 10 days.

The Westfalen-Blatt writes that there is no information on when and how the remaining 18 will be rescued.

Turney gets dose of “shocking” reality

The last rescue attempt by an Australian icebreaker was abandoned due to a “dangerous snowstorm” which expedition leader Chris Turney called “shocking”.

Imagine that: global warming causing a million extra square kilometers of thick, impenetrable sea ice and dangerous, “shocking” snowstorms.

This is what we call fantasy being contradicted by reality.

 

10 responses to “Russian Itar-Tass: Global Warming Boatpeople To Be Air-Lifted From Sea-Ice-Surrounded Akademik Shokalskiy!”

  1. Edward.

    I hope that, they get them out but having said that, I don’t have an ounce of sympathy for these clowns. The Antarctic is not warming, in fact the opposite has proven to be the case if one consults the recent yearly sea ice figures and temperature records.

  2. Adrian O

    A leading Australian climatologist decided to recreate a famous trip to the Antarctic soil a hundred years ago. There is a film from back then, which shows the bay free of ice.

    http://tinyurl.com/qznl73z

    The point of the expedition is to show the horrendous effects of human induced climate change.

    *********

    What do you think the message of the climatologist caught in 20 ft of ice which can’t be broken by any icebreaker is?

    Yes, I know. It sounds like a walking in a bar joke. But sadly, the joke is on us. At $1 billion/day.

    The message of the climatologist caught in 20 ft of ice is which can’t be broken by any icebreaker, in a place which 100 years ago was free of ice, is:
    QUOTE: “Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change”

    See news.com.au
http://tinyurl.com/keazsec

    You just can’t make such stuff up…

    1. DirkH

      But what better way to demonstrate how much sea ice has grown than doing the exact same trip a 100 years later? Skeptics couldn’t have asked for a nicer present!

  3. ES

    Ice conditions were tough in the Peninsula October too. Remember this is the region that is warming faster than anywhere on the planet.

    The Gould finally headed to Palmer Station on Oct. 16, only to be greeted by an unusually thick band of pack ice that delayed the ship’s ability to enter Hero Inlet by about eight hours. Leaving the area proved even harder the next day, as the ship only made it about three miles from the station over 11 hours before turning back to the safety of Arthur Harbor.

    “Sea ice conditions in and around the Danco Coast, Gerlache [Strait] and Bismark Strait are reminiscent of the 1980s, with fast ice clinging to the fjords and embayments all the way north to Hughes Bay. This condition is not the pattern we have seen in the last decade or so,” wrote Eugene Domack chief scientist for the cruise, as well as for the LARISSA program.

    It wouldn’t be until Oct. 21 before the Gould could find enough open leads to leave Palmer Station.

    http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/aroundTheContinent/contentHandler.cfm?id=1198#top

    http://www.nsf.gov/geo/plr/support/palmerst.jsp

    1. Joe

      Plus, it’s summer down there, is it not?

  4. ktwop

    The Spirit of Mawson dies as Antarctic pilgrims/tourists and their great leader – but not the crew – are to be rescued by helicopter.
    If Turney is the leader shouldn’t he be the last one to leave the ice?

  5. Pethefin

    Now the chinese ice breaker seem to be stuck too…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25558276

  6. Stacy Jensen

    AMSA has a Media Release – Search and rescue of passenger vessel trapped in ice underway – The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is coordinating a search and rescue for a Russian passenger ship beset by ice approximately 1500 nautical miles south of Hobart.

  7. Mike Heath

    They seem to see cracks in tyhe ice and a change of wind direction, so perhaps they will get out under their “own steam” as they say.

    I am curious about there views. They talk about the ice being on fresh water, and that this water has severe effects on the local sea life. Yet, as the ice has always been forming and melting there must always be an ebb and flow of fresh water mixed with salt water, and after a melting period which ended some years ago, isn’t it logical that there would be more fresh water around? Isn’t it also logical that the salinitry will again increase as less ice melts?

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