Ice shelf climb-down

[James Heartfield]

Surprisingly, the keen students of ice shelf tectonics on this list have 
failed to keep up with the story. The Guardian newspaper, from which the 
original story was clipped published a retraction in today's edition.

They say that they exaggerated the size of the ice shelf by six times, 
and its weight by one million times! (Corrections, Guardian 21 March, 
2002)

If any of the new recruits to ice shelf preservation were genuinely 
interested in the issue, wouldn't they have noticed this report? What 
would one make of an economist, politician or engineer who made errors 
of a factor of one million? To say the least that they were 
untrustworthy?

But green insincerity is not about scientific knowledge, and so is 
indifferent to the weight of factual evidence. Instead factoids must be 
mobilised in support of a preconceived idea: that the consumption goods 
of the masses must be held down at all costs.

I fully expect a score of postings to the effect that it does not matter 
what size the collapsing ice shelf was. And indeed it does not.
-- 
James Heartfield
Sustaining Architecture in the Anti-Machine Age is available at GBP19.99, plus
GBP5.01 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London,
E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'. www.audacity.org