Today the online Daily Mail echos what NTZ wrote 5 days ago, and also brings in an expert to confirm exactly what I was suspecting: Prof Chris Turney may have been reckless in his planning for a major expedition. Although combining tourism and science on a cruise ship may seem like a creative idea on the surface, it is not a good idea in the world’s harshest environment.
The Daily Mail writes:
An experienced polar explorer has accused climate scientists who hired a ship now trapped in Antarctic ice of endangering passengers and crew – by carrying out the expedition ‘on the cheap’.”
Later adding:
Robert Headland, of Cambridge University’s Scott Polar Research Institute, blamed the team for not investing in a ship suitable to the ‘easily predictable’ sea ice.”
Mr Headland, who has completed successful missions to where the ship was going, said: ‘The expedition was hopelessly optimistic in trying to carry out this mission on the cheap and has needlessly taken many risks.”
Good to see the major media doing their job in digging into this debacle. And it looks some are even reading NoTricksZone once in awhile.
And now that an expert like Robert Headland is calling the expedition “needlessly risky”, Turney is finding himself standing on increasingly thin ice.
The Shikalski is a supply vessel. There aren’t many vessels in the Antarctic that are really suitable for tourism in fast ice. Perhaps the Yankee Polar Star. The best vessels for this sort of jolly are all Russian and are all in the Arctic. eg. the yamal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamal_%28icebreaker%29
But it is nuclear powered and so wouldn’t be welcome by the Aussies as they wimp out when it comes to having nuclear powered visitors.
Wikipedia states that the Yamal needs cold water to cool its reactor, so cannot travel through tropical waters to reach Antarctica.
I read that too, but I don’t buy it as there are no shortage of military ships with nuclear reactors that regularly travel from hemisphere to hemisphere, some are even berthed in the tropics.
It may be the icebreaker’s cooling systems have been closely specified, it wouldn’t be impossible to add additional temporary cooling, or just tow the thing through the tropics.
I saw those references in the MailOnline to NTZ. That’s how you make a difference, Pierre. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps Millions are eventually educated by information that wouldn’t have existed without your efforts. Great Job.
Pierre is close to breaking through the 100,000 pagerank frontier; already spiked up a few times. This is getting out of hand!
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/notrickszone.com
Only 5 % of visitors German. I’m an ethnic minority.
Great news! Thanks Dirk. But I don’t know how long I can keep it up.
Turney was obviously unfit to lead an expedition to an area where the possibilties of life threasting conditions exist. A kumbaya singer is not the qualifications required when things get tough.
His actions before, during and after the event clearly mark that he was not up to the job.
This then reflects the judgement on those who approved the expedition and his leadership in the first place.
These are the areas where the media should be concentrating their attention on.
GrumpyDenier has elevated a comment on JoNova, by one MemoryVault, to a post on his blog. This is a must read.
MemoryVault points out that the Turney expedition looks like it was designed to become a full-fledged ABC/BBC TV production.
http://grumpydenier.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/these-items-caught-my-eye-5-january-2014/
Brits, you know who to mail about the misuse of your TV license money.
TV production on the cheap! Get the taxpayer to pay for the logistics and all.