A global warming research
study in Canada has been cancelled because of “unprecedented”
thick summer ice.
Naturally, the scientist in
charge has blamed it on ‘climate change.’
According to Vice:
The study,
entitled BaySys, is a $17-million four-year-long program headed by the
University of Manitoba. It was planning to conduct the third leg of its
research by sending 40 scientists from five Canadian universities out into the
Bay on the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen to study “contributions
of climate change and regulation on the Hudson Bay system.”
But it had
to be cancelled because the scientists’ icebreaker was required by the Canadian
Coast Guard for a rather more urgent purpose – rescuing fishing boats and
supply ships which had got stuck in the “unprecedented ice conditions”.
“It became clear to me very
quickly that these weren’t just heavy ice conditions, these were unprecedented
ice conditions,” Dr. David Barber, the lead scientist on the study, told VICE. “We were
finding thick multi-year sea ice floes which on level ice were five metres
thick… it was much, much thicker and much, much heavier than anything you would
expect at that latitude and at that time of year.”
Clearly not
one to let a crisis go to waste, Barber seized the opportunity to perform the
usual alarmist clown dance for the media, explaining why this incident
definitely shows that global warming is a major problem and deserving of our
urgent attention.
He told Vice:
“It was
clear it was from the Arctic, I just needed to be among the ice to see it,” said
Dr. Barber. “What was also clear to me was that climate change has caused this
event to happen.”
[Don’t you
just love that “I just needed to be among the ice”? I think what he’s trying in
his subtle way to tell us is: “Not all superheroes wear capes”]
Warming to his theme, he
told Global
News:
“This is
climate change fully in action – affecting our ability to make use of marine
resources and transport things.”
and
“This is a
wake-up call for all of us in the country.”
Of course
it is. Now Barber has the perfect excuse to share his war stories with all
the other global warming experts who have had their research
expeditions/publicity stunts stymied by unseasonal bouts of global warming.
There was the Ship of Fools expedition
in which an Australian climate researcher called Chris Turkey had to call an
expedition to the melting Antarctic after his ship got stuck in the ice.
The Caitlin
Expedition – supported by the Prince of Wales – in which Pen
Haddow and his team had to abandon their trip to the North Pole because it was
colder than they’d expected.
Most recently there
was Ship of Fools II, in
which a global warming research voyage by David Hempleman Adams had to be
curtailed because of unexpected ice.
What on
earth can Mother Gaia be trying to tell them?
Possibly the same
message she’s trying to send out to the Greenies in California with
this unexpected
fall of white global warming.
A rare
winter-like storm brought more snow to the Sierra Nevada on Monday, giving
skiers the opportunity to enjoy the slopes as summer gets underway.
At Squaw
Valley, the storm dropped four inches of snow at the upper elevations and two
inches at the base, delighting skiers and snowboarders who will be on the
slopes past the Fourth of July for a first time in history.
“It’s
definitely unique,” Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows resort spokesman Sam Kieckhefer
said. “We are seeing bathing suits and costumes on the slopes. The skiing has
definitely been extremely festive.”
Apparently, she didn’t get
the famous memo from the Independent a few years
back.