Reply #60: Very good reading!

[DLnyc]

Long but worth every word.

(snip)
But the lack of tested projections is not to say that large parts of Greenland may not have already passed their "tipping point", just because there are not strict, verifiable models to support the assertion. The same was true of the Arctic sea ice, which was why the conservatism of the scientific method meant that there was a failure to predict the events until they were all but upon us, at which point even those scientists who had speculated as to what was about to happen were "shocked" at the sea ice loss in the northern summer of 2007.

Thus James Hansen identifies a "scientific reticence" that "in at least spme cases, hinders communication with the public about dangers of global warming...Scientific reticence may be a consequence of the scientific method. Success in science depends on objective skepticism. Caution, if not reticence, has its merits. However, in a case such as ice sheet instability and sea level rise, there is a danger in excessive caution. We may rue reticence, if it serves to lock in future disasters" (Hansen, 200a).
(snip)