EPILOGUE: Skepticism Versus Fallibilism for Achieving Reliable Science and Wise Policy Decisions

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.