LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Keri, Aaron, and the Executive Committee,
I just received your congratu-
latory letter and Pin as a token of appreciation for my forty (40) years of active support of the Institute. I’ve been wearing my existing ‘aging’ AIPG Pin with pride, and I will certainly be glad to replace it with this new ’40 yr.’ badge you have bestowed upon me. Thank you.
I also want to take this oppor- tunity to convey my sincere appreciation to the leadership at National for all the good work you are doing for our Membership, and for representing the benchmark for our ethical standards we strive to uphold as we continue to ‘set the bar’ for practicing a wide range of geo- logical services for the general pub- lic, both here and abroad. I judge that all of the other CPGs before me, and those who come after me, working in our truly fasci- nating, exciting, and influential field, feel likewise. Needless to say, its indeed a privilege to maintain my Membership thus far, and I will optimistically look forward to passing my next milestone within a not-to-distant future! Count on my continued support.
Most Sincerely, Charles Rich, CPG-4433 Dear Editor:
I was very impressed with the content of the letters submitted to the AIPG by both the Undergraduate & Graduate Scholarship Winners. An unsuspected surprise in one of the letters by Spencer Wilbur was the following statement: “Here lies the uniqueness: Geologists are the detectives of an earth unseen.” In my brief stint as an adjunct at Broward Community College in Broward County, Florida, teaching Physical Geology, I used to tell my students that the practice of geology resembles that of a detective. But Spencer phrased it much more eloquently!
Sincerely, Dr. Erik H. Schot, PhD, MEM-2189
Dear Editor:
I was reading the submissions from David Abbott and Peter Dohms in the section on climate change in the second quarter issue of TPG. The point about uncertainty is well taken. Also, of course, as geologists we know that climate changes over time, and for that matter, if large number of species become extinct for any reason, new ones will evolve to take their place with time. It has happened before, is happening now, and could even include us humans someday. The concern with anthropogenic climate change is that we ourselves are negatively impact- ing our own comfort and survival in a dramatic way, and we are a sentient species that should be clever enough to take action. In the past mass extinc-
tions involved enormous volcanic eruptions or meteor impacts, which insurance companies would rank as “Acts of God.” Unfortunately, the drama of the present “Act of Man” is a bit lost when David Abbott’s Figure 2 and Peter Dohms’ graph are viewed separately; they are on very different scales, and an important point can be lost. Below I present Peter Dohms’ graph with the information from David Abbott’s Figure 2 added. The informa- tion in Figure 2 shows that, whatever the uncertainty, the temperature has increased 0.5-1°C in the past 20-30 years. While that is hard to represent on a scale of a diagram representing the past eleven thousand years, I put in a heavy line that represents an aver- age of the two, about 0.75°C, which is only a few times thicker than it ought to be at scale. Then the rest of Figure 2 shows estimates ranging from a very conservative and optimistic 1°C over a span of one hundred years to a possible 5°C. The box I added on the right side of the graph represents a middling fig- ure of 3°C, at approximately the right thickness for 100 years; 5°C would be even more extreme. The sharpest warming trend after the End of the Last Glacial was about 4°C in about
800 years judging from the diagram, whereas we might be heading for up to 5°C in 100 years. Adding this in makes our current warming period look a bit more special. As abrupt warming occurs over the next century sea water expansion plus melting of the ice caps can be reasonably expected to produce something stronger than the average for the past eleven millennia. Worse yet, we have now built important cit- ies along the coastline. In the eight hundred year period following the end of the last glaciation, our Neolithic for- bearers had no problem scooting back to accommodate rising sea levels, but having a similar warming in a tenth of the time today will certainly have a terrible impact, and that is only one aspect of the problem.
Regards, Margaret Venable, CPG-11080
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