So sad. A Canadian arctic research expedition to study "climate change" (always meaning global warming) has been derailed. Why? Heavy ice. However, readers of the CBC News account of the story are left in the dark as to the exact nature of the expedition that is not to be this year. Fortunately, a quick search has turned up a Daily Kos Kossack who is a member of that attempted expedition who was happily chirping out what it is all about last Thursday.
Here is the CBC News report that tells what happened to the Canadian Coast guard cutter without telling us what the expedition was about:
A carefully planned, 115-day scientific expedition on board the floating research vessel, the CCGS Amundsen, has been derailed as the icebreaker was called to help resupply ships navigate heavy ice in Hudson Bay.
"Obviously it has a large impact on us," says Martin Fortier, executive director of ArcticNet, which coordinates research on the vessel. "It's a frustrating situation."
During the summer, the Amundsen operates as a floating research centre with experiments running 24 hours a day. This year it was scheduled to reach North Baffin Bay.
But the icebreaker has been rerouted to escort commercial ships en route to resupply communities in Northern Quebec on the eastern side of Hudson Bay.
Johnny Leclair, assistant commissioner for the Coast Guard, said Tuesday conditions in the area are the worst he's seen in 20 years.
With only two icebreakers available in the Arctic — the CCGS Pierre Radisson has been escorting resupply ships through ice-choked Frobisher Bay — he said the only option was to re-deploy the Amundsen.
So exactly WHAT was the purpose of that 115-day scientific expedition in which the CCGS Amundsen was supposed to act as research vessel? CBC News is apparently too embarrassed to tell us so let us check in with Kossack MarineChemist, the screen name of Jay T. Cullen who when not posting on that far left site is Associate Professor of marine chemistry at the University of Victoria in British Columbia:
From July 10 to August 20 I will be aboard the CCGS Amundsen working with a group of scientists to better understand how climate change in the Arctic is affecting important physical, biological and chemical processes and conditions in the marine environment.
...From time to time I will update on our progress and share a little about life and work on a science icebreaker.
So will your next update tell us how you are stuck in port idly playing Yukon Hold'em to kill the time while your icebreaker research vessel spends the rest of July breaking ice?
