Science must evolve to tackle the challenges of warming, researchers say

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/agu-2008/science-must-evolve

Science must evolve to tackle the challenges of warming, researchers say

16 December 2008

By Harvey Leifert
For the Daily Climate

SAN FRANCISCO – As the science of climate change matures and the need to prepare for its consequences presses, scientists must change their focus to advise local and regional leaders on how best to adapt to a warmer future, two senior climate researchers said Monday.

"We need to change the way we do our climate science," said Jonathan Overpeck, director of the Environmental Studies Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

"Rather than being curiosity driven, we need to be end-user driven."

…

The need is urgent, Overpeck said, particularly given climate-induced changes already underway. The United States is drying out, with fewer days of rainfall in most regions as compared with decades past. And the Pacific Ocean could lap the streets of Sacramento, California’s inland capital, if the sea rises two meters – a possible scenario for the coming century, he said.

…

[The2ndWheel]

1. A lot of must's in there

I'm not sure if must is part of any evolutionary process. Not something you really force to happen.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Sure, evolution is forced all of the time

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=stryer.section.194

2.2. Evolution Requires Reproduction, Variation, and Selective Pressure

Once the necessary building blocks were available, how did a living system arise and evolve? Before the appearance of life, simple molecular systems must have existed that subsequently evolved into the complex chemical systems that are characteristic of organisms. To address how this evolution occurred, we need to consider the process of evolution. There are several basic principles common to evolving systems, whether they are simple collections of molecules or competing populations of organisms. First, the most fundamental property of evolving systems is their ability to replicate or reproduce. Without this ability of reproduction, each “species” of molecule that might appear is doomed to extinction as soon as all its individual molecules degrade. For example, individual molecules of biological polymers such as ribonucleic acid are degraded by hydrolysis reactions and other processes. However, molecules that can replicate will continue to be represented in the population even if the lifetime of each individual molecule remains short.

A second principle fundamental to evolution is variation. The replicating systems must undergo changes. After all, if a system always replicates perfectly, the replicated molecule will always be the same as the parent molecule. Evolution cannot occur. The nature of these variations in living systems are considered in Section 2.2.5.

A third basic principle of evolution is competition. Replicating molecules compete with one another for available resources such as chemical precursors, and the competition allows the process of evolution by natural selection to occur. Variation will produce differing populations of molecules. Some variant offspring may, by chance, be better suited for survival and replication under the prevailing conditions than are their parent molecules. The prevailing conditions exert a selective pressure that gives an advantage to one of the variants. Those molecules that are best able to survive and to replicate themselves will increase in relative concentration. Thus, new molecules arise that are better able to replicate under the conditions of their environment. The same principles hold true for modern organisms. Organisms reproduce, show variation among individual organisms, and compete for resources; those variants with a selective advantage will reproduce more successfully. The changes leading to variation still take place at the molecular level, but the selective advantage is manifest at the organismal level.

…

[The2ndWheel]

3. That's what you and I seem to be doing

Our varying ideas are competing on a computer screen as we attempt to replicate them, ultimately going nowhere. However, neither of us is saying the other must do anything. Evolution works in 360 degrees. There is no single way of doing things. There is no single way of evolving. To say that anything must evolve is almost to imply that whatever we call evolution isn't happening all the time, to one degree or another. To say that we must do this or that is even taking the 2nd and 3rd principle out of any equation, as variation and competition, for good or bad, are then not allowed to do whatever it is that they will do. They still happen though, which is why we get those unintended consequences.

The inefficiency of diversity. That seems to be the core problem in everything we do.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Are you familiar with the theory of memetics?

Our varying ideas are competing on a computer screen as we attempt to replicate them, ultimately going nowhere. …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics