Enviroment « A Passage through Ice

Category Archive for 'Enviroment'

Arctic sea ice enters melt season!

Posted in Enviroment, Posts by Nick, Uncategorized on Apr 26th, 2012

Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum extent on March 18, ice extent for the month as a whole was higher than in recent years, but still below average. As the melt season begins, researchers look at a variety of factors that may contribute to summer ice melt. While the maximum extent occurred slightly later than average, the new ice growth is very thin and likely to melt quickly.

Ice extent this March ranked ninth lowest out of the 34 years of satellite data for the month, but it was the highest March average ice extent since 2008 and one of the higher March extents in the past decade. Ice cover remained extensive in the Bering Sea, where it has been above average all winter. Ice extent was also higher than average in Baffin Bay, between Greenland and Canada, and the Sea of Okhotsk, east of Russia.

After the near-record melt last summer, second-year ice declined again, but some of the ice that had survived the previous few summers made it through another year, increasing the proportion of third- and fourth-year ice. However the oldest, thickest ice, more than four years old, continued to decline. Ice older than four years used to make up about a quarter of the winter sea ice cover, but now constitutes only 2%. First-year ice (0 to 1 years old) this year makes up 75% of the total ice cover.

It is remarkable that the Arctic has warmed about twice as fast as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere in recent decades and that summer Arctic sea ice has declined by 40%! (Source http://nsidc.org/)

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Humans & Polar Bears

Posted in Enviroment, Posts by Nick on Jan 26th, 2012

Polar explorer Borge Ousland’s approach to protecting himself.

We will be spending as much time as we can, when not navigating ice, exploring isolated islands, mountains and glaciers hiking, climbing and camping in some of the most remote areas of the Arctic. In looking at getting all our land equipment in check we have to consider the places where we are headed to are frequented by polar bears. In planning our trip people are always writing us about arming ourselves against polar bears but we have been looking at different ways of protecting ourselves and the bears we encounter by non-malicious means. This means taking simple precautionary steps such as not camping by shorelines which bears like to follow, to surround camps with a detection system such as trip wires and to carry signal flares and a fog horn to scare the bears away. We are more interested in highlighting the polar bears plight in the midst of a changing Arctic environment.

According to the WWF there are “ 20-25,000 polar bears living in the wild, the species is not currently endangered, but its future is far from certain. In 1973, Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway and the former U.S.S.R. signed the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and their Habitat. This agreement restricts the hunting of polar bears and directs each nation to protect their habitats, but it does not protect the bears against the biggest man-made threat to their survival: climate change. If current warming trends continue unabated, scientists believe that polar bears will be vulnerable to extinction within the next century. To learn more about the topic, read the WWF report Vanishing Kingdom: The Melting Realm of the Polar Bear .”

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Belzebub offsets carbon emissions!

Posted in Enviroment on Nov 28th, 2011

Long before the plans of a unique Arctic passage we had dreams of launching away from a lifestyle that inevitably comes with a large impact on the environment. Sailing has for us, not only been a way to travel and experience adventure but a way to compensate for the emissions we produce in our normal lives. Since the ice conditions of the Arctic make sailing long distances impossible we realized that our voyage would require periods of considerable motoring. None of us were thrilled about burning any amount of diesel in an area of the world that is so pristine and where climate change has made so much of an impact. Our voyage is meant to bring awareness to the changing climate in the Arctic not help that change along. In previous posts we have written about how we bought the most environmentally friendly engine we could find in 2011 to reduce our emissions and now we are also offsetting our CO2.

Our research shows that 1 liter of diesel produces 2,48 kilo of fossil carbon dioxide. If we take account for the whole lifespan of the fuel ( such as emissions caused by refinement and distribution) the emissions are 2,98 Kilo. So we calculate that 1 liter of diesel generates 3 kg of carbon dioxide emissions. We multiply that with the total amount of diesel that we put in our tanks and offset our emissions through the Swedish company Tricorona who are developing UN-approved, Kyoto-certified carbon projects to reduce emissions. These projects are certified by the CDM Gold standard which are recognized by the WWF and Tricorona is the biggest company in its field.

How it works:

Tricorona searches for energy projects that are powered by coal and offer to invest the difference to instead implement the project using a renewable energy source.

The project is carried out and the renewable energy technology is taken into production.

The UN audits the project and calculates the difference in carbon dioxide emissions between the cleaner energy source and the amount of energy that would have been generated had it been produced using dirtier techniques.

The UN keeps track of how many tonnes of “saved emissions” the project delivers and Tricorona receives a certificate for this amount. This is known as Certified Emissions Reduction (CER).

These carbon dioxide credits are sold as climate compensation for companies that are looking to compensate the climate for their carbon dioxide emissions.

The UN registers every tonne of climate compensation with a serial number, which is invalidated when it is sold. This guarantees that each tonne will not be sold more than once – and that the climate will benefit as intended.

http://www.tricoronagreen.se
http://wwf.panda.org

The Belzebub Crew challenges all sailors and sailing expeditions to offset their carbon emissions !

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More lessons from a summer in ice

Posted in Enviroment, Posts by Nick on Nov 10th, 2011

Lesson 6: Phenomena

From our short time at high latitudes we learned allot about the peculiar environment that makes up the North. We thought strange phenomena that we read about would be experienced occasionally but we quickly learned that there was always some peculiar effect at work. While the open ocean and planetarium clarity of the night sky of the South seems foreign enough to many the North makes a sailor constantly question themselves.

While at first some of these phenomena can make you feel uncomfortable and disoriented they are often beautiful and fascinating in nature, as well as serve a vital purpose by providing navigation information in an a place where predictability is rare. Even common meteorological conditions like fog take on a whole new meaning in the North.Fata Morgana, optical haze, water sky and ice blink, coronas, halos, aurora borealis and acoustic phenomena were all experienced on board Belzebub.

The importance of understanding phenomena such as water sky and ice blink which indicates approaching ice or the proximity of open water can play a vital role in ones navigational decisions. A couple of pairs of quality binoculars with solid range finding capabilities can never be underestimated and can also be useful in enjoying a closer look at the northern lights, Fata Morgana and other phenomena.

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Lessons learned from a summer in ice

Posted in Enviroment, Posts by Nick on Oct 22nd, 2011

Lesson 3: Sailing in Ice

We quickly realized how dangerous sailing in ice can be with a fiberglass boat. Even small pieces of ice pose great danger to the boat. We had calm weather around Greenland’s Cape Farvel a luxury not bestowed on many, which allowed us to really test the boat in ice. We first penetrated some lines of brash ice to see how the boat would handle the small bits. We powered through it no problem and the small bow wave managed to move most of it away from the hull of the boat. As we began to enter into areas with more ice we realized that the medium to small growlers posed a particular threat. While small and often easy to overlook these growlers could hit the boat quite hard if not put a hole in the hull. The most dangerous bits being meter sized ball shaped black ice that were impossible to see until the last second due to their dark color and the fact that only a few inches of it protrude from the water.

As we approached into areas with more ice coverage 1-3/10 we would put a man forward with a VHF to communicate back to the cockpit how to best navigate the small bits. In 4-6/10 of ice we would have one person on the bow and one up the mast to get a better perspective and vantage of the shortest way out. We only once ventured into 7-8/10 ice and the pieces of ice were so enormous that we got out of there pretty quickly. We could hear the ice around us squeaking, cracking, stressing and banging like gunshots as they collided and crushed against one another, it was an erie sound. Of course no matter what ice conditions we were in there were always a few massive ice bergs 30-60 feet tall and the size of one or two football fields. For more information on types of ice, ice concentration etc. please click on the Manice picture.

We became quite adept at negotiating the ice but it was tiring and we realized how impossibly dangerous it would be with any waves. We instantly identified the need to improve the way the boat was set up, some of our equipment and how we manged life on board.

We realized that we needed to make more re-inforcements around the hull of the boat. Primarily having a steel stem cap placed on the bow of the boat. We had designed one but time constraints did not allow us to fabricate and install it.
Because of the ice conditions and dense fog we encountered we were able to put our radar to the test and realized that the old radar was not sensitive enough for our needs letting large pieces of ice escape detection making for strenuous watches.
We realized that climbing up and down the mast is not always feasible and that installing a pan-tilt camera could provide us with a full time bird’s eye view of our environment and mitigate the risk of us sailing into a dangerous ice situation.
Anticipating being trapped in ice we will need grappling hooks, ice screws, floating and sinking ropes to negotiate what ever pack ice situation we encounter either at sea or anchored by land.
Finally we realized the toll fatigue had on us and we shortened watches on board from 4 hours to 3 hours which worked very well. While in ice we often found all of us needing to be on deck making for long days and longer nights.

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Lesson learned from a summer in ice

Posted in Enviroment, Heat, Posts by Nick, Safety, Uncategorized on Oct 6th, 2011

Lesson 1: Clothing

It seems really obvious, probably the first thing you think of when you think of going to Norway, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Canada…………..bring really warms cloths!!! We did, we brought several warm hats each, tons of different types of gloves, lots of long underwear, winter clothing and several types of sailing gear but still we were all at one point or another humbled by the weather we were in.

One of the greatest challenges is that often on the boat you assume a position for hours at a time with occasional bursts of action to put a reef in, or shake one out, scan the horizon but regardless of those bouts of effort you are largely static. It is during these periods of time when the wind and damp cold began to penetrate the layers of your clothing.

We started off with four hour watches but after Iceland it became to cold to maintain body temperature for that long so we switched to three hour watches but had to wake the next person on watch half an hour before because it would take them that long to dress into the necessary gear. Often during a watch you would have to make several tips into the boat to top up on warmth grab another pair of gloves or a hat. There were marked differences in temperature when you were a mile from ice or 100 meters away. Often we could feel the ice before we ever saw it.

Bring multiple pairs of everything dampness and or sweat affects everything!

Gloves: Gloves may only last a few hours before you need to change them, bring packs of cheap glove liners that you can insert into the shell whenever they get moist, bring oversize water proof gloves as well as neoprene gloves for working in water

Boots: Normal sailing boots with heavy socks is not a long term viable solution. We found that at least two pairs of insulated water proof boots are needed to keep you nice and toasty warm during watches. A problem with insulated boots it that they take for ever to dry out one the insulation is wet and for next year we are installing air hoses for the Webasto heater to be able to dry out our boots.

Hats: Bring it all 70% of body heat escapes through the head, we had lots of warm hats on board but next time I am also brining earmuffs for under my hat or even a balaclava.

Foul weather gear: We all had two pairs of foul weather gear our normal offshore gear and our amazing hardcore Salus suits that kept us warm in the coldest of nights. However we found that we need a third option in between our foulies and Salus suit possibly a lighter weight flotation suit.

Underwear: we had both wool and synthetic longjohns but after trying the boat we left the synthetic ones in the bag. Sometimes we would go for weeks in the same warm underwear and it felt really nice to have organic material next to the body that didn’t start to smell after 24 hours.

Apart from that we did well with plenty of long underwear and wool sweaters, hoodies and mounds of warm socks.

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