> Actually, I approximately agree with that. (I would say that we don't > know whether Greenland has passed its tipping point. My intuition says > not, but at this point we are just arguing intuition.)
Well here's last week's press release from NASA GREENLAND ICE SHEET ON A DOWNWARD SLIDE http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/2006/2006101923416.html > I am not retracting what I originally said in this thread. I am just > noticing how, if it is the first thing somebody sees about me, they > might get the wrong idea about how I think and what I thnk about. I am > trying to correct it. > > This is an example of why most professionals go through life saying > nothing at all. I don't choose to do that. > I have no children, by choice, and can afford to take chances. My > position in the scientific world is tenuous as a consequence both of > my firm ethics and of my somewhat lapsed competence. These two are > connected in interesting ways, but it's not a story I care to dissect > publicly. Anyway, I seem to have some ability to frame the issues > well, and that being the case I feel it is my responsibility to try to > do that. This is not without risk or cost. > > I looked over some work I did in my 20s, ca 1978, and I am frankly not > up to that standard right now, at least insofar as depth goes, and > haven't been for at least a decade now. The scientific world doesn't > much value breadth without depth. The problem is that the current breed of scientists do not have breadth. They can't make the connection between fossil beetles from England, hummocky moraines from Scotland, gravel in the sea bed off Ireland, and the quantum effects of molecular collisions. > As Kinky Friedman said recently, "truth is my religion". > > I won't repeat the rest of the quotation here. It is even more > interesting and much funnier than the snippet I offer. I would point > out, though, that Kinky wasn't thinking specifically about Alastair > either. I discovered the truth, but was quickly seduced by fame and the prospect of money. "Fame is the spur that clear spirit that the clear spirit doth raise, That last infirmity of the noble mind." Milton (not Friedman :-) So I have not explained my ideas fully here in case they are stolen. As a result we will all go down together and I'll never get my two Nobel prizes :-( OTOH, I have taken a first step on a more formal route to publishing my ideas. Watch this space! Cheers, Alastair. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
