The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future
The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future – Review
One of the most important parts of science shows on page 174 of The Two-Mile Time Machine by Richard B. Alley: ALL technical ideas are subject to revision; we should never be absolutely sure that the truth has been eventually reached. Old ideas should be tested continually, in an effort to tear them down and replace them with better ones. Ideas that survive this frequent attack will be especially robust. Experience proves that if we behave as if these living ideas are true, we will succeed…. But, on the other hand, the ideas may be true, they may be rational approximations of the truth, or we may just be lucky. In science, no idea, be it speculation, hypothesis, theory, law, model, or FACT, is still considered to be the definitive answer. That’s the way science works. We ALWAYS act on vague answers; we never know if something is the truth with a capital T. The Two-Mile Time Machine is not only an brilliant exposition of the use of ice core [and other] data to figure out the recent and future climate situation on Earth, but it is an brilliant exposition of how science in common works. Richard B. Alley, a contributing scientist in the GISP2 ice core project in Greenland, has written an easy-to-read, but pull-no-punches book on a extremely complicated technical topic. The book begins out with the basics of coring, dating, and considering ice, and takes the reader through to the political, social, and moral consequences of future climate changes, and concludes with Alley’s take on what our responses should be. He always states how much uncertainty is permanently attached to any of the ideas he writes about. If a part of a non-scientific background is originally going to have a complaint about the book, it will probably be that the book becomes into too much detail about the evidence supporting the ideas. This book is warmly recommended to anybody interested in Earth history, climate, Arctic research, the systems of science, and anybody who wants an outstanding science announce. The book is particularly recommended to anybody interested in or actively involved in the debate over the future of the Earth’s climate. All people included in this issue need to UNDERSTAND the technical details. The problem of the Earth’s climate future has become way too politicized. Our actions are always based on ideas that have some degree of uncertainty, but we must act, because the future of humanity will depend on what we do.