1. Who paid for this expedition?
2. How did the expedition team come to include Turney’s wife and two young children?
3. How serious was this scientific endeavor?
4. Was the choice of ship wise, given it is not an icebreaker?
5. How did the ship, in these days of satellite imaging, high quality weather forecasts and radar, come to get stuck in ice?
6. How much did the rescue cost?
7. Who pays for this rescue?
8. Why have the ABC and Fairfax media, so keen at first to announce this expedition was to measure the extent and effects of global warming, since omitted that fact from their reports after the expedition became ice-bound?
9. Why have all those reports – and the expedition leader himself – neglected to mention that sea ice around Antarctica has increased over the past three decades – and is greater than the ice cover Douglas Mawson found a century ago?
◼ Meanwhile, the beginning of this domino effect has been traced back to a sightseeing expedition by the passengers of the Akademik Shokalskiy that spent too much time getting back on the ship. - Watts Up With That?
...the passengers weren’t heeding the captain’s warning quickly enough. Clearly the captain knew what was coming, but the passengers were just too slow. He couldn’t abandon them, so he had to wait, and this delay put the ship in jeopardy.
◼ ...Now, with such a fantastic failure in full world view, questions are going to start being asked. - Watts Up With That?
For example, with advanced tools at their disposal (that Mawson never had) such as near real-time satellite imaging of Antarctic sea ice, GPS navigation, on-board Internet, radar, and satellite communications, one wonders how these folks managed to get themselves stuck at all. Was it simple incompetence of ignoring the signs and data at their disposal combined with “full steam ahead” fever? Even the captain of the Aurora Australis had the good sense to turn back knowing he’d reached the limits of the ship on his rescue attempt. Or, was it some sort of publicity stunt to draw attention? If it was the latter, it has backfired mightily....
Yes, the cost and risk is significant. These folks trapped on-board don’t seem to be cognizant of that issue, following the #spiritofmawson Twitter feed, it’s like watching reports (with pictures and video) from a high school class party....
Now, with the ship
The sunken remains of the 76-ft Mar Sem Fin, aka “Endless Sea”, which sunk on April 7, 2012, lies at a depth of about 9 meters (30 ft) in Ardley Cove, Antarctica.
In November 2007, the Linblad Explorer hit sea ice and sank.... And there are others, these are just a few recent ones. ◼ MORE pics, info and discussion at Watts Up With That?
◼ UPDATE7: Trouble on the rescue ship – reaching open water not so easy - Watts Up With That?
◼ Aurora Australis rescue ship told to hold position to potentially assist Chinese vessel Xue Long - Watts Up With That?
It looks like the “rescued” climate scientists, journalists, and tourists will have to wait on-board the Aurora Australis awhile longer while this episode plays out. There is still a lot of ice ahead according to the webcam on Aurora Australis (seen below) which had been slowed to a crawl, making only 1/4 knot.
AMERICANS SPENT $7.45 BILLION FIGHTING 'GLOBAL WARMING' -- IN OTHER COUNTRIES...
ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF MELT 'LOWEST EVER RECORDED'...
MSNBC HOST COMPLAINS OF 'SNOW TROLLING'...
NOW ANTARTIC RESCUE SHIP STUCK IN ICE...
