Gore Curse Strikes Climate Tour Icebreaker

The excellent climate blog, Watts Up With That?, noticed that a "See it before it's gone!" touring arctic icebreaker was held up on the arctic ice sheet after trying to force its way through the Northwest Passage. The passage is, according to hysterical environmentalists, almost ice-free these days and getting worse.

But not for the climate touring icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. Watts Up With That? has details on the ship and more:

According to Quark Expeditions, they’ve even fitted this icebreaker with a heated indoor swimming pool, exercise room and sauna, and a theater-style auditorium for “Expedition Team presentations” ( presumably so you can watch Gore’s AIT polar bear tears while in situ ). It is quite a difference from the travel conditions that Robert Peary experienced just 99 years ago when he reached the North Pole.

So at least they were comfortable during their melodramatic stay on the ice:

I am on the bridge of the massive Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, and the tension is palpable. We have hit ice - thick ice.

[...]

The ice master studies the mountains of white packed around the ship while the 24,000-horsepower diesel engines work at full throttle to open a path. The ship rises slowly onto the barrier of ice, crushes it and tosses aside blocks the size of small cars as if they were ice cubes in a glass. It creeps ahead a few metres, then comes to a halt, its bow firmly wedged in the ice. After doing this for two days, the ship can go no farther.

The ice master confers with the captain, who makes a call to the engine room. The engines are shut down. He turns to those of us watching the drama unfold, and we are shocked by his words: "Now, only nature can help this ship." We are doomed to drift.

I'm sure the experience was wasted on the passengers. After all, who are they more likely to believe: Al Gore or their own lying eyes?

posted by Gabriel Malor at 11:56 PM

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