Global Warming Scientists Perish In The Arctic …A Lethal Publicity Stunt In Servitude Of Sensationalist Science?

On the folly scale, the following story is right up there with the Antarctic Ship of Fools.

Unfortunately this one ended in a terrible tragedy.

Cornelissen

Global warming researchers Marc Cornelissen and Philip de Roo believed to have perished in the Arctic. Photo Twitter.

The online Spiegel here reports that two Dutch researchers, Marc Cornelissen, 46, and Philip de Roo, 30, are assumed to have died in the Arctic. “They wanted to collect data about the melting ice cover.”

According to Cornelissen’s Twitter site, the pair began their expedition in late March. By early April they has set off on skis across Arctic sea ice accompanied by a husky. They had been posting daily reports at Twitter.

ResoluteAt times Cornelissen tweeted of unusually warm temperatures and even posted audios claiming to be skiing in shorts.

On April 29 things took a turn for the worse and the pair sent out an SOS while traveling near Bathurst Island, approximately 200 kilometers north of Resolute Bay.

On April 30 Cornelissen’s Twitter site posted that the two were missing.

Spiegel writes that it is suspected that one of the pair fell through “thin ice” and that their situation went unknown for a week. A Canadian search party found one body but the other member of the party remains missing. It is assumed that he has perished. Only the husky dog survived.

The site Cold Facts here posted a report stating that the ice conditions there were “very poor”. The two researchers are said to have been experts in their fields. Question: Why were the two trekking on ice conditions described as “very poor”? Shouldn’t experts know better?

Also it needs to be asked if the decision to send out two researchers on foot in dangerous and highly unpredictable conditions was a grossly negligent one. Who approved this? Today modern satellite altimetry and aerial instrumentation can measure ice conditions more far accurately, safely, and efficiently. Why send out two men on foot on thin ice when the Arctic melt season is well under way?

Personally I think the expedition smacks more of a piss-poorly judged publicity stunt by activists, and much less a scientific expedition to explore the unknown. This looks to be highly dim-witted and reckless adventurism in servitude of sensationalist science. There needs to be an independent inquiry into this accident.

Negligence in harsh conditions often carries a lethal price. Unfortunately some of us still have to learn the hard way.

45 responses to “Global Warming Scientists Perish In The Arctic …A Lethal Publicity Stunt In Servitude Of Sensationalist Science?”

  1. Graeme No.3

    There have been so many publicity stunts in the Canadian arctic over the last 10 years that the Canadian government would be justified in charging for rescue services.
    Alternately they could issue permits for a limited quota of these fools.

    I have no sympathy at all for these 2, although a lot for their relatives. From the way they were (self) reported
    as behaving it was only a matter of time for a catastrophe.
    On the other hand I am glad that the dog is OK. It is still wondering why it was dragged there in the first place.

    1. Arty

      “still wondering why it was dragged there in the first place. – ”

      He was the brains behind the operation. It’s not his fault the two idiots wouldn’t follow instructions.

  2. A C Osborn

    Even now it is still -10 to -12 degrees C in that area, so it is not very warm and certainly not warm enough to melt any Ice.

    1. Dr Tim Ball-Climatologist

      I would like to tell you of my latest book and documentary.
      ‘The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science’.
      My latest documentary and video of my presentation.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzpPXuASY8
      My website is
      Thank you.
      Tim

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzpPXuASY8
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO08Hhjes_0
      http://www.drtimball.com

      Debate between Dr Tim Ball and Elizabeth May
      Scroll down to Ian Jessop part 1
      http://www.cfax1070.com/Podcasts

      1. yonason

        “This is the first deception that’s affected everyone on the planet.”

        Actually it’s the second. The first was the Tower of Babel, which was built, according to tradition, to PREVENT another flood. Everyone on the planet at that time was enlisted to serve under a one-world government to work toward averting an alleged natural environmental disaster. It is literally the oldest scam in the book. 🙂

        [NOTE – you don’t have to believe the account is true to appreciate that at least this type of scam was at least anticipated over 3 millennia ago.]

        Love your stuff, btw, but the audio quality is going to make listening to the rest of that a bit annoying. Still, I’m sure it will be worth the effort.

        Keep up the great work.

  3. Joe

    I am glad the dog survived.

    1. Don Morris

      Yeah, there’s a bright side to every story.

    2. KTWO

      I had mentally bet on the dog before I read that far down in the article.

  4. DirkH

    You know what. There hasn’t been climate doom for months in the German media. Shows that once the warmunists have their 24 billion EUR a year (and rising) subsidy in the pocket saving the planet from thermageddon is none of their concern anymore.

    So they’re just like EU commissars.

  5. TimiBoy

    Natural Selection? Mind you. it’ll take a while to get rid of them all at this pace…

  6. Mindert Eiting

    This is really bad news as I was planning an important scientific expedition to the island of Spitsbergen. Yes, the Dutch have a historical relationship with this island. For my research I needed to measure the body mass of all polar bears living there as well as the distance between their ears. The ratio is important because it may change as a result of climate disruption. The research would have been published in an outstanding ecological journal and in the mean time I would have had contact with the world by Facebook and Twitter. Some warm clothes, a pair of robust boots, a balance, a piece of rope, and some food would have been sufficient. My neighbour has a dog whose dog -age is almost my human-age and this animal would have been my assistant on the expedition. If the situation there is as dangerous as this post suggests, I have to change my plans. This would be a bad day for science.

    1. Mike Heath

      If you still make the trip, I might join you. I have a pair of wellies and lots of pairs of socks (where do they all come from?). I like the idea of proving that the ice is melting by going to the thickest ice and then falling in, just to show how thin the ice really has become. The satellite data doesn’t matter (why bother with facts?) and I imagine a photo with my knee length swimming shorts would be very convincing – not a pretty sight though.
      Or perhaps I should stay home and sit on my fat ass (see below) and read some real science.

    2. M E

      How did you expect to survive measuring the space between the ears of even one polar bear? Can it be done from a distance or do you use a tapemeasure?

  7. Alpha Skua

    Warning Enviromentalism cuases pernimate brain damage

  8. clipe

    In contrast to some media reports implying that the conditions creating dangerous ice in the area were related to global warming, Haas (Christian Haas, the Canada Research Chair for Arctic Sea Ice Geophysics at York University) added this:
    “The accident has nothing to do with climate warming or the last ice. The ice in this region of approximately 100 kilometers in diameter is always thinner than the surrounding regions, and small areas of open water are common year-round. In fact, our own airborne ice thickness surveys just north of this region have shown that the ice is (still?) very thick, ranging from over two meters for first-year ice to over three meters for multi-year ice. The events have changed nothing to the fact that this region will most likely be the last ice area.”

    http://joannenova.com.au/2015/05/maurice-newman-triggers-the-rabid-conspiracy-theorist-smoke-bomb-is-he-teasing-the-hypocrites/#comment-1709302

  9. DirkH

    Random find: WaPo confused:
    “Germany, which ranks second in both sugar and fat consumption per capita, is among the skinniest nations in the developed world.”
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/05/where-people-around-the-world-eat-the-most-sugar-and-fat/

    Huh huh. Full country breakdown.

  10. R.J.(Bob) Evans

    The problem with Darwinian selection is that it works so slowly. There was a similar case a few years ago. Some tree hugger decided that wolves were his friends and told everyone that they were just misunderstood. After he walked alone with the wolves one too many times he became one with the wolves. He won’t be procreating either.

  11. Allen Patterson

    I feel bad for these guys, and for their families, but they were intellectually consistent enough to provide two carbon offsets….

  12. Alpha Skua

    More innocents to die in name of Enviromentalism I hope Greenpeace and the United Nations and Al Gore are happy now

  13. CAS

    Here are the April temps for Resolute.
    http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climateData/dailydata_e.html?StationID=53060&Month=5&Day=9&Year=2015&timeframe=2

    I spent one week in Taloyoak, NU last July…south of Resolute. Between July 3 and 10, 2014 there was little open water (up to 50 meters open) in some places along the coast line. Beyond that was 2 meters of sold solid ice. We flew over hundreds of km of ocean…all solid thick ice. Not a crack.

    Most unfortunate, but a stupid mistake. Perhaps idiots blinded by ideology (an alarmist misinformation) versus reality.

    CAS

  14. Ronald young

    wow. Talk about cold. You guy, siting on your fat asses. Sipping your tea. These guys where out there doing there best with data and ability, and courage, and all you big fat ass holes can say, is survival of the fittest. look in the mirror, you lazy worthless fat face stuffing mindless urchins. At least they tried to forward the realization of fact, while you worthless slobs do nothing for no one or anything! And that in its ecents is the problem. Non contentment, in any shape or form, in any capacity what so ever. Social medial is the downfall of mankind. You all sit back and do nothing. I will leave with the last two words you need to know about reality. STEVE PREFONTAINE. Look that guy up, and find the realality!

    1. J.M. Heinrichs

      Did you know that gasoline does not evaporate at temperatures below -43°C, and therefore Coleman stoves and lanterns will not light? I discovered the problem while camping out in January. Apparently the actual temp that night was almost -60°C. Being rather further inland, I wasn’t worried about ice thickness; that was on a different winter excursion.

      Cheers

    2. DirkH

      Ronald young says:
      11. May 2015 at 7:35 AM
      “At least they tried to forward the realization of fact, while you worthless slobs do nothing for no one or anything!”

      Oh go and fornicate off would ya. Who do you think gets forced to pay these government climate scientists so they can do their stupid stunts and lose otheir stupid lives. If it had been my choice, these two young idiots would still be alive – sitting in a tower block in Amsterdam together with 10,000 other unemployable slobs, and my taxpayer money would pay them a sixpack a day, not trips around the world, which would have been better for them and better for us.

    3. Rob H

      These guys were not scientists. No degrees in climate science, geography or anything close. They were self appointed climate experts looking for attention. They got some, for about a minute.

    4. ldd

      ROFL – give it a rest drama queen, Inuit never let themselves get drowned like these two NON scientists did. Even the dog had more sense than they did. Obviously they did something stupid to wind up as Arctic chum.

    5. David Johnson

      Is this a young child speaking?

  15. BruceC

    Believe it or not, there is some wacko out there that says that us sceptics “have viciously killed these young men” and “are entirely responsible for their deaths”.

    I kid you not;
    http://schatziesearthproject.com/2015/05/04/murdered-by-climate-change-deniers/

    H/T to JoNova;
    http://joannenova.com.au/2015/05/murdered-on-the-arctic-by-climate-deniers-or-greenpeace-maybe/

    1. Russell Cook (@questionAGW)

      Yes, indeed. The blogger at Schatzie’s Earth Project went so far as to call me a murderer from this event. Entertaining thing about her blog, she allowed critic comments for a while, including one of mine, but while some still remain there, she saw fit to delete my comment where I asked if she could explain the contradictory weather reports from the area. My comment remains intact at the archive version of her blog: https://archive.is/1BdhJ

      Over the weekend, she has also since deleted the question I posed to her at her Facebook page about whether she checked the temps at Resolute. For those of you on Twitter, I show the comment she deleted here: https://twitter.com/questionAGW/status/597840037376471040

      Hallmark of AGW believers: misinform, and delete inconvenient truths

  16. DICK R

    They were probably consumed by an extinct polar bear .

  17. Steve from Rockwood

    The media refers to the two men as climate scientists, researchers or conducting scientific research in the Arctic.

    Neither is a scientist. The elder, Marc Cornelissen was an architect who was an (extreme) Arctic Adventurer. The younger fella Philip de Roo, I believe, had strong ties to the WWF.

    Their expedition was not research but an attempt to bring attention to the poor state of Arctic ice. The dogs credentials were not made public as it apparently had no Twitter or Facebook account of its own.

    http://www.marccornelissen.com/

    1. Oysteroid

      Sure they were not scientists, they were climate “scientists” – no relation to the real thing.

      The dog’s credentials are that he’s still alive. The husky genes must have done their survival job.

  18. Will Nitschke

    headline:

    Genius level climate scientists freeze to death promoting global warming.

  19. Never Yet Melted » Global Warming Researchers Perish in the Arctic

    […] No Tricks Zone: […]

  20. Alpha Skua

    ICE BERGS AND SEAGULLS AND LITTLE MICE,TWEEDLE DUMB AND TWEEDLE DUMBER FROZEN IN THE ICE

  21. mwhite
  22. Craig Austin

    They planned on skiing on ice that wasn’t there, did they take water skis?

  23. Alexandra

    You can’t make this stuff up….

  24. Curious George

    From http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/dutch-skiers-presumed-drowned-in-high-arctic-say-nunavut-rcmp-1.3055646:
    Akimajuktuq
    “I’m sorry for whatever has happened to these people. What I don’t understand is why they didn’t have a local with them on any and every outing. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered, but having knowledgeable local along that is familiar with the area is a best practice.”

    A reply from the same website: “Marc has been traveling in this area for over 20 years, leading a number of (scientific) expeditions amongst others to the geographic north pole. All starting from Resolute Bay. The are Supported by and working for NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) multiple Universities and well known NGO’s as WWF. He, as no other, was familiar to the conditions and the continuously changing ice situations in the area. I sincerely doubt if any local could have made a difference here. If it comes to preparation, these guys really knew what they where doing and how to prepare for the extremes. I consider this a tragic accident of professional researchers, knowing what they where doing and knowledgeable about conditions and risks. These guys are not just adventurers.”

    We frequent visitors always know better than locals.

  25. Curious George

    “Marc has been traveling in this area for over 20 years, leading a number of (scientific) expeditions amongst others to the geographic north pole. All starting from Resolute Bay. The are Supported by and working for NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) multiple Universities and well known NGO’s as WWF. He, as no other, was familiar to the conditions and the continuously changing ice situations in the area. I sincerely doubt if any local could have made a difference here. If it comes to preparation, these guys really knew what they where doing and how to prepare for the extremes. I consider this a tragic accident of professional researchers, knowing what they where doing and knowledgeable about conditions and risks. These guys are not just adventurers.” (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/dutch-skiers-presumed-drowned-in-high-arctic-say-nunavut-rcmp-1.3055646)

    We frequent visitors always know better than locals. Don’t bother us with naive suggestions.

    The first time I tried to post this comment, it simply disappeared. Should it be posting twice, please delete one copy.

  26. BZ

    First one probably died and was eaten in a Polar Bear attack.

    Second one probably died from exhaustion from running away.

    Dog probably survived by eating the second one.

    Sympathies to the families.

    None for the fools who went there and were not prepared.

  27. Michelle

    Sympathy to their family and friends (sincerely. sympathy to family and friends. may they rest in peace 😐 ) . Pity they couldn’t talk sense into these two adrenalin addicted environmental extremists before they set out though. Everyone knows you need three dogs to survive a cold night. Or a taxpayer funded entourage of family and friends, a boat (should get an icebreaker), and a massive international rescue party. Still too soon?

  28. Alpha Skua

    Frozen up and mumified in the ice more lives lost to their pagan religion of Ecology

  29. yonason

    Here’s a post found at GreenieWatch that gives details not found on warmist sites.
    http://antigreen.blogspot.com/2015/05/warmist-nimrods-did-not-die-in-arctic.html

  30. Sean Peake

    There are a couple of things that could have happened but most likely is that they walked across snow-covered thin ice of a polynya, which are common in that section of Arctic islands in winter as tidal currents race through the narrow channels and straits between the islands. Then, there are lots of polar bears around the area.

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