Exeunt stage left

The evacuation of passengers from the Akademic Shokalskiy seems to have begun. The helicopter from the Chinese icebreaker, the Xue Long, is being used to transport them to the Australian ship, the Aurora Australis. It looks as if the passengers will get away in one piece. The crew of the Shokalskiy will have to wait and see.

Comments

[Bernd Felsche]

Apparently, the plan is for the helicopter to lift the passengers to an ice floe next to the AA.

The race is then on to rescue the pax from the floe before killer whales mistake the tourists for penguins or seals and tip the floe to slide those on top of it into the sea.

[mike fowle]

"One of the aims is to track how quickly the Antarctic's sea ice is disappearing."

From the BBC site without apparent irony.

[Phillip Bratby]

The costs to other Antarctic research appear to be enormous according to this comment:

Greetings from Casey Station on the East Antarctic coast. I’ve just returned from the deep field site at Aurora Basin where the Australians are drilling a new 400-meter ice core which we will analyze in my lab in Reno.
I’m writing with regards to the rescue effort for that tourist ship stuck in the ice near Commonwealth Bay and the enormous impact of the rescue effort on Antarctic science programs. The Australian ice breaker Aurora Australis was here at Casey in the process of unloading the coming year’s supplies for the station, as well as a number of researchers and their science gear for this summer’s activities, when the emergency response request was issued. The Australians shut down the unloading very quickly and left within a few hours after the request arrived but only about a third of the resupply was completed and a lot of that science gear was still on board. Before they left they at least were able to get the passengers including six Aurora Basin researchers off the ship. Otherwise I’d still be at Aurora Basin and would have had to stay to the end of January since my field replacement was in that group.
The short- and long-term impacts on the Australian science program are pronounced as you can imagine and I understand it is the same for both the Chinese and French programs since their icebreakers were diverted, too. I’ll be sitting down to New Year’s Eve dinner in a few minutes with a number of Australian researchers including the director of the Australian Antarctic Division Tony Fleming – many of these guys can’t complete the research they’ve been planning for years because some or all of their science gear still is on the Aurora.

[Trefor Jones]

The story did make the Today programme, which was apparently edited by a musician, so bereft of any objectivity that it resembled a rant by the more idealistic members of the sixth form.

[David S]

Trefor
I really enjoy PJ Harvey's music, but she has fallen into the same trap as Steve Jones and Lord Rees, of thinking that her prominence in one field means that her opinions in an area outside her competence have any merit.

[PMT]

You just have to love their adhoc luggage carousel-on-ice. (Mister Snow or You'll Never Walk Alone?

[Joe Public]

With 3 x chopper flights needed to evacuate the tourists, who pays for the extra 2 x flights to evacuate their equipment?

[Peter Stroud]

Yet in spite of their obvious reckless stupidity, they are getting favourable publicity from all broadcasting media: including SKY and Fox News. With Turney's happy face much in evidence. Hopefully there will be an Inquiry into the entire, expensive fiasco when the dust settles.

[sHx]

Despite being trapped, the scientists have continued their experiments, measuring temperature and salinity through cracks in the surrounding ice.

One of the aims is to track how quickly the Antarctic's sea ice is disappearing.

The ship has plenty of stocks and has never been in danger.

Now that they have scraped through in one piece -a triumph of human spirit in the face of adversity!-, the Shokalskiy is no longer a cruise ship but a research vessel and the passengers are not tourists but scientists studying disappearing ice.

Meanwhile, as a side note, the working classes will remain behind to clean up and make sure the ship doesn't sink with them still on it, once the rich capitalist pigs have safely been airlifted.

I have been a born and bred leftist all my life. I grew up in circles where people fired and took bullets in the name of Marxist revolution. I have never voted for a right-wing party and I was even an active supporter of the Greens for ten years. I still purchase Marxist publications in street corners, always paying the solidarity price.

And I am absolutely ashamed to witness how this piece of class conflict played out in Antarctica.

[Grumpy]

"The ship has plenty of stocks and has never been in any danger." So says the BBC. Never in any danger of what? Running out of food? Being crushed by ice? Wrecking other scientists' research?

The cavalier attitutde is astounding. Once they get back on dry land I expect it'll get even worse. Do NOT let them forget this folly.

[sHx]

Will the 'intrepid leader' of the expedition, Chris Turney, until the last of the Russian crew gets of the ship or will he catch the last helicopter trip out of this mess? We are about to find out.

[GrantB]

They had to evacuate now. It was that desperate. Climate change mutated killer penguins were advancing and were less than five nautical miles away.

[James P]

I was amused to discover that the ship was named after a Russian scientist (academician) who researched Arctic warming in the 20's and 30's...

Link

H/t commenter 'Adrian O' at Dot Earth, here.

[jamesp]

They're not quite home yet - the BBC reports that "The passengers are being taken to an ice floe ... A small boat will then ferry them to the Aurora Australis"

What could possibly go wrong..?

[Swiss Bob]

jamesp,

Where are the Leopard seals when you want them!

[Paul Matthews]

Chris Turney ‏@ProfChrisTurney 6m
We've made it to the Aurora australis safe & sound. A huge thanks to the Chinese & @AusAntarctic for all their hard work! #spiritofmawson

[flaxdoctor]

Swiss Bob,

We've been told they're much smaller than they used to be. Maybe a supplement of banana and peanut butter milkshake-fed useful idiots would help them return to their 'intended' size?

[sHx]

Thanks, Paul Matthews. Now we know the intrepid leader of the expedition is safely out of danger leaving the Russian crew to fend for themselves. Who knows may be the Russians would have locked him up for their own safety or thrown him overboard so he could continue his research in cracks between the ice.

[jamesp]

So was Chris Turney the last one up the ladder? And if not, why not?

[sHx]

By the way, has anyone seen Chris Turney say anything nice about the Russian crew lately?

[geoffchambers]

Paul Matthews reports Chris Turney as saying: “We've made it to the Aurora australis safe & sound”. So he was one of the first off, ahead of the paying customers? What leadership.

Guardian commenter lmxly1’s comment : “... I have heard from friends on board that the captain saw the weather coming and wanted to get out ASAP while the ship was only 2 miles from open water. But the scientists fumbled their gear on return and took much longer, hence this fiasco!” seems to have disppeared from the Graun. (From his other comments, he seems to be Australian and a Green supporter, so no denier then).

[Green Sand]

"The party's over
It's time to call it a day
They've burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
It's time to wind up the masquerade
Just make your mind up the piper must be paid."

Words by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and Music by Jule Styne

[Katabasis]

Now that those fools have been rescued, the Guardian has published a truly desperate piece to rally the catastrophist troops:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/02/antarctic-ship-stranding-delights-climate-change-sceptics

[geoffchambers]

While the Graun and the Beeb are celebrating the great Antarctic rescue as a vindication of climate science, the Independent is also in the running for 2014’s maddest warmist story
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-a-giant-european-network-of-electricity-interconnectors-is-solution-to-high-energy-prices-says-climate-change-minister-9033129.html
Apparently, according to Ed Davey the way to compete with cheap US energy is to plant a vast Pan-European underground cable network, so we can import cheap electricity from Spain and Latvia. Or possibly export it, depending on the direction of the wind.

[Robin Guenier]

I'm sure it's been mentioned already but I'm amused, although not I suppose surprised, to see that the BBC, at the end of its report of the rescue, is still asserting that

One of the aims is to track how quickly the Antarctic's sea ice is disappearing.

PS: but perhaps it's only to be expected from an organisation that thinks Antarctica is in Asia.

[Artmike]

Today the usually well balanced reporting of "Climate Change" re the Mail and Telegraph (excluding Lean et al of course) hardly mentions the Turney escapade into the Antartica. The Telegraph mentions Turney in one sentance as a reasearcher only, pityful display of fense sitting cowardice.

[jamesp]

Artmike

You'd think the Mail and Telegraph would be thrilled to write about an embarrassing turn of events for their rival, the Grauniad, but there seems to be an unwritten code of honour among the press thieves...

I hope the Australis can now get back to its proper job of re-supplying the Antarctic research base. Perhaps the tourists can make themselves useful with a bit of heavy lifting.

[jamesp]

"how quickly the Antarctic's sea ice is disappearing"

If it carries on 'disappearing' at this rate, the visitors will soon be able to walk home!

[sHx]

Midnight in Sydney.

I'm watching ABC News24.

The first item is Greenpeace activist returning from a Russian gulag.

The second item is a "Miision Accomplished" piece -the presenter actually say "mission accomplished " in the intro- about the usual suspects being rescued from a Russian ship.

I feel I should be hating Russians at this moment, but I just can't.

[AndrewZ]

sHx,

This fiasco is a reminder that the champagne socialist types who work for The Guardian and the BBC don't really believe in equality. Sure, they talk about it a lot. But their salaries, their lifestyles and the kind of policies they support show that what they really stand for is a kind of paternalist aristocracy in which people like them decide how everyone else should live. They deserve to get at least as much hostility from real socialists as they do from the right.

[Doug Elliot]

I thought the ice was disappearing?

[flaxdoctor]

Katabasis,

What a loathsome circle jerk of entitled self-righteousness those 'troops' are. Disciples of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf to a man*.

*I think the current Facebookista vernacular is a 'they' isn't it?

[Katabasis]

SayNoToFearmongers -

Indeed. It's actually on the verge of being truly puke inducing for me reading all of the backslapping and 'we were right!' assertions taking place in the comments there.

[Sherlock1]

Oh, thanks, Mike Fowle - precisely the post I was going to submit..! You beat me to it..

'So, guys - do tell - how fast is the Antarctic sea ice disappearing..? No, no - come on - this was one of the main aims of this $1.5m expedition - can you tell us your findings..?'

[johanna]

They ought to be coating the Chinese helicopter pilot(s) and crew with thick layers of gold, something that all Chinese appreciate.

What gets up my nose is that there seems not to be even the faintest speck of insight among this lot. Western technology (I miss the chooks, wailed the Greens MP on board), the bravery of the Chinese pilots and others involved in the rescue effort, the immense expense they have incurred, the ruination of other scientific work in the Antarctic, the destruction of many people's festive season - nup, not a clue.

What we will get is the books and the mini-series about how people, equipped with only FB, twitter, full internet access, plus a well stocked bar and larder, bravely kept to the principles of sustainability under dreadful conditions.

[Sherlock1]

Well, it all seems to have been Jolly Good Fun....

[Robin Guenier]

Jan 2, 2014 at 12:17 PM | geoffchambers

We're going way off topic - but here's Professor Gordon Hughes on the "super grid" idea:

A variant of the electric vehicle story is long distance transmission of wind power across Europe, on the grounds that the wind will blow somewhere at all times. Again, this is technological fantasy which ignores demand patterns, meteorology and economics. Investigations of long distance Dc or ac transmission of hydro power have repeatedly shown that it is more expensive than the alternative of transporting fuels (gas by pipeline or coal by rail) plus local generation. Schemes for a huge European super-grid are political constructs with almost no basis in economic reality. [My emphasis]

(LINK)

[Alex Cull]

The airlift of our heroic heirs to Mawson proceeds apace. Alok Jha is now aboard the Aurora Australis and is very relieved to find that a good selection of desserts is available:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7306650@N02/11709124046/

Well, thank the Lord! Worryingly, though, he makes no mention of banana and peanut butter milkshake. Will his colleague Laurence Topham survive this new ordeal, if there isn't any? Stay tuned.

[Sherlock1]

'Ooooohh - pudding...!
Hey, chaps - hasn't this been the best skive EVER...??'

[tomo]

Alex Cull

yup - it's truly astounding what you can achieve with Petrel poo and some food colouring. Yeah mate - we made 'em special for you guys like.

[Bitter&Twisted]

I'd love to see the Akademic Shokalskiy crushed in the pack-ice forcing the eco-loons out of their comfortable cabins for a few cold and bowel-clenching days, prior to last-second rescue.

[Derekp]

Antartic bases resupply is the subject of Russia Today's documentary (25 mins approx), repeated at 18300hrs and 2230hrs on RT for those who are interested.

[Roy]

I listened to the news on the BBC's Radio 2 at 1pm and they mentioned that the aim of the Akademik Shokalskiy expedition was to retrace the steps of Douglas Mawson's expedition a century ago. Radio 2 did not mention global warming. Is that a sign that the global warmers in the BBC have a sense of shame, or at least of embarrassment?

[sHx]

"I'd love to see the Akademic Shokalskiy crushed in the pack-ice forcing the eco-loons out of their comfortable cabins for a few cold and bowel-clenching days, prior to last-second rescue.

Jan 2, 2014 at 2:49 PM | Bitter&Twisted"

Now that would be really bitter and twisted, not just cynical. That would be like hoping 'extreme weather' events kill as many people as possible so that the world could see we're heading towards a climate doomsday.

Also, it is not 'last-second' rescue. That would be 'second last'. Haven't you read anything from Orwell about people who butcher the English language deliberately?

AndrewZ

My view us that I really don't know why this is happening. That is, why those self-described lefties and progressives and liberals have fallen into his absurd, supposedly scientific, climate doomsday hysteria. All I can take comfort from is that anyone who has had some real contact with Marxist revolutionaries -Chinese and the Russians, for example- will tell you that firstly climate doomsday hysteria sounds like a religion, and secondly it has nothing to do with class conflict. Many right-wing cranks in climate sceptic blogs still refuse to acknowledge that it was the Russians and the Chinese, our former and current Communist enemies, who scuttled the COP15, because they considered it a Western Capitalist ploy to keep poor countries poor.

[tomo]

4:03 PM Roy

Nope - it's simply censorship by omission - a standard BBC tactic. Mawson's mission was nearly suicidal - they've re-enacted it to be sure but getting that admission isn't going to happen ditto for Mawson's men on the beach with no ice and string vests or whatever 100 years ago.

Only approved messages are allowed - that's the game.

Expect to be treated to a veritable carnival of bilge over the next few weeks from both folk associated with this fiasco and their acolytes. GMG-BBC-ABC leading the procession.

sHx - a full on, detailed and exhaustive skeptical Marxist analysis of CAGW must be out there....?

[stewgreen]

My Brain got carried away thinking of CliTanic ..Akademik Shokalskiy as a Pantomime so I stuffed all my notes in Disussion, so they don't block other threads

[Robin Guenier]

Anthony Watts is asking some tough questions.

Any more?

[Robin Guenier]

sHx: "right-wing cranks"?

[michaelhart]

sHx,
Left-wing, right-wing, or middle stump-wing cranks aside, I think the important point that is COP15 was scuttled by large influential countries, and all future ones are going to be scuttled too. They would have had the effect of impoverishing rich and poor alike, for no public gain.

Human CO2 emissions have already risen beyond the "5-years-to-save-the-planet" levels, and will inexorably continue to do so. Probably to the great benefit of humans and the vast bulk of the biosphere. I'm hoping more of the English-speaking MSM will come to recognise this in 2014, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Robin Guenier]

Here's a question Anthony missed: why were Guardian journalists not supplied with essential banana/peanut butter milkshakes?