Save

Inference Towards the Best Explanation: Reflections on the Issue of Climate Change

于Israel Journal of Ecology and Evolution
著者:
Robert D. Holt Department of Biology, University of Floridardholt@ufl.edu

Search for other papers by Robert D. Holt in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Download Citation 获得许可

Access options

Get access to the full article by using one of the access options below.

Institutional Login

Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials

Login with Institutional Access

Purchase

Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€36.93

Science is an organized enterprise of inquiry which tries to tie together multiple strands of evidence to craft coherent explanations for disparate patterns in the natural world. Philosophers call this enterprise “inference towards the best explanation”. Such inferences at times depend upon detailed quantitative models, but at times one can rely upon the confluence of multiple strands of qualitative evidence. Humans are having unquestionable influences upon many aspects of the earth system at present, on land, in freshwater systems, and indeed the ocean, including devastating impacts on biodiversity. There are many patterns in the world at present – shrinking glaciers, shifting seasonal patterns in species’ life histories, and altered spatial distributions – which point to the signal of climate change, independent of the details of quantitative climate models. Yet, there are many other factors at play, often confounding clear assessment of the specific role of climate change in observed changes in the world. A deeper synoptic understanding of the drivers and impacts of climate change would be incredibly valuable and is urgently needed, even if in the end (though this seems increasingly unlikely) anthropogenic drivers were not the main factor underlying observed climate change.

内容统计数据

全部期间 过去一年 过去30天
摘要浏览次数 274 35 6
全文浏览次数 20 0 0
PDF下载次数 21 0 0