Ice Melt Ends Explorers' North Pole Trek

British Team Planned 3-Month Journey To Study Arctic Sea, Global Warming

(AP)  British explorers in northern Canada to measure the thickness of floating Arctic sea ice ended their expedition short of reaching the North Pole due to an early summer ice melt, the team said Thursday.

Explorers Pen Hadow, Ann Daniel and photographer Martin Hartley had planned a three-month journey to the North Pole, but ended their arduous trek Wednesday, approximately 304 miles (490 kilometers) from their destination, said Hadow.

The trio stopped after 73 days, during which they measured the thickness of floating sea ice to provide data to scientists studying the impact of global warming in the region.

"This year, the summer melt came a little early," Hadow said during a Webcast conference from Resolute Bay in northern Canada. "We would have rather reached the Pole if we could have, but we've always regarded (getting there) as the cherry on the cake."

Information the team gathers could contribute to a better understanding of global warming, which is believed to be the main culprit in the rapidly melting polar ice cap that is freeing up new sea routes and untapped mineral resources on the ocean bottom.

Hadow said the group's goal was to cover as much distance as possible and gather as much information as possible.

"Along the way we realized (getting to) the Pole was not achievable so we sacrificed it very easily," he said.

The data will be used to help scientists further understand climate change by getting a better picture of when sea ice in the North Pole will melt completely and not refreeze seasonally.

The trekkers said they captured 16,000 observations and took 1,500 measurements of the thickness and density of the ice and snow by drilling into the striking blue ice.

The group discovered the average thickness of the sea ice was 5 feet (1.5 meters).

"This seems to suggest it was almost all first-year ice. Our science advisers had told us to expect thicker, older ice on at least part of the route, so it is something of a mystery where that older ice has gone. It'll be interesting to see what scientists think about this," said Hadow.

He also said there was little snow cover.

Peter Wadhams, a professor of Ocean Physics at the University of Cambridge, said that "the data already sent back shows the team have been traveling on first-year ice and provided an insight into its rate of growth this year."

Wadhams also heads the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge.

Hadow said the findings would be presented at a conference on climate change in December in Copenhagen, where alternatives to the Kyoto Protocol environmental treaty.

But for now, the group is happy to be on solid ground after trekking amid treacherous snow conditions and temperatures dropping below minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius) with a wind chill.

"It's delightful to be back (on the ground)," said Daniel. "I had the window wide open last night because I got so used to the cold. But I woke up quite often in the night feeling just luxuriated in a bed. And it's absolutely wonderful to eat on a plate, with a fork and knife, while sitting on a chair."

[zipitydooda]

So, the caption says "Katie Couric feels it's time for bold action." Now she has become an activist? Just proves what we have known all along - CBS isn't about objective reporting. It's all about promoting their liberal political causes.

BTW - has anyone noticed that Katie Couric is now looking just like Kate Gosselin? Same haircut, hair color and makeup. Which one copied?

[acementhead]

Just more lies from the AGW alarmists. They stopped because they are dying of COLD not trouble from melting ice.

[armyoftwelve]

The worst thing about all this melting ice is that it waters down my drink.

[Scimajor]

This was nothing more than a self serving publicity stunt. They knew perfectly well from previous data what the conditions would be like at this time of year.

Gee, they're running into melted ice a few weeks prior to the beginning of summer. How could that be?

[louiville2]

Nice try by the King of DENIALISTS posting another CONStipated CONServitard piece of garbage in the "American Stinker" magazine!

We already know they have their heads buried deeply in their nether regions like all you DENIALISTS!
Posted by evilbusheviks at 6:58 AM

"Try"? Fact, O King of the leftist man is evil warm monger cult.

[louiville2]

"Most of the report is regurgitated satellite data, but there are a couple of particularly interesting items:

One further consideration, when interpreting the ice thickness measurements made by the CAS team, is navigational bias. The team systematically seeks out flatter ice because it is easier to travel over and camp on.


and

The ice thickness measurements that Pen and the team have been able to phone in imply that they are travelling over predominantly thick first?year ice.

In conclusion:

They seek out ?flat? (implying thinner and younger) ice
They planned on being on multi-year ice, even though the satellites showed that their route is on first year ice.
The first year ice they are on is ?thick.?
Their measurements agree closely with satellite data.
In other words, they could have been home enjoying a pint in sunny England, and waited to see what happens to the ice this summer.

Expedition Leader Pen Hadow who remembers feeling angry a few days into the expedition because he felt that, between expeditions, his memory had tricked him over the cold.
?Although I?ve been here before, I wasn?t able to hold the memory of just how uncomfortable, in an almost surreal sense, it really is?, he says. ?When you?re warm, at home, you can tell yourself how awful it?s going to be, but when you get here, the shock of it hits you all over again and you really can?t believe you?ve allowed yourself to go through it again?."

That about sums up this folly AHAHAH. Just glad they didn't die proving nothing.

[louiville2]

"May 16, 2009
The Catlin Ice Follies
(American Thinker)

With all the concern about the environment, we were surprised that there was no data released by the CAS about the extent of their carbon footprint for this expedition. So we decided to do it for them.


By using fuel consumption data for the De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft along with cruising speed and distances, we estimate that 84,000 lbs of CO2 were released into the atmosphere by the aircraft alone. There would be additional CO2 from flights from the UK to Canada.


The Russian expedition, by comparison, was far more environmentally friendly. We estimate their trucks released about 22,000 lbs of CO2, or about one quarter the amount of the CAS.


The bottom line is that the Catlin team did little to advance the knowledge of the condition of Arctic ice. But they did show that the Arctic weather can be brutal, cold and dangerous."

[louiville2]

These looser morons should be prosecuted for polluting, NOW!!!!


"Catlin Arctic Survey Pollutes the Pristine Arctic Wilderness?
Evidence of pollution via abandoned fuel drums on Ellesmere Island Source: CIEL.org and WattsUpWithThat.com.

Montreal Gazette, Thursday, August 28 2008

Standing near the edge of the Northwest Passage, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a pair of measures yesterday to boost Canada?s ability to prevent pollution and monitor shipping in its Arctic waters.

The Harper government plans to introduce legislation that will extend the enforcement zone of the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, which prohibits ships from dumping waste.

If the facts show that the Catlin Survey or their support teams left these oil drums in the Arctic on Ellesmere Island THEN THEY HAVE POLLUTED the Canadian Arctic and Canadian Law Ought to be brought to bear upon them for such egregious acts of anti-environmental pollution.

Here is one law in Canada that might apply. What other environmental laws would apply and for which charges against the Catlin Arctic Survey can be brought (should they be guilty of the accusation of polluting the arctic)?"


http://pathstoknowledge.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/catlin-arctic-survey-pollutes-the-pristine-arctic-wilderness/

[louiville2]

LOL, WHAT A WOPPER of a lie.

See photo of trek:
http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/thishandoutp.jpg

"The problems for the Catlin team began shortly after they were airlifted to a point on the ice north of Canada about 942 kilometers from the North Pole. A fierce storm arrived with high winds and cold temperatures of -40 deg C which took a toll on equipment and the team. The high tech ice measuring equipment broke down along with the data communications equipment. The three person team also suffered from the brutal conditions and one of the team members had frostbite. As a result the team only covered a total of 434 km, which is less than half way to the pole."

"While the Hadow team was struggling on the ground, a German expedition was measuring thicker than expected second year ice from the comfort of an aircraft with advanced monitoring equipment. They reported that this second year ice was up to four meters thick, rather than the two meters they expected.


Meanwhile, a Russian expedition simply drove to the North Pole in trucks which might be described as HumVees on sterioids, with none of the discomforts the Catlin team experienced. But the Russians were more interested in oil than ice thickness. The Russians want to stake a claim to the oil rights in the Arctic Ocean while the Catlin team wants to save us from oil."



At the North Pole ice sheet is thicker than expected

The research aircraft Polar 5 "ended on Tuesday in Canada's recent Arctic expedition. During the flight, researchers have Eisstärke the current measured at the North Pole, and in areas that have never before been overflown. The result is surprising. The sea-ice in the surveyed areas is apparently thicker than scientists had suspected.
Normally, ice is newly formed after two years, over two meters thick. "Here were Eisdicken up to four meters," said a spokesman of Bremerhaven's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. For scientists, this result is still in contradiction to the warming of the seawater.
Besides the Eisdicken was also the composition of the air are investigated. With the help of a laser, the researchers reviewed how polluted the atmosphere by emissions from industrialized countries. In the next few weeks the results are evaluated. On the expedition, some 20 scientists from the U.S., Canada, Italy and Germany. "

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-origin.radiobremen.de%2Fwissen%2Fnachrichten%2Fwissenawipolararktis100.html&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0=

[dwilson59]

Nah....his god is busy making more fossil fuels that used to take millions of years to form, so that Exxon/Mobil can continue to make record profits for centuries to come, while spewing more of their mis-information and dis-information campaign about global warming!
Posted by evilbusheviks at 9:08 AM : May 15, 2009

Bush did this Obama my King will save us