Bonmot

I do not dispute or challenge Dr Olliers knowledge of or expertise in geology but I certainly do challenge his knowledge of glaciology given the statements he makes in his article No Cause for Alarm, put forward as a critique of Le Mesuriers article, The Creeping Menace.

And I am not alone. Four reputable glaciologists show that on four fundamental points, Ollier is wrong. It is worth reading why the consider him misleading and wrong at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/geoscientist/features/page7523.html

In No Cause for Alarm, Ollier makes a number of sweeping statements, such as “increased temperature is supposed to increase sea level mainly by melting the ice-caps, which is impossible”. In other words, ice caps are impervious to temperature, which is clearly nonsense and is shown to be such by Michael Hambrey et al.

Ollier asserts that in reality the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets occupy kilometre-deep basins and that if sliding were operative they could only slide into the basin. This ignores the fact (pointed out by Geoff Davies, Thursday, 11 November 2010 9:27:22 AM) that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is a marine ice sheet largely grounded on the seabed, or that it is exposed to the effects of warmer water currents penetrating the Southern Ocean.

Ollier claims “there is no melting in the interior of ice sheets - it is far too cold”. Again Michael Hambrey et al show that this is a misleading and false assumption and that such melting does occur, a fact also pointed out by Geoff Davies. It is all very well to make claims which fly in the face of empirical evidence which shows that the polar ice caps are loosing ice and that has and will have an effect on seal level. However, such claims have to be supported by evidence and Ollier offers none. Simply saying a thing is so does not make it fact.

As you have pointed out, Olliers membership of the Lavoisier Group does raise suspicions of his scientific claims. All I am doing is drawing attention to the fact that those suspicions are well founded, a conclusion succinctly reached by Ken Fabos (12 Nov).