[extropy-chat] bancroft and arnesen's ill fated journey

[spike]

Outside magazine was hyping this, but all the websites they linked have been
taken down.  I can't find enough details on the web to verify if this story
is true, but that last comment at the bottom was just too hilarious to have
been uttered in seriousness:


http://www.physorg.com/news92982598.html



Monday, March 12, 2007 11:01 p.m. EDT
Cold Chills Global Warming Expedition

An expedition designed to show how global warming is heating the Arctic had
to be called off after one of the explorers got frostbite, thanks to
incredibly frigid temperatures that got as low as 100 degrees below zero. 

Explorers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen planned to make a 530-mile journey on
foot across the Arctic Ocean, but they had to call off the trek after
Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold
temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment. 

According to The Associated Press, they had planned to call in regular
updates to school groups by satellite phone and had planned online posts
with photographic evidence showing the alleged effects of global warming on
the Arctic regions. On their Web site www.bancroftarneson.com they claim
that "Arctic climate is now warming rapidly" and added that "much larger
changes are projected." 

The cold truth, however, got in the way - the climate in the allegedly
warming Arctic area turned out to be bitterly cold according to spokeswoman
Ann Atwood, who helped organize the expedition. She told the AP that the two
measured the temperature inside their tent at 58 degrees below zero one
night, while outside temperatures were exceeding an astounding 100 below
zero at times. 

"My first reaction when they called to say there were calling it off was
that they just sounded really, really cold," Atwood said. She added that
Bancroft and Arnesen were applying hot water bottles to Arnesen's foot every
night, but had to wake up periodically because the bottles froze.

Atwood admitted there was some irony that a trip to call attention to global
warming had to be called off in part by extreme cold temperatures. 

"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global
warming," Atwood said. "But one of the things we see with global warming is
unpredictability." 

C NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.

Other citations include the unpredictability comment.

http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/technology/index.ssf?/base/national-7/1173
735570157370.xml&storylist=technology

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2944880

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070312/ap_on_sc/polar_trek_1