Fossil-Fueled Ingenuity to the Rescue in Antarctica

Wall St. Journal ^ | January 3, 2014 | Anne Jolis

[grundle]

A century ago, Australian geologist Douglas Mawson led a perilous expedition through Antarctica. His team's observations yielded unprecedented knowledge of the frozen continent's wildlife, climate and natural formations, though at a steep price: On the way, expedition member Lt. Belgrave Ninnis disappeared through a crevasse, along with a sledgeful of supplies and several huskies. Mawson and his remaining companion, Swiss ski champion Xavier Mertz, wound up having to eat their surviving dogs. Mertz fell ill and died three weeks later.

Mawson made it back to his base camp, only to find that he'd missed his boat and would have to wait another year to be rescued. "Several of my toes commenced to blacken and fester near the tips and the nails worked loose," he wrote later in his memoir, "Home of the Blizzard." "There appeared to be little hope."

Prospects were considerably brighter from the start for the researchers more recently stranded in Antarctica, who were rescued by helicopter on Thursday. The episode—it would be hard to call the 10-day marooning an ordeal—began on Christmas Eve, when powerful winds shifted dense ice sheets, barricading the Russian-flagged research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy.

[webheart]

Never mind....

[Louis Foxwell]

Please do not link lead-ins to paid subscription sites.

[gunsequalfreedom]

It was a darn interesting start of a read.

[ansel12]

Why post links that we can’t access?

[ColdSteelTalon]

Lets not post links we cannot access.

Thanks.

[Pontiac]

"It's fantastic—I love it when the ice wins and we don't," marine ecologist Tracy Rogers told the BBC journalist onboard, adding: "It reminds you that as humans, we don't control everything and that the natural world—it's the winner here."

What a stupid thing to say.

If nature had won you would be dead. Maybe an Orca would be munching on your body. At the very least you would be a human humansicle.

[lewislynn]

"It reminds you that as humans, we don't control everything and that the natural world—it's the winner here."

He contradicts his own belief that man can control the climate.

[Politicalkiddo]

“It reminds you that as humans, we don’t control everything and that the natural world—it’s the winner here.”

That’s right. Just like how humans cannot control the earth’s climate patterns.

[MosesKnows]

The real issue is the lengths media has gone in reporting the crisis facing the ship’s passengers without mentioning the expedition's mission.

So many low information folks will know they are stuck in the ice without knowing, asking, or caring what they are doing there in the first place.