The United States Coast Guard Comes To The Rescue

One of the dramas that we ended last year with was the group of scientists and tourists that went to the Antarctica to document the shrinking ice caps that were the result of global warming. Someone should have mentioned to them that when you travel thousands of miles to document the consequences of a theory, it is a good idea to make sure the theory was valid in the first place.

The ship they were traveling on to research and document the shrinking Antarctic ice got stuck in the ice,

On Thursday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air reported:

The team attempted to recreate the 1911-13 Antarctic journey of Douglas Mawson, only to get stuck in a surprisingly expanded polar ice sheet. A video report leading CNN’s World page claims that they have been rescued and boarded onto an Australian ship that will leave shortly.

…The nine-day crisis unfolded a bit like a Monty Python sketch. A Chinese ship attempted to rescue the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, only to get stopped by the ice as well. A third ship arrived, but could not reach the stranded researchers, either. The rescuers finally used a helicopter when researchers were able to build a crude heliport on the ice that surrounded them, but a barge brought in to move them outside the ice couldn’t reach the Chinese vessel intended for their transport — so the helicopter landed on another ice floe near an Australian ship that arrived.

Somehow, most of the media that reported that story left out the fact that the people on the ship were there to document global warming.

The website wattsupwiththat posted a press release from the Australian government that stated the following:

US Coast Guard ice breaker to assist ships beset in ice in Antarctica

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) has requested the US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker to assist the vessels MV Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long which are beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay.

 The US Coast Guard has accepted this request and will make Polar Star available to assist. The Polar Star has been en route to Antarctica since 3 December, 2013 – weeks prior to the MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay. The intended mission of the Polar Star is to clear a navigable shipping channel in McMurdo Sound to the National Science Foundation’s Scientific Research Station. Resupply ships use the channel to bring food, fuel and other goods to the station. The Polar Star will go on to undertake its mission once the search and rescue incident is resolved.

I just wonder who is paying for the research and the continuing folly.

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