Our esteemed guest author “Bill the Frog” recently posed a question:
Looking at the latest Eastern Arctic ice charts from the Canadian Ice Service, I don’t think the crew [of Northabout] will exactly be shitting themselves.
I’m more interested in what a certain Tony Heller will be coming out with next.
It seems as though a certain Tony Heller and his many merry minions are already shitting themselves at the prospect of the plucky little yacht Northabout NOT getting “trapped in ice”. Hence we can provide this preliminary report on the astonishing ignorance of Tony and his faithful flock concerning all things Arctic. For the present we will confine ourselves to Mr. Heller’s latest missive on the Polar Ocean Challenge expedition, wittily entitled but strangely capitalised:
“we are in a race against time before the freeze”
I blogged the same thing yesterday, and the usual hysterical alarmists showed up complaining.
As luck would have it I blogged the same thing recently, and in actual fact it’s the usual hysterical denialists who have showed up both here and there to pen over a hundred comments and counting. Let’s take a look at a select few of them shall we?
For a reason known only to herself our old friend (and “New Einstein” award winner!) Gail Combs posted the weather forecast for Resolute yesterday, but without any link to her source(s):
Resolute, Nunavut
Presently: 28 °F , wind gusts to 14 mph, cloudyTONIGHT: Saturday Night 09/10 80% / 1-3 in of snow
Snow showers early will become steadier snow overnight. Low 28 °F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.
Then today Lawrence13 posts what purports to be the weather forecast for Isachsen whilst simultaneously suggesting that Isachsen is just around the corner from Resolute, which of course it is not:
No link to his source this time either.
Meanwhile AndyG55 claims that:
Thing to note though, is that the northern part of the Northwest Passage was blocked by multi-year ice – foremost the western exit – FOR THE ENTIRE SUMMER, and was even not passable by ice breakers.
Needless to say Andy didn’t trouble to provide a link to his source. I therefore took the liberty of revealing to him the latest and greatest Great White Con Northwest Passage video:
Andy’s considered response?
Yep Jimbo, one HECK OF A LOT OF SEA ICE
Wadhams was so, so wrong.
And YOU know it.
He appears to be convinced that Isachsen is somewhere on the “main” route through the Northwest Passage. I took the trouble to inform him that:
According to the Environment Canada Climate Severity Index, Isachsen and the surrounding area has the worst weather in Canada with a CSI severity value of 99 out of a possible 100.
For some strange reason the Polar Ocean Challenge team are not planning on sailing past Isachsen any time soon!
His reply?
Nothing strange about it at all, Jimbo.
The Satellite Sea Ice charts told them they had NO CHANCE through the main North West Passage, so they snuck around through Cambridge Bay.
Andy then doubled down by throwing down all his gauntlets and issuing this challenge to Snow White’s manhood:
FFs, Jimbo, you have GOT to be joking !!!
Come on, coward, take my challenge.
Next year, WITHOUT sea ice charts, FOSSIL FUELS, or satellite navigation..
… I DARE you. !!
Her timid response?
Andy – It sounds as though you’re volunteering to enter the Great White Con Arctic Basin Big Wave Surfing Competition?
https://greatWhiteCon.info/2015/02/shock-historical-news-towing-in-at-the-north-pole-in-1958/
Do you fancy your chances surfing calving glaciers against GMac?
It’s hard to be sure, but I don’t think he does:
So, refusing to take up the challenge.
Coward.
There’s no answer to that! Or is there?
Please feel free to let me know when you want to be fitted for your polar bear suit Andy.
As you may be able to imagine, there’s plenty more dumbness to be discovered where that lot came from. As the day wears on and as time allows expect more amusing anecdotes from the depths of the cryodenialosphere.
Not content with the dumbness quotient displayed by his faithful follows at the Blog of Fools, “Steven Goddard” has taken to Twitter to harangue poor defenceless Snow White. Here is a brief extract from his Gish gallop around the North Pole:
Not content with haranguing Snow White about the Arctic “Steve”/Tony and merry Mendy fulminate about flash flooding in Cornwall & Manchester. Allegedly it’s all the media’s fault.
Tony Heller has blocked poor defenceless Snow White on Twitter, so she cannot include his Tweets in her Storifys. Please feel free to try and work out where this one fits in the grand scheme of things:
Only a complete moron would conflate a wave with "rising sea levels" https://t.co/QeeYOJHLZr
— Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) September 19, 2016
It seems self evident that Americans have no sense of humour. They can’t even spell the word correctly. What’s more they also seem not to have the slightest clue about flash floods on this side of the Atlantic, preferring instead to rant about (the lack of) sea level rise on the shores of the “Land of the Free”:
Believe it or not, there’s plenty more where that lot came from.
We’ll keep you posted!
I’m a long time lurker and sometime commenter on Neven’s blog, and on Robert’s ‘scribblings’ (which totally under plays his incredible work).
I went through to Real Science – a place I rarely frequent. And I was struck, as I have been before, about how angry and personal denialists are. I can understand why people who understand climate change science (not ‘believers’. Climate change is a science, not a religion. It’s based from observation and scientific method) get hot under the collar. After all, they feel that, at the very least, civilisation is in danger. But I would love to get to the bottom of denialist reasoning (if any).
They seem to be angrily riling against clean energy. They seem to be riling against ‘big government/big taxes’. They seem to be really against creating a world without exhaust fumes and massive destruction of forests and wilderness. I just don’t get it.
The taxes thing is the only one I can vaguely understand. However, it’s lunatic. They don’t seem to be so angry about the US Govt spending billions of tax money on the military complex – one that is bigger than Russia and Europe’s military put together (and I think you can add China too – but don’t have the figures), or the billions paid to banks in the last decade – none of which has any positive impact on humanity. So how can you argue agaisnt a carbon tax? Not only that, an ETS, which is the preferred method of GHG abatement in industry, is a MARKET-BASED SYSTEM!
I do realise that actually there is no explaining this to any of them. They have an entrenched attitude and are either in the world of conspiracy in other areas of life, or in the pay of the fossil fuel industry. Which leads me to think that we waste our time entirley in even acknowledging them. It’s like arguing with a 5 year old about eating ice cream for breakfast. They don’t get it, and eventually as an adult you just say ‘No – no more discussion.’
I think you do a great service Jim. But I think maybe we need to just ignore them. The level of discussion is so poor that it really is pointless.
I hear what you say Dan, and thank you for your kind words.
However I have an interest in psychology as well as sea ice, plus a warped sense of humour. I don’t anticipate changing the world view of any of Tony’s many merry minions, but I too “would love to get to the bottom of denialist ‘reasoning'”, if that’s not an oxymoron? Know your enemy! Plus there’s always the lurkers and passers by to consider?
Then there is of course the actual fact that, unlikely as it may seem, elected politicians have been known to quote “Goddard” as an authority live on national TV in what sounds as though it’s your neck of the woods:
https://greatWhiteCon.info/2016/08/northabout-braves-the-northwest-passage/#comment-215480
Finally, in “real life” I wrote this Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_62325
I meet plenty of “skeptical” engineers from the electricity transmission and distribution industries!
Thanks for the laughs. Your dark sense of humor is ever so fitting to the situation in the Arctic.
The psychology of the situation isn’t all that complex. The red team’s sponsors ( the Koch Bros, coal barons, big oil & gas billionaires, and their employees ) have made climate denial a red team rule. If you don’t deny climate change when you run for office they will spend a fortune on ads to destroy your reputation and to fund your opponent.
Southern white males are convinced that the red team is their team because it is the team of white patriarchy.
Thus, the song and dance routines by Tony and the Hellers at his blog are entirely predictable. The act is scripted.
-Fish
My pleasure Fish,
See also the Gish galloping Storify above.
You do occasionally bump into a “skeptical” type who appears to be able to articulate a vaguely coherent point of view and isn’t a southern white male:
https://greatWhiteCon.info/2016/04/claim-arctic-sea-ice-holds-firm/#comment-214148
Jim,
In your capacity as something of a music aficionado, I wondered if, like me, you enjoyed World Party’s “Ship of Fools”?
One also wonders if TH is familiar with that classic from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles: “Tears of a Clown”?
Let’s see now:
Are you watching Tony?
What is it with the deniers’ pathology of not supplying links to their sources? (rhetorical question to be sure)
I’ve reached the point a while ago that when anyone of them don’t supply a link to back up their contention or posted file, I simply state their comment means nothing until they do so.
See the new Storifys above for many more evidence free, linkless assertions by the proprietor of the Blog of Fools and the idolatrous Twitterati.
I ask for ’em, but for some strange reason they never, ever arrive!
This reads like a big bitter whinge. Who uses “deniers” in 2016!
There is no science in this nonsense. Sea ice was 4x what Wadhams claimed it would be and “no ice” to Wadhams is 1m sqm, but that is not “no ice”.
Furthermore, actual experts, not modelers, say Polar bears are doing just fine, even in this summer minimum, which is the same as 2007, which means, sea ice has stabalised in the last decade in the arctic.
Also the 2012 record low, was caused by a storm, which broke up and compacted ice, it did not just “melt” from “global warming”.
The southern hemisphere is steadily increasing in ice since the 80s.
So much fail here it’s laughable.
Marty
I do Marty!
Why do you bring up the topics of “Wadhams” and “Polar bears”? What’s the relevance to the dumberer than dumb at The Blog of Fools demonstrating their ignorance of the science of Arctic sea ice at great length ad infinitum?
So many fails over there that it is indeed laughable.
Marty,
Going through some of the points that you are trying to make…
1) Are you seriously trying to suggest that the views of Peter Wadhams are in any way representative of those expressed by the vast majority of climate scientists? If, and when, an extreme view is shown to be wrong, do you really think that somehow invalidates the work (and opinions) of more conservative scientists?
2) “… actual experts, not modelers, say Polar bears are doing just fine …”
Which experts would these be? Are you familiar with the work of the Polar Bear Specialist Group? Are you familiar with their latest population status table?
http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/status/status-table.html
3) “… sea ice has stabalised in the last decade in the arctic …”
Has it really? When the 10 lowest recorded annual minima have occurred in the last 10 years (2007-2016) you think that somehow represents stabilisation? When 4 of the lowest 5 have occurred within the last 6 years?
From 1979 until the present, the NSIDC database shows that the record low monthly extent has been beaten a total of 8 times. That equates to about once every 4 or 5 years. Don’t you think that starting a ludicrously small sample period with a statistical outlier is tantamount to cherry-picking?
4) “… the 2012 record low, was caused by a storm …”
Was it really? The storm formed around the 4th of August – have you bothered checking to see how 2012 compared to previous years on, say, the 2nd or 3rd of August?
Many scientific papers have been written concerning the impact of GAC2012, here is just one…
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50190/abstract
Have you also bothered to check what the prevailing conditions were at the time when 2007 became such a statistical outlier?
5) “… The southern hemisphere is steadily increasing in ice since the 80s. …”
It has long been predicted that Antarctica would see a period of increased sea ice coverage. So why would this be surprising to anyone who makes even a limited attempt at keeping up to date?
Over the measurement period of several decades, satellites have shown that the mean velocity of the circumpolar Westerlies down there has increased. Given this fact, what effect do you think that Coriolis acceleration will have upon the sea ice surrounding the White Continent?
Here are a couple of extent charts…
https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/vishop.ver1/vishop-extent.html?S
Have you looked at either of these recently? (One needs to click on the “Antarctic” button for the Charctic site, but the ADS site should open with Antarctic data.)
I must confess, the term “steadily increasing” is not one which would immediately spring to mind.