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An air rescue for the passengers aboard a research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice for a week will wait for a break in the weather to start airlifting people from the vessel, Australian maritime authorities say. The 74 scientists, tourists and crew aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy, a Russian-crewed research vessel touring the Antarctic, have been trapped in ice since Christmas Eve. A helicopter on board a Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, will be used to collect the passengers once there is a break in the weather, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a Monday night conference...

ABOARD XUELONG, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese helicopter Xueying (Snow Eagle) on board the icebreaker Xuelong has been prepared for the airlift of trapped passengers on a Russian vessel stuck in sea ice off Antarctica, Xueying captain Jia Shuliang told Xinhua on Wednesday. "The crew members have been readied to transport the 52 scientists and tourists aboard MV Akademik Shokalskiy with their luggage to Xuelong in groups of 12," Jia said. According to the rescue plan, six crew members will be split into three two-person teams, respectively responsible for flying the helicopter and guaranteeing the ground service on board Xuelong...

Here is a video (at the link) of the climate scientists throwing a New Year's party while other risk their ships to drag them to safety.

A rescue mission for a ship trapped in ice in Antarctica is under threat as reports have emerged that one of the assisting vessels may itself be stuck.Fifty-two passengers and four crew members were due to be evacuated by helicopter from China's Xue Long ship as soon as conditions allowed. However, the Xue Long has barely moved in a day and may be stuck in the ice.

Turney later told FoxNews.com the ice surrounding his ship is old, rather than recently formed, and likely from a particular 75 mile-long iceberg that broke apart three years ago. Climate change may have prompted the iceberg to shatter and float into the previously open sea where the mostly Australian team finds itself stranded, Turney said.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Passengers and crew aboard a Russian ship trapped for eight days in ice off Antarctica planned to ring in the New Year with dinner, drinks and song as they waited for a break in a blizzard to allow a Chinese helicopter to rescue them. But they can't party too hard because the rescue could come at any minute. The Akademik Shokalskiy, trapped since December 24 about 100 nautical miles east of a French Antarctic station, Dumont D'Urville, and about 1,500 nautical miles south of Tasmania, welcomes the New Year at 1100 GMT, two hours ahead of Sydney....

Cloud impact on climate sensitivity unveiled Global average temperatures will rise at least 4°C by 2100 and potentially more than 8°C by 2200 if carbon dioxide emissions are not reduced according to new research published in Nature. Scientists found global climate is more sensitive to carbon dioxide than most previous estimates. The research also appears to solve one of the great unknowns of climate sensitivity, the role of cloud formation and whether this will have a positive or negative effect on global warming. “Our research has shown climate models indicating a low temperature response to a doubling of carbon dioxide...

The helicopter rescue crew is coming to take me away, ha-haaa! They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa! To the funny farm. Where I can find banana peanut butter milkshakes sprinkled with delicious carbon credits. We thought it was a joke and so we laughed, we laughed when I had said that proving global warming had trapped us in ice and that I'm going MAD!!! And U.K. Guardian reporter Laurence Topham has proclaimed himself going mad (along with his craving for banana peanut butter milkshakes) in this rather morose video diary in which he discovers that that the...

A funny thing happened during Australian climate-change professor Chris Turney's venture to retrace a 1912 research expedition in Antarctica and gauge how climate change has affected the continent: Two weeks into a five-week excursion, Turney's good ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy got trapped in ice. It turns out, global warming notwithstanding, that there's so much ice down under that two ice-breaking vessels sent to rescue the research team cannot reach the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Years ago, global warming believers renamed the phenomenon "climate change" - probably because of pesky details like unusually cold weather undercutting the warming argument. Now, just as...

Global Warming Fanatics Trapped In Antarctica Summer Sea Ice Release Statement Saying “Sea Ice Is Disappearing Due To Climate Change”…

(Reuters) - A kind of rock that often contains diamonds has been found in Antarctica for the first time, hinting at mineral riches in the vast, icy continent where mining is banned.

Severe Antarctic weather was slowing an Australian icebreaker's bid to reach a Russian ship trapped in ice since Christmas eve with 74 people onboard, the Australian maritime rescue agency said on Monday. The Aurora Australis was currently about 11 nautical miles from the stranded Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy, said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which is co-ordinating the rescue. "The area is currently experiencing snow showers, resulting in poor visibility. The Aurora Australis is travelling slowly due to the conditions to ensure the safety of all on board," AMSA said in a statement. AMSA had earlier expected the Aurora...

<p>After nearly a week trapped by deep Antarctic ice, the 74 passengers aboard an expedition vessel could soon be freed.</p> <p>But based on the troubles of the last few days, no one's sure exactly when that might happen.</p> <p>An Australian icebreaker ship Aurora Australis is headed toward the Russian-flagged vessel and is expected to arrive around midnight (8 a.m. ET) Sunday, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.</p>

(CNN) -- A Chinese ship trying to reach a trapped expedition vessel in Antarctica has now become hampered by ice itself. The Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, was just six nautical miles away from the Russian-flagged vessel when it became obstructed by heavy ice. Even the icebreaker could not break through the floe, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said Saturday. "We have been waiting for better weather and ice conditions since last night," Zhao Yanping, second captain of the Xue Long, told CNN. "Xue Long is not moving forward but we're not stuck." The Chinese crew was hoping...

Somewhere far, far to the south where it is summer, a group of global warming scientists are trapped in the Antarctic ice. If you missed the irony of that situation, it is because much of the mainstream media has glossed over that rather inconvenient irony. As an example here is an Associated Press story that avoids mentioning the real mission of the scientists aboard the icebound Russian ship: The Snow Dragon icebreaker came within 7 miles (11 kilometers) of the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been stuck since Christmas Eve, but had to retreat after the ice became...

Almost one hundred years after a group of explorers set out across the frozen landscape of Antarctica to set up supply depots for famed explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, a box of 22 never-before-seen exposed but unprocessed negatives taken by the group’s photographer has been unearthed in one of those shacks, preserved in a block of ice.

Explanation: How cold can it get on Earth? In the interior of the Antarctica, a record low temperature of -93.2 °C (-135.8 °F) has been recorded. This is about 25 °C (45 °F) colder than the coldest lows noted for any place humans live permanently. The record temperature occurred in 2010 August -- winter in Antarctica -- and was found by scientists sifting through decades of climate data taken by Earth-orbiting satellites. The coldest spots were found near peaks because higher air is generally colder, although specifically in depressions near these peaks because relatively dense cold air settled there and...

Junk Science: Researchers have discovered a chain of smoldering active volcanoes under the West Antarctic ice sheet — which happens to be the ice sheet that climate hysterics say is proof of man-caused global warming. The 2004 science fiction movie "The Day After Tomorrow" — and the operative word here is "fiction" — opened with a portion of the West Antarctic ice sheet shearing off as a prelude to planetary doom. But if the researchers depicted in the film had looked deep into the widening crevice, they might have noticed a string of active volcanoes lurking under nearly a mile...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Feeling chilly? Here's cold comfort: You could be in East Antarctica which new data says set a record for "soul-crushing" cold. Try 135.8 degrees Fahrenheit below zero; that's 93.2 degrees below zero Celsius, which sounds only slightly toastier. Better yet, don't try it. That's so cold scientists say it hurts to breathe.

Poor Global Warming just can’t catch a break. Planetary temperatures aren’t cooperating, nor is the rate of sea level rise, and now even West Antarctica seems to be gouging James Hansen in the eye.