A ship trapped in ice near Antarctica once would have been a matter for worry. Today you have to at least smile at the plight of the Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy, trapped with a passenger list of tourists and scientists trying to confirm that Antarctic ice is shrinking. Ah, the irony is rich.
The 52 passengers were evacuated after seven days to an Australian icebreaker a few miles away using a helicopter from a Chinese icebreaker, also nearby. Neither would-be rescue ship could get close to the Akademik Shokalskiy.
A crew of 18 remained, presumably to wait for less ice as the Antarctic summer (the seasons down there are the reverse of ours) creeps in. Food was plentiful and the passengers apparently had a grand time, with satellite connections all over the world, plenty of movies and fun expeditions onto the ice to watch penguins.
All’s well that ends well, eh? Well, there are a few details to clean up.
Who pays for the rescue? The trip organizer, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, has no budget for it.
How did the ship get into trouble? Did nobody check what weather forecasts were available? Track what satellite pictures of the ice showed?
Was nobody aware that Antarctic ice has been setting records? A few minutes with Google would show that peak sea ice near Antarctica in 2012 was the most since records began in 1978, and that peak was surpassed in September of 2013.
(There’s more ice because stronger winds blow it up against the land; what’s making the winds stronger is still a matter of much scientific conjecture.)
Many facts contradict the scary predictions of the global warming believers. With luck the story of the Akademik Shokalskiy will generate greater appreciation of that.