Bloomberg News, in a desperate attempt to keep a straight face;
Three U.K. explorers bound for the North Pole on a scientific expedition to study global warming said they are close to running out of food after “brutal” weather conditions halted three attempts to fly in supplies.
The support team hopes to decide within hours on when it can send an airplane to land on nearby ice with provisions, Tori Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Catlin Arctic Survey in London, said in an interview today.
“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.”
The severe weather is jeopardizing a journey aimed at projecting when global warming may melt the entire Arctic Ocean cap, a phenomenon that scientists say might trigger further gains in temperature.
And only 82 days left to go! On a more hopeful note, starvation among the local polar bear population may be averted…
h/t Dave K.
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.