Crazy Brits

I have lost a lot of respect for the BBC over the past couple of years. Their journalistic integrity has taken a number of high profile hits and specifically anything relating to the "environment" needs to be taken with a grain of salt. So I was interested when I saw a post about this expedition of British who are doing some 'adventuring'. Sponsored by Nokia, the European Climate Exchange (CO2 credit trading platform), Panasonic and the "Sick Children's Trust" - what sick children will get out this I'm not sure, among others.

A team of polar explorers has traveled to the Arctic in a bid to discover how quickly the sea-ice is melting and how long it might take for the ocean to become ice-free in summers.

The trio will be sending in regular diary entries, videos and photographs to BBC News throughout their expedition.

Couple things struck me immediately - first off, they are trying to travel to the North Pole, right now... in winter. So that establishes they aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. Next, they are taking measurements of ice thickness to "discover" how quickly sea-ice melts and "how long" before the arctic is ice-free. Now I don't know if they did ANY research before they set out on this boondoggle, but sea ice thickness is readily available to anyone with an internet connection, measured accurately by satellites here on Cyrosphere Today. They even have a handy archive stretching back 30-years. Here is the 30-day animation, which shows definitively there is no melting this year (yet) as it is still (obviously) winter. Additionally, it is unclear what this information would prove as arctic sea ice continually moves around - breaking, refreezing and breaking again. A one time only spot measurement of thickness means nothing. Additionally, their information will be at different geographic points at different points in time, of course there will be melting over the next 3 months as the seasons change, that is not a new or interesting phenomenon.

But no no, these hardy Brits were determined to set out to prove something or another, and where is the fun of it if you can't risk your life? The results are totally predictable. There is minimal info from the BBC on "discoveries" and more information varying around the theme "damn its cold". A sample:

March 17, 2009 - We are really suffering from the cold... the ambient temperature inside the tent is -40C, the inside of the tent is like an ice cavern.

March 11, 2009 - We have been battered by wind, bitten by frost and bruised from falls on the ice. The wind chill today will slice us up - it's taking the temperature down to below -50C

March 5, 2009 - Because of the freezing temperatures some of the equipment has been playing up - so to try to keep it functioning I'm sleeping with cables, cameras, batteries and other communications gadgets.

As any good Canadian can tell you - the March 11th quote is inaccurate - "wind chill" doesn't move temperature, it just moves the indication of temperature on the human skin. That the arctic is cold during the winter is expected but there are some unusual nuances to the communications which show that this expedition didn't set out to "discover" anything, but rather is just a publicity or propaganda stunt.

March 17 - 500 miles from the North Pole, floating on a raft of sea ice that is breaking up to the north of us

March 11 - A chance to speak with some of the world's most influential climate change leaders. I tried to convey that climate change and the loss of the sea ice up here will affect everybody on the planet.

March 5 - Our fast getaway from the disintegrating ice on Tuesday night has added to the sleeplessness

Now the March 17th quote, taken in its context ("discovery" of sea ice melting), seems to imply that they are on an ice flow - "floating" conjuring up images of melting ice and that the ice is "breaking up" north of them, giving an impression of melting once again. The quote from March 5 leads to much the same conclusion. Obviously if it is -40 there is no chance of melting and any open water caused by the shifting of the ice pack would freeze over almost instantly.

Second - the March 11th quote really shows this expedition isn't about discovery is it? It is about getting your name on a BBC blog, doing a little bit of climate change pandering and speaking via satellite phone to some "influential climate change leaders". Right, just so we know, this expedition isn't about scientific discovery, because there is little if anything to discover and it is just a publicity-grab, similar to the ill-fated "Polar Defense Project" which tried to kayak to the North Pole in Fall 2008 to show how much ice had melted only to fail in spectacular fashion by being stopped by the ice pack south of Canada's northern most community Alert.

Pen Hadow - It's been a mad week - the hours we've been putting in have been daunting - prepping every item that goes out on to the ice, alongside responding to emails, taking phone calls and doing interviews.

Right, can't forget those interviews... of discovery! But wait:

We are not in it for the adventure and glory - we are doing it to make sure that the scientists have the information they need to asses the speed that the ice cap is melting and the global implications of that.

Not IF the ice cap is melting, but the speed. Not are there global implications but THE global implications. Not for adventure and glory, but ONLY for adventure (I doubt they will get much glory because they aren't discovering anything).

These are the worst type of "scientists". I guarantee the "research" is pre-ordained and there will be a nice summary on the BBC in a few months saying "Arctic Ice Melting Faster".