Antarctic Summer: 'Unlucky' Ice-in

3rd January 2014, hej

There is much said in the Bible about the God of the Bible controlling the winds, clouds and storms. The servants of God who seek safety, must be protected from storm, and must believe it is in God's power to control stormy wind. With the rescue of an Anglo-Australian team from a Russian research ship, via a Chinese ship, the words of the psalmist come to mind, “Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:” (Psa 148:7-8)

When speaking in Zechariah and Isaiah, the God of the Bible introduced himself as the one who,

“stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.” (Zec. 12:1 cp. Isaiah 44:24 )

From Genesis we know these heavens have water, thus the water laden air of the atmosphere is stretched. Though the scientists still don't know why clouds and storms form where they do, or why the clouds move, and have significant caveats that are not mentioned by the media that report their findings, many still speak more confidently than the evidence allows. As predicted, many in the modern world, the last days, wish to deny the Power of the Creator (2 Tim. 3:5).

On hearing of the ice bound ship, we might ponder the inspired words of the Psalmist,

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves thereof. (Psa 107:23-25)

Or indeed sends winds and a stormy blizzard to make an ice pack 3 to 4 meters thick!

An Antarctic tour commentator said that operators are wary of that area due to ice packs, but the conditions were unusual and the Mawson expedition were “unlucky.” Luck to the faithful is more often than not Providence. The conditions were just cold enough and the wind in the perfect direction to ice the Russian research ship and its Anglo passengers in. Then after that the ice pack continued to increase for 11 kilometres out to sea to be just enough to ice-in the second Chinese ship on the horizon, and for the news to speak much of ice being too thick for that ship.. The conditions were such that a French ship failed to rescue the Russian research ship. “Several attempts to break through to the ship by sea - by the Xue Long, Aurora Australis and French-flagged L'Astrolabe - failed because of the thickness of the ice.” “Andrew Luck-Baker says the Aurora Australis, although big, was simply not up to the task and there is speculation two larger vessels may be coming to the area in the weeks to come.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25573096 BBC

Though the smaller Chinese vessel had made some progress, by the time the Australian icebreaker arrived, the ice had thickened further and an even bigger American ice breaker is sought to be part of the rescue. All the while those trapped by the ice included talkative researchers with Guardian and at least one BBC journalist (Andrew Luck-Baker) guaranteeing maximum exposure of their weakness in the face of weather and the sudden cold... in summer.

The “Spirit of Mawson” expedition to the Antarctic that was stopped by the ice pack was to repeat Mawson's experiments. They were looking for evidence that might support their “global warming” theories (though they might explain away or minimise evidence that didn't support their theory, a not unheard of practice). “Despite being trapped, the scientists continued their experiments, measuring temperature and salinity through cracks in the surrounding ice. One of the aims was to track how quickly the Antarctic's sea ice was disappearing.” BBC

It might be surmised that they were all expecting it to be warm with much less ice this year. Will they report how much ice they saw, and how it increased? How will they explain it?

The weather events have led to their research being curtailed. But even more interesting are the repercussions to other researchers and some Australian journalists. The Aurora Australis, the ship sent to rescue the Russian ship, had acquired 2 Fairfax media journalists who were going to the Antarctic to see first hand “global warming” (and report on it as they made clear in their first report).

They were on board a ship already behind schedule,

Earlier this summer, Aurora Australis itself lost 12 days when it became stuck in pack ice off Davis base during a resupply.

But the Aurora Australis was carrying also research gear,

''Short- and long-term impacts on the Australian science program are pronounced, as you can imagine,'' ..American Joe McConnell said, ''Many of these guys can't complete the research they've been planning for years because some or all of their science gear still is on the Aurora.'' (which went to rescue the stranded ship) SMH

In addition the Chinese are delayed in building their “ambitious” polar stations.

The most remarkable outcome is that the journalists have had much to report, and it was clearly totally unexpected that their story ended up being an international story about fear in the face of the expanding ice... in summer.

After the climate conference of “warming” in Copenhagen in 2008 which was made much of by the world leaders, despite an exposure of data manipulation, there was snow over all of Britain. While there is sorrow in laughter, one has the sense in the timing of the events and the confusion of the proud, that, “He that sits in the heavens laughs: and the Lord has them in derision.” (Psalm 2:4)

And that leads neatly to another psalm, because while these newspapers report on snow on Zion, there is ice cast on their journalists by wind in summer

Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion. For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee. He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

He sends forth his commandment upon earth: his word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool: he scatters the hoarfrost like ashes. He casts forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? (Psalm 147:12-17)

For more see Climate change clouds and conviction

Or Climate: thermostat set point?

The bounds of the sea