Originally Posted by
SASless
Global Warming Tourists.....stuck in the Ice! There's a message there somewhere!
At the risk of going too far away from matters rotary: the $A1.5 million cost of this summer holiday has largely been covered by the Australian taxpayer courtesy of the Gillard Labor government earlier this year, along with the NZ and UK taxpayers being (unknowingly?) stung, too. Journos from the BBC and The Grauniad are also along for the ride!
The fiasco is taking place just off the Mertz Glacier, where I operated two seasons ago before 100 years of glacial ice broke off after being nudged at the tip by a passing giant iceberg. The resulting disturbance of the water under the glacier was calculated to have absorbed c1,000,000 tonnes of carbon; talk about unintended climate consequences!
Disruption of the Australian, French and Chinese Antarctic research programmes is immense, with the true scientists furious at the outcome of the eco-tourists ill conceived holiday.