From Dick Richardson--TX:

Science never proves anything

Well, my nickle's worth has some caveats. I'm a great-grand father; I'm an academician; I grew up ranching and farming, some of my kids still do on the "home place"; I'm a scientist specializing in genetics and resource management (food, air, water, space, collaboration resources; "leave it better than I got it" values); and more. I also don't use my income as a measure of my success, so long as I have "enough" to meet my obligations and quality of life values.

I invest 'heartbeats' more carefully than money.

Science never proves anything, but it relies on the facts and relationships in a complex system as best we can understand the system. This is different from "faith" in that we KNOW scientifically we aren't "fully" correct, anymore than riding a bicycle can be correctly preprogrammed (without watching traffic, for example).

Surviving on a bicycle is more than physics, such as the unexpected bumps. Lots of folks want science to "prove" stuff, but that's left to mathematicians and philosophers who can establish arbitrary truths and falsehoods by logical rules and axioms and theorems. (Genetics I taught a decade ago has dramatically changed and today appears oversimplified and inadequate. It is a science, and knowledge changes.)

Having blurted all this as a lengthy preamble, climate change due to human activities, past and present, is -- at a minimum -- a major factor in what we have underway, and will be unfolding semipredictably. It also is very strongly indicated, from the science available, that we have some control over future change, much like riding a bicycle. But, we can see a need to take drastic steps to avoid a disaster. -- If possible at all, it's an opportunity that is rapidly diminishing. -- The US is a leader in doing political business as usual, with as little adjusting as possible. So are some other nations, but people cannot depend on a government even if it is well intended. (Would any business person or investor allow "the government" to be the CEO?) Allan said something like this the first time I heard him talk, decades ago, and it still makes sense to me.

Allan's discussion alludes to holisticmanagement principles. We need to use all the tools in ways that work in managing complex systems. I could not agree with him more, then and now. This is the kind of thinking, monitoring, managing that matches the quality of life that I want and that I want my friends and family to have opportunities to live. In monitoring the environmental system resource base, climate is a major factor that needs moderating change and reversing the trends. Our decision process should be done with the framework of Holistic Management -- the best I have seen, and the best I can use.

It may not be enough, but if not, it's because our resource base was over extended because we had wasted time (ultimate nonrenewable

resource) and lost opportunities. This is no time to be a skeptic and deny the observations and argue about the "best" explanations. Try any tools, prioritizing those that seem best, monitor, and adjust.

Doing nothing is like Nero, fiddling while Rome burned. We see many who argue and wring their hands instead of fiddling. Neither fiddling or denying is holistically managing. Each of us has a lot of work to do, and changing tools as needed helps get the results needed.

Hope this commentary was not a waste of your heart beats. I wonder ... but I doubt that I'll be around to see the definitive results.

Fulfillment comes from the process of monitoring, modifying, managing MY "whole under management" as best I can. Best wishes for all of the rest of you, for our shared rewards. We're share a common lifeboat.

Dick

Dick Richardson

Professor

The University of Texas at Austin Phone 512-471-4128

Integrative

Biology FAX 512-232-9529

Biology Labs, 114A

1 University Station, Bio 404, MS C-0930

205 W. 24th Street

Austin, Texas 78712-0253

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Ann J. Adams

Director of Educational Products & Outreach

Holistic Management International

1010 Tijeras Ave. NW

Albuquerque, NM 87102

505/842-5252

505/843-7900 (fax)

anna@holisticmanagement.org

www.holisticmanagement.org

healthy land. sustainable future.