Andy Revkin has posted an attack on the researchers who sailed into infamy in the Antarctic on the ill-fated MV Akademik Shokalskiy.
He is using terms like “bungled trip” , “unessential expedition” , “misadventure”, “distraction from serious research” and “tarnish the wider field of Antarctic science”.
But reading between the lines, it is clear to me what Revkin is really trying to say.
1) He has never gone to Antarctica and therefore managed to avoid reporting on record sea ice in Antarctica.
2) The attention brought to record sea ice in Antarctica has “energized climate change contrarians“.
I would translate the term “distraction from serious research” as meaning “brought attention to the wrong pole” … the one with record sea ice.
If the bunglers in charge of the expedition had found open water and managed to blame it on climate change, he would have jumped in with both feet trumpeting their success.
sunshine hours 