I hope that other eco-warriors block the plane from leaving with their emergency survival gear, so as not to further destroy the planet with its carbon-belching engines.

ROFLMAO!!
“We’re hungry, the cold is relentless, our sleeping bags are full of ice,” expedition leader Pen Hadow said in a statement e-mailed yesterday by his team. “Waiting is almost the worst part of an expedition as we’re in the lap of the weather gods.”

Can't hack it can they, reality that is...

And the displayed stupidity is priceless.

This expedition has nothing to do with data, everything to do with egos, politics, and stupidity.

If they really wanted to collect useful scientific ice thickness data all the way to the NP, they'd get a fleet of about 6 Nodwells and just drive.

Where are the polar bears to hunt these sad human specimens? Oh yeah, the bears are looking for hapless,cute baby seals. Ironic justice if a polar bear took them on - wonder if they are even carrying rifles to ward off the cuddly, white bruins.

Yay! They're back! (I mean, not from the North Pole. You know what I mean.)

Huh? It's cold in the Arctic in the middle of winter? There's wind? And ICE???

When did THAT happen?!?

Seriously, what do these idiots do for research, watch Gore's crockumentary and surf Suzuki's website? What'd they expect to find, drowning polar bears and fields of orchids?

Flip on the freakin' Weather Channel before you head off to the ice floes, morons. And pack a lunch, there's no Starbucks north of Fairbanks.

Hilarious!

I still can't get over the wording of their mission. They are on a mission to measure how much the ice is thinning. You would think that a true scientist would wait until the results were in to say whether it was thinning or not.

By the sounds of their expedition's progress, the ice may still be thickening for the year.

There is a great book about the life experiences of people like this, The Darwin Awards. It's all about people who volutarily remove themselves from the gene pool through their incredibly stupid actions. I can't wait to read about these tools in the latest edition.

Flashback:

"The Franklin Trail"

"British sailors would never do such a thing!" Such was the response to Dr. John Rae upon his return to England in 1854. He had just returned from the Canadian Arctic with the first evidence of the demise of the crew of the Franklin Expedition. He brought with him spoons, knives, forks and trays that were purchased from an Inuk at Pelly Bay. The thing that most repulsed the British public was the story of ..."
http://www.netscapades.com/franklintrail/cannibal.htm

Thank you for making my day Kate! There is so much bad news - I needed a smile.

Do these people still not grasp the irony and hilarity of their situation?

Reminds me of a trip to the Arctic Ocean when we took our bathing suits -- secure in the media-knowledge of retreating ice. We merely wanted to wade in, just for the photo-op.

Trouble was, the sea was hard as ice, and to the northern horizon it was hard, bright white. I guess that Inupiat whaler who was leaving for the South because of so many hard, frozen years not being able to "haul whales" as he said, was not talking through his neat hat.

And this was all before the Gore-acular spasms of Obasmic self-satisfaction.

"There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth." -GKC

Mind you, while they wait they can measure the ice in their sleeping bags...so it won't be a total waste. :)
Hope the al-gore bots get billed for the inconvenient rescue/recovery as well.

It would be most interesting to read their diary entries from the first days of their expedition.

Let's hope the Catlin Arctic Survey will be billed for saving their sorry asses from the "Melting Arctic Ice Cap"

The prevailing wisdom is that the results of this expedition are already printed....for production at Copenhagen.
One "Ursus Marinus" (Polar Bear) should settle this matter expediciously......
If they perish it will be a Capricorn One scenario-----minus the black helos of course.

At least with Sir John Franklin and company there was the possibility that lead poisoning resulted in irrational decisions. What the excuse for these modern day “scientists?”

. . but they had the most stylish snow suits so they would look cool on TV.

Hope the bears appreciate the nice fabric as they chew through it.

Maybe they can parachute Anderson Cooper in to do an update for his Planet in Peril series. Heh

What's brown but smells green?

Polar Bear pooh.

Also note - they have gone backwards for the past week (ice drift). They have averaged abiut 1.5 km/day net progress towards the pole since they started 2 weeks ago.

PFF, I say!

"abiut" is an Inuvialuit word meaning "about".

The similarity is quite striking.

The Three Stooges.

Al Gore must be under his desk at this point. If not, he should be.

No matter how frozen this earth becomes these idiots will never admit they are wrong.

Yes, they might make the Darwin list .... soon.

No sympathy here.

Hope the bears appreciate the nice fabric as they chew through it.

I wonder if it's Gore-Tex®?

Frankly, I had been hoping for frost bite for them when I first read of this, but in the interests of helping the sustainability of polar bear populations, I now hope for their being guests of honour at a polar bear dinner.

dganabbit...what pathetic specimens....why when i was a young feller we had explorers the like of Sir Ranulph Twistleton Wickham-Fiennes....

never a glum word escaped Sir Ranulph's stiff upper lips(for the lower WAS every bit as stiff as the upper).....HE would never fret or moan or be downcast when circumstance seemed to favour adversity...

great blubbing nancy-boys is what they are nowadays...with a coupla' cissies and brown hatters among their expedition i'll warrant....and not one man jack of them accompanied by a faithful esquimaux bearer or beater either i'd bet my anorak....

Ice: 63 feet.
Irony: too thick to measure.

Those fellas could learn a bit or two about the Arctic from these guys:

Lance Mackey poised to win 2009 Iditarod (next hour or so)

http://www.iditarod.com/race/race/currentstandings.html

"Previous estimates of melting have been based on less reliable depth soundings made by satellites and submarines, which can’t distinguish ice from snow.

I may be mistaken, but I thought that it hardly ever snowed up there. How much snow accumulates on top of the ice each year? I the snow depth is negligible, it would add to the argument that this expedition is not much more than a publicity stunt.

"Maybe they can parachute Anderson Cooper in to do an update for his Planet in Peril series. Heh"

Yes send the Q-Tip up there. That would be funny.

Imaha
Imaha ouput
Imaha oupusat

Maybe
Maybe tomorrow
Maybe day after tomorrow

Response in Inuktitut to the question "When will the Polar Bears be hungry enough to eat these stupid POMS ?"

One more point...How can they land a plane if there is that much snow? Don't you need a hard surface?

fred says " . but they had the most stylish snow suits so they would look cool on TV.

Hope the bears appreciate the nice fabric as they chew through it."

Actually, those stylish snow suits will act sort of like the pita bread wrapped around a shwarma. It keeps everything from spilling out when the polar bears are dining.

Pen Hadow
"Bred to be a winner"
Is now:
Bread and weinerless.

http://www.penhadow.com/index.php

"One more point...How can they land a plane if there is that much snow? Don't you need a hard surface?
Posted by: Gus"

It will be a Twin Otter and there are options. Likely one is wheel skis, second choice is balloon or "tundra" tires.

One thing about the Arctic is there isn't actually a lot of snow - it is a desert after all, but what does fall is packed hard as concrete by what the Arctic has in abundance - fierce winds.

A 'Twotter can land in a very short distance - less than 300ft. With an experienced pilot and if the little switch on the landing gear that prevents the props from going into reverse pitch while airborne has been disconnected, you can put one down and dead stopped in 100ft - even loaded.

They don't need much runway - any almost flat piece of sea ice will work. In my experience it won't be a problem finding a place to land nearby.

. . . and speaking of Global Warming, The One has started his "Bait & Switch" campaign.

There by Unicorns here, matey !

"President Obama’s climate plan could cost industry close to $2 trillion, nearly three times the White House’s initial estimate of the so-called “cap-and-trade” legislation, according to Senate staffers who were briefed by the White House.

At the meeting, Jason Furman, a top Obama staffer, estimated that the president’s cap-and-trade program could cost up to three times as much as the administration’s early estimate of $646 billion over eight years."

Further to this article, the heartbreak of global warming had not reached Calgary this morning either.

I can't remember where I read it but one day the crisis was the woman left her beverage in the cup and it froze. The way it read it took the rest of the day to thaw it out and they had to eat in the dark. Hudson, Frobisher and these guys.

If only the Won had promised Flying Horses instead of Unicorns, there would be no problem whatsoever in getting these guys out.

btw: GoreTex? LOL

btw2: Shwarma? Racist?

If they freeze to death, might someone be liable ?

Some day we may see Big Al taking the stand to be questioned by expert witness, Bjorn Lomborg.

Or Tim Ball asking Suzuki to explain the science.

How much does it cost to send a plane up there to save these Bozzoes ? All those in favor of chipping in, raise your hand.

BHA AHH AAH HAAA . BAAA. You can't even parody these folks.

If you read the links to the actual sites of the people on this mission you'll get a good laugh. The head of the expedition is Pen Hadow and he is billed as "The thinking mans explorer". Obviously he's not a deep thinker or he might have seen this situation coming. And if he is the smart one the others must be borderline cretins.

For future reference they might want to write down these important facts.

ice=cold
fire=hot

Handy stuff to know.

Read the comments, seems the Brits agree.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdRtHrhe2T8&feature=related

Once there you can find profiles and other self puffery
Swimming in the pool in jolly old is pretty funny.

"Adventure is just bad planning." - Roald Amundsen

So we are to believe these idiots when they predict climate 100 years from now. They don't know it's cold and nasty in the arctic today ? Doh !

I think they were expecting green grass and balmy weather up there.

Did I not state that they could end up doing what the Donnar Party did? Cannibalism anyone?

But, but how much water from melting ice have they collected kate???

Check out the below site to see where they plan to land the plane.

http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/opsroom

If they were trying to get data on the melting of Arctic sea ice they would not be taking a single pass across the ice, they would be setting up monitoring stations to measure the shrinking sea ice thickness. Without knowing what the thickness was to begin with how can you figure out how much ice has melted?

Their snowsuits are white, lota heat absorption there, I prefer dark blue. I'm with nodwell, shoulda used Nodwells if they were serious. Did alot of ice checking on the MacKenzie channels between Tuck and Inuvik, just hook up the GPS behind the ski-doo with the ice-checker sled and go, 40 clicks per day , two passes are needed to check your data. We packed enough food for ten days and toilet paper for twenty every day,you never knew what could happen. The Nodwell was basically a safe room. These blokes are definitely Darwinian.

I wonder if these people have ever been outdoors longer than it takes to walk from the house to the car? Who mounts an arctic expedition in the winter?

It's like that old joke about the scientists building a rocket to take them to the sun. "But if you land on the sun you'll be incinerated!" exclaims the layman. "Oh no, we've solved that," say the scientists, "we're going to arrive at night."

Similarly, someone might have objected, "but an arctic expedition in winter will encounter severe weather!" But the intrepid adventurers answered, "then we'll turn up the thermostat."

Nothing like getting a bigtime bitch slap from Mother Nature eh?

Anyone having visions of someone doing a dance on Fat Al Gore's cushy lap. Yeech!

Ice in the sleeping bags is a bad thing. As much as I enjoy the irony as everyone else, I really don't wish these guy to suffer the same fate as that other famous UK expedition, led by R. F. Scott, whose untimely end was about this time of the year.

Day 18 and the sleeping bags are full of ice? Well, that's OK. In preparation for your next trip I'll give you the names of a couple of local scout troop leaders who'll show you how to do your winter camping properly.
Morons!

A 100 day trip and they're almost out of food after only 18 days? If they make the finals for the Darwin Awards, it'll be well-deserved.

I guess they thought they were going to a hot place EH!Cause Gore O told them that the ice was melting and the polar bears were frolicking in the warm water.A lovely picture of the bear on an ice flow is in every second commercial on the begging for money green channels.You know these hard core guys should be rounded up and put on ice flows with a few polar bears and learn about the real world.

A 'Twotter can land in a very short distance - less than 300ft. With an experienced pilot and if the little switch on the landing gear that prevents the props from going into reverse pitch while airborne has been disconnected, you can put one down and dead stopped in 100ft - even loaded.

It's a personal favorite of mine when Otters and Twotters plop it down on the numbers then ask to exit for the civil aviation ramp... a mere 11,000 ft down the runway.

You guys are so dumb. Polar bears don't eat people they only drink coke. Sheesh.

"It's a personal favorite of mine when Otters and Twotters plop it down on the numbers then ask to exit for the civil aviation ramp... a mere 11,000 ft down the runway."

Flew into Mirabel one time and the crew did exactly that ! Did a high speed hop-scotch thingy 10,000ft down to the Terminal and they actually gave us our own Gate . . . it was really slow traffic at Mirabel back then, really, really slow and the Tower guys appreciated the activity to break up the boredom.

One has to wonder why anybody thinks it's a good idea to ski 600 miles to the North Pole to measure ice thinkness.

There idiots aren't explorers, they're morons. They probably brought along Bermuda shorts and a beach-volleyball set.

"The cold is relentless"!!!!

Hah!! I cry tears of ice!!!

Ha-ha!

Flew into Mirabel one time and the crew did exactly that ! Did a high speed hop-scotch thingy 10,000ft down to the Terminal and they actually gave us our own Gate . . . it was really slow traffic at Mirabel back then, really, really slow and the Tower guys appreciated the activity to break up the boredom.

Glad to see that the White Elephant that is Mirabel hasn't changed much. I wish they would have named that one Trudeau instead of Dorval...

These A-hats should not be rescued. Let them be martyres to their cause of global warming. Let them die of cold.

john begley at March 18, 2009 2:34 PM

You must read an (any) account of Shackleton's amazing survival in the Antarctic, two years with no contact, no help and certainly no satellite dial-in rescue. Did I mention cold? heroism? leadership? guts? determination?

I read about this during a week's stay in the Caribean :-)

No yellow brick road for them. Not to make light of their suffering but again to much Hollywwod, to little sense.
Maybe enviromentalists come back to Earth as as Newfoundland seals? It would be justice don't yeah think?
JMO

You can be certain that the US, Russian and UK navies know exactly what the ice thickness is at any time, and the trends.

I have a collection of photos of nucular subs at the North Pole. Has anyone seen a pic of a Ruskie and US sub at the N.Pole at the same time?

I suspect they exist but aren't available for public consumption.

Hell, they should have waited till summer and the ice was ALL MELTED, they could have measured it's thickness from Dr. Friutfly's front porch!!!!

But the BBC said it was too warm to freeze!!!

The greatest difficulty I have with this story is the science involved. How does one measure the ice's thinning in just one pass. After one pass you know how thick the ice is not how fast it is thinning. One would have to make the same trek every year on the same date for hundreds of years just to establish a base line.

They are not after measurements - just headlines.

By golly, we gotta save these guys.
We'll send the very best man we have.

Quick, get David Suzuki on the phone!

These folks are destined for Darwin-award infamy, if not as award-winners, then as honorable mentions. I hope they make it out safely, but won't shed any tears if they don't. This undertaking has been pure folly.

I hope these well meaning folk are rescued and following their rescue should they have lost extremities to the cold I wonder if they will continue perpetrating the AGW myth.

Why did they go to the North Pole while it's still winter? Even a brief moment's reflection would have --presumably-- led to the realization that it would be really, really cold there.

Hello?

Guys, there MAY be global warming; there MAY be some effects of human activity on the climate; but I will GUARANTEE you that winter conditions anywhere north of the Arctic Circle are life-threateningly FRIGID.

Honest to dog, one Nebraska winter, indoors, would kill them all. That's the huge plus about these cold, flat [lol] flyover states. The weather really filters the riff-raff.