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
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
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-221) and index
