Escape from summer ice

Many blogs have covered the story that some scientists were caught in summer ice down in the Antarctic. They've been stuck since Christmas. Two rescue vessels (both icebreakers) have failed to reach them so now they are resorting to a helicopter lift out, happening around now.

The weather is getting worse though, not better, so it would be very foolish to continue. It does seem like the reality is sinking in:

The long-awaited rescue came after days of failed attempts to get the passengers off the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which got stuck on Christmas Eve. Blinding snow, strong winds, fog and thick sea ice forced rescuers to turn back time and again.

The scientific team on board had been recreating Australian explorer Douglas Mawson's 1911 to 1913 voyage to Antarctica. Turney had hoped to continue the trip if an icebreaker managed to free the ship.

They will be disappointed. Aside from recreating the trip, early tweets and reports had seen this as a huge opportunity to bring awareness to the world of the rapidly disappearing ice and the threat from man-made global warming. Mother nature hasn't been reading the papers though.

An inconvenient berg

UPDATE: Maybe they need to drop them off in South Australia, currently recording temperatures of up to 49C. That's not warming, that's boiling! Those temperatures are up in the Northern end, and the record was over 50C in 1960, so it could beat that record yet. Down south, in Adelaide, it was somewhere in the twenties.