Abstract
The many chapters in this volume summarize what glaciers are telling us about how Earth’s climate is changing. To use a very simple analogy, the observed changes in Earth’s glaciers are functioning in the same manner that small caged birds functioned when carried by coal miners into their dangerous underground workplaces. The observed distress of the birds provided a message, if it was properly understood, that indicated phenomena that could cause problems for the miners. In contrast to the mining example, however, the message provided by Earth’s glaciers is complex, and, as documented in this book, it needs to be understood scientifically in terms of the many interacting controls on glacier advances and retreats.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
de Waal, C. (2001) On Peirce, Wordsworth, Belmont, CA.
Haack, S. (2007) Defending Science—Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY.
Lumborg, B. (2001) The Skeptical Environmentalist, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Oreskes, N., and Conway, E.M. (2010) Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, Bloomsbury Press, New York.
Oreskes, N., Schrader-Frechette, K., and Belitz, K. (1994) Verification, validation and confirmation of numerical models in the earth sciences. Science, 263, 641-646.
Pilkey, O.H., and Pilkey-Jarvis, L. (2007) Useless Arithmetic: Why Environmental Scientists Can’t Predict the Future, Columbia University Press, New York, 230 pp.
Pollach, H.N. (2003) Uncertain Science … Uncertain World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Quine, W.V.O. (1951) Two dogmas of empiricism. Philosophical Review, 60, 20-43.
Ridley, M. (2013) Dialing back the alarm on climate change. Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2013.
Sagan, C. (1997) Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium, Random House, New York.
Sarewitz, D., Pielke, R.A., Jr., and Byerly, R., Jr. (Eds.) (2000) Prediction: Science, Decision Making, and the Future of Nature, Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Stephen, L., and Polloch, F. (Eds.) (1901) Lectures and Essays, by the Late William Kingdon Clifford, Macmillan, London.
Switzer, T. (2013) The triumph of Tony Abbott. Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2013.
Ziman, J. (1978) Reliable Knowledge: An Exploration for the Grounds for Belief in Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baker, V.R. (2014). EPILOGUE: Skepticism Versus Fallibilism for Achieving Reliable Science and Wise Policy Decisions. In: Kargel, J., Leonard, G., Bishop, M., Kääb, A., Raup, B. (eds) Global Land Ice Measurements from Space. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79818-7_34
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79818-7_34
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-79817-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-79818-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)