Not just the ice that’s sadly thick

Christopher Booker, Telegraph
" What a wonderful parable of group-think has been the story of those 52 green zealots, “adventure tourists” and journalists from the BBC and The Guardian who were trapped in ice up to 10ft thick last week, until they were removed – to the safety of Chinese and Australian ice-breakers – from a Russian ship still stuck off the coast of Antarctica. Led by a “climate scientist”, who brought along his wife and children for the ride, this purported to be a “scientific expedition” to find out why the sea-ice around Antarctica was being melted by climate change. The more we learn about this adventure, the more bizarre it becomes. These “scientists” seemed blissfully unaware that there has recently been more sea-ice round Antarctica than at any time since satellite records began in 1979, currently 1.5 million square kilometres more than its 30-year average (see the Cryosphere Today and Watts Up With That websites). Having hired a ship with only minimal ice protection, they were oblivious to forecasts last October that this year’s ice, even in mid-summer, would be dangerously thick."