Australian Icebreaker Tries To Get Through To Stranded Antarctic Research Ship

The shipload of researchers and tourists stuck in the Antarctic ice are still stuck. A Chinese icebreaker, the Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, has gotten tantalizingly close but was hampered by "unusually thick ice." Now, an Australian vessel, the Aurora Australis, will attempt to rescue the 74 people aboard the MV Akademik Shokalskiy.

Vague News

[Anonymous Coward]

I love how the NYT and BBC reports on this story completely neglect to mention that the stuck ship is full of climate scientists out to gather global warming evidence. Just a complete oversight I'm sure. Also: consensus.

Copyrighted materials of the Church Of Warminetics

[Applehu Akbar]

Naturally, the appearance in the middle of the summer of ice so thick that the icebreakers of multiple polefaring nations cannot penetrate it is proof of anthropogenic warming. You criticize our teachings in any way, and we will beat you to death with our sacred hockey sticks in the East District of Texas. Meanwhile, our last hope is to send in Chuck Norris with a shipload of thermite.

I hope

[JustOK]

I hope they don't get eaten by the polar bears

engineering reality

[harvey the nerd]

A boatload of CAGW scientists can't engineer their way out of the ice in the middle of the summer in the Academik. An extra half a million square miles of ice that's not supposed to be there. Stuck about 3500 miles south of Darwin. Awards all around.

Re:Send the American icebreaker!

[PolygamousRanchKid]

I think we need to pause and think about the what's really behind the story here:

The Russians put our camera made by our German scientists and your film made by your German scientists into their satellite made by their German scientists.

This rescue will end when the a US nuclear submarine pops up through the ice sheet, and a bunch of marines in snow gear jump out. But then a Russian airplane will toss out a bunch of paratroopers in snow gear will land.

A suspenseful standoff is guaranteed . . .

This stranded tourists and scientists story is just a cover for the public to hide what is really going on . . .

Re:How is ice forming in the summer?

[CrankyFool]

At that kind of distance, is it really even worth mentioning? If I'm 100 nanometers away from something, I don't say "I'm 100nm away from X," I say "I'm right next to X." Why don't they just disembark now?

Re:Vauge conclusions

[Applehu Akbar]

Remember, boys and girls: melting ice proves that the climate is warming up; freezing ice in midsummer, on the other hand, proves that the climate is warming up.