What did
these morons expect? Oh, they expected melting ice caps, that's what they expected.
Three British explorers trying to ski to the North Pole to measure the thickness of sea ice only have one day's food left as bad weather hampers supply flights, the mission said Tuesday.
Project director and ice team leader Pen Hadow and his colleagues Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels are now down to half rations and fighting to survive in brutal sub-zero weather conditions.
"We're hungry, the cold is relentless, our sleeping bags are full of ice and, because we're not moving, the colder we get," Hadow said Tuesday in a statement from the London headquarters of the Catlin Arctic Survey.
"Waiting is almost the worst part of an expedition as we?re in the lap of the weather gods. This is basic survival."
Of course they were told
how much melting was going on, so I guess they just weren't prepared.
The unique expedition was prompted by this chilling prospect: The Arctic ice cap is melting at an unprecedented rate, which may lead to a dramatic shift in average global temperatures.
"In 2007, sea ice loss was the worst in recorded history," said oceanographer Kate Moran, professor of oceanography and ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island.
The last time that scientists can say confidently that the Arctic was free of summertime ice was 125,000 years ago, according to the Web site of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
All that could vanish within our lifetime, warn climate scientists, who predict that the Arctic sea ice in the summer season could be gone between 2013 and 2040.
Battling the daily grind of the brutal Arctic terrain, explorers Pen Hadow, 46; Ann Daniels, 44; and Hartley, 40, are in the second week of their 100-day journey to the top of the world.
If they die, I'll blame Al Gore.
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