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Bestseller
BestsellerE-Book
Author Pilkey, Orrin H., 1934-

Title Useless arithmetic : why environmental scientists can't predict the future / Orrin H. Pilkey and Linda Pilkey-Jarvis.

Publication Info. New York : Columbia University Press, [2007]
©2007

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Location Call No. Status
 Rocky Hill - Downloadable Materials  EBSCO Ebook    Downloadable
Rocky Hill cardholders click here to access this title from EBSCO
Description 1 online resource (xv, 230 pages) : illustrations, maps
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-221) and index.
Contents Preface -- 1. Mathematical fishing -- 2. Mathematical models : escaping from reality -- 3. Yucca Mountain : a million years of certainty -- 4. How fast the rising sea? -- 5. Following a wayward rule -- 6. Beaches in an expected universe -- 7. Giant cups of poison -- 8. Invasive plants : an environmental apocalypse -- 9. A promise unfulfilled -- Appendix -- References -- Index.
Note Print version record.
Summary Writing for the general, nonmathematician reader and using examples from throughout the environmental sciences, Orrin Pilkey and Linda Pilkey-Jarvis show how unquestioned faith in mathematical models can blind us to the hard data and sound judgment of experienced scientific fieldwork. They begin with the extinction of the North Atlantic cod on the Grand Banks of Canada, and then they discuss the limitations of many models across a broad array of crucial environmental subjects. Case studies depict how the seductiveness of quantitative models has led to unmanageable nuclear waste disposa.
Subject Environmental protection -- Decision making -- Mathematics.
Environmental policy -- Mathematics.
Ecology -- Mathematical models.
SCIENCE -- Environmental Science (see also Chemistry -- Environmental)
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Environmental Policy.
SCIENCE -- Environmental Science.
Milieukunde.
Wiskundige modellen.
Added Author Pilkey-Jarvis, Linda.
Other Form: Print version: Pilkey, Orrin H., 1934- Useless arithmetic. New York : Columbia University Press, ©2007 0231132123 9780231132121 (DLC) 2006009632 (OCoLC)65207068
ISBN 9780231506991 (electronic bk.)
0231506996 (electronic bk.)
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