Climate change is causing more trouble as a Canadian research was cancelled due to, guess what -- climate change. The first leg of the 2017 Expedition project of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen was dropped due to the hazardous motion of the Arctic sea.
The study worth $17 million should span for four years and involves about 40 scientists from five different universities. However, there is no assessment available yet as to how the delay will impact the course of the study.
Due to extreme ice conditions, the ship may arrive too late on site to perform the research objectives of this leg. This led the team to cancel the climate change study to avoid wasting efforts.
The Canadian researchers, in partnership with various international team, have monitored and observed the Arctic marine and coastal ecosystems since 2003. Any further study will help the scientific community further understand the effects of climate change not only to the Arctic region but also in the world.
The team already anticipated the extreme conditions on the location and have already requested to start the journey six days in advance. This will give them ample time to deal with marine safety and security operations due to severe ice conditions. However, as it turned out, the conditions are far worse than expected. Inadequate ship and management issues eventually led to the cancellation of the Canadian climate change research. The safety concerns and risks are just too high to proceed any further at that time. The decision terminated the 2017 leg of the program.
"Considering the severe ice conditions and the increasing demand for Search And Rescue operations (SAR) and ice escort, we decided to cancel the BaySys mission," Dr. David Barber, Expedition Chief Scientist and BaySys Scientific Lead, said in a statement. "A second week of delay meant our research objectives just could not be safely achieved - the challenge for us all was that the marine ice hazards were exceedingly difficult for the maritime industry, the CCG, and science."
The team managed to use their innovative equipment to assess the situation. Furthermore, they believe that the condition will only get worse. The Arctic sea ice is not only thinning but it's increasing its mobility. This means the ice conditions can cause more severe situations in the future.