Description
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 disposal practices, poisoned mining sites, unjustifiable faith in predicted sea level rise rates, bad predictions of future shoreline erosion rates, overoptimistic cost estimates of artificial beaches, and a host of other problems. The authors demonstrate how many modelers have been reckless, employing fudge factors to assure "correct" answers and caring little if their models actually worked.
About the Author
Orrin H. Pilkey is the James B. Duke Professor of Geology emeritus and director emeritus of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. He has written numerous books, including A Celebration of the World's Barrier Islands, and is the editor of the twenty-four-volume series, Living with the Shore.Linda Pilkey-Jarvis is a geologist in the State of Washington's Department of Ecology, where she helps manage the state's oil spills program.
Reviews
This book is a welcome antidote to the blind use of supposedly quantitative models. -- Carl Wunsch American Scientist This is an easy and persuasive read. -- Fred Pearce New Scientist Useless Arithmetic dispels many myths and is a 'must read' packing in case studies and insights on faulty thinking. The Midwest Book Review [This] readily accessible book should be read by any activist who's ever had to face off against the opposition's engineers. Earth Island Journal A concise, powerful, and readable book. -- Steven R. Carpenter Issues in Science and Technology This book should be in every library... Essential. Choice Useless Arithmetic will surely excite any reader. -- David Simberloff BioScience
Awards
Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2007.
Book Information
ISBN 9780231132121
Author Orrin H. Pilkey
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press