Bart,
I love your enthusiasm but have to kind of recoil at your scientific
absolutism. I'm an old guy now, retired both from academia and industrial
construction and returned to my roots as a farmer, but one of the things I
learned during my university days was that when talking about things like
the formation of the Amazon rainforest we are dealing with theories. You
are probably right on as far as current theory is concerned but current
theory can change so fast it leaves your head spinning. What we believed
to be "fact" about the peopling of the Western Hemisphere 20 years ago is
hardly worth discussing today. The changes in our understanding of the
physical world during the 20th century was breath-taking. The changes that
will take place during the 21st century, if we survive it, are likely to be
even more spectacular. What you say about the rainforest may be valid or
it may be hogwash but one thing is certain, that theory should not be our
basis for decisions of how fast to log that forest. Bart, even that
portion of Western Civilization for which we have written records is
reinterprted by each generation of historians, and each generation uses
pretty much the same documents to "prove" that their theory is correct. We
all could use a little humility, especiually that clown who criticized you.
Don Maroc
Vancouver Island, Canada
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