Russian geography students rescued from drifting ice floe; lots of fossil fuel burned

With their helicopter grounded by blizzard conditions, the rescuers set off by road, towing a small amphibious boat. Because of poor road conditions, they did not expect to reach the students before midnight. At the same time, the icebreaker Dixon, itself 100km away, set sail course for the students, but found that it could not navigate the shallow waters of the bay for fear of running aground.

Finally, at 9pm, the weather lifted and a Mi-8 naval helicopter left Vaskovo airport.

Global Weirding: [Remember the good old days, before George Bush caused all these temperature swings?]

We have all seen examples of global weirding when it comes to weather, with more and more examples of severe weather, ranging from tornadoes to floods to swings in temperature, including the historic snow storms that much of the nation is experiencing this week. Nature's toll is seen on both land and in our oceans.