Good Luck to Antarctic Explorers:

Of course the climate is changing. That's what it does, same as it ever has. Past that, we're into hubris, dogma and stupidity in equal measure from from a race of mammals who overestimate their importance and love any excuse to push an agenda. 

Climate change, formerly classified as global warming has become wrapped up in the teeth gnashing and garment wringing surrounding our propensity to crap on our own doorstep. Eradicating malaria would be far more useful than the religious belief that we can  somehow persuade the planet to change its climate to suit us. But that wouldn't generate much panic, publicity of money.

Coat got, door shut, arse not banged.

Well said, Harry--so very well said.  I am not one to cast negative aspersions on scientific hypotheses for which I have no contradictory evidence.  And I can imagine that my betters among the scientific community are better suited to address the issue than am I.  That having been said, my confidence in their alleged superiority begins to wane just a bit when I hear of their suppressing evidence, however small, that would tend to contradict their hypothesis agenda--(you chose the more correct term.) 

And that is what is so sad to me--for in my dotage, I remember a time when most (though certainly not all) scientists adhered to scientific method--proposing an hypothesis and taking the results of experiment wherever they might lead--not worrying about having to suppress any evidence that might deflect public opinion against their chosen hypothesis.  Oh, sure, there was always disagreement and back-biting within their own ranks, but there was in general a respect for doing science--as opposed to politicizing what might have been science.

Moreover, the hypocrisy of Al Gore and the elite, jetting all over the world while telling me to turn off my lights, quite frankly makes me vomit--the more so because so many well-meaning people either do not grasp, or choose to ignore that hypocrisy.

Nonetheless, were I convinced that hypocrisy and bias aside, they were all correct in their assumptions and hypotheses, I would be the first to rush to my light switch and sit in the dark--to urge policies on my politicians that might result in the ruin of the American economy--if I thought for even one moment that Russia, China, Indonesia, and India would follow suit.

And I must say again--well-expressed, and your arse never came anywhere near the doorknob on that post!  And it is a relief to me to find one person in the known universe who agrees with even part of one of my opinions!    Hopefully the ice sheets will stop before they get to South Texas.  They always have before, and I still find myself 18 feet above sea level.   I sympathize with those who chose to build their cities at waters edge, and even a little bit with those in New Orleans who decided what a joy it would be to construct a major city twenty feet below.

Best regards,

Russ

It was very hot once. Mangrove swamps in England and rich vegetation at the poles. It's also been frozen practically from pole to pole. Gee, wonder if climate change caused that? Or should we blame The Flintstones? 

This is a subject that is best served up with humuor and alcohol in convivial surroundings. Online discussions tend towards tetchy and disingenuous. So I really should get me coat.

Cheers

Understood, Harry.  For myself, due to an inability--beyond a certain point--to combine alcohol with conviviality, I have to limit myself to humor--frequently dosed with a bit of irony (and even sarcasm) I suppose, hopefully not always directed against those with whom I disagree--but at myself as well.  I believe, without benefit of proof, that an obsession with taking oneself too seriously can lead to the far more fatal flaw of taking one's beliefs too seriously as well!

As Groucho Marx once said: "Those are my principles--and if you don't like them, I have others."

Best regards, and hope that coat keeps you warm!

Russ

The weather where the ships are trapped is actually unusually warm. The ice has built up because of the wind.

Interesting, Winky.  I didn't know that.  As an interesting personal sidelight to the climate issue, a good friend of mine who frequently chews my ass out for all the evil, wrong-headed things I believe, once told me how the melting of the ice cap in Antarctica was killing many of the polar bears who live there!  This friend also used to lecture me about the size of my carbon footprint.  He gave up a cushy, high-paying technical job in the Pacific Northwest and joined the Peace Corp and is now repairing 286 computers in Africa and writes me complaining that they have no air conditioning. Which reminds me, I need to email him what you say about the particularly warm weather in Antarctica and express my hope that the ice build-up is not harming the dwindling polar bear population.

Cheers,

Russ

You do have to laugh at a lot of the climate change socio-political scene.

For me, the science behind human-influenced global warming is a done deal. Anyone who argues otherwise is either not well-informed (and therefore ignorant) or not well-motivated (and therefore deceitful or selfish).

The correct economic response is far from as clear to me. One issue is that substantial response will inevitably be very expensive and possibly of questionable benefit. The other issue arises from the "tragedy of the commons" whereby motivation must be derived from purely altruistic thinking. We must choose to do with less so that others (elsehwere in the world and those in the future) do not suffer so much.But we, personally, will see no material benefit from our decisions to combat global warming.

Maybe we should just become as wealthy as possible and be ready for the consequences. Unfortunately, that leads to to very uneven outcomes where poor people will suffer disproportionately.

Don't worry about the planet. It'll do just fine.

We, however, might very well cease to exist.

That's what they said about Mars and now look at it. 

Oh - it's just hibernating. ;-) Wait for a few million years and it'll be green again.

Sounds like the stranded scientists are back on dry land in Tasmania, after disembarking an Australian ship. Thanks to the boys Down Under. Big question now: Who pays for this?