Comments by George Philip and M.P. Sah

[John Reynolds]

Dear Colleagues,

 

I am saddened and dismayed by the personal comments made by Mssrs Philip and Sah to my criticisms of aspects of the glacial lake inventories produced by ICIMOD, especially the hazard assessments.

 

I wish to assure Mssrs Philip and Sah and econference participants, and to state categorically in plain English that all can understand, I have absolutely no animosity on any level whatsoever towards any individuals or institutions in Nepal or anywhere else for that matter.  I have worked with Pradeep Mool when he was at WECS and we have met subsequently many times since, and I have also met his other colleagues at ICIMOD and they are all fine people. ICIMOD clearly has an important pan-regional role and I have never ever questioned this.   I have tried, apparently unsuccessfully, to engage in general technical debate through this econference specifically without entering into any debasing of the discussions onto a personal level.  Unfortunately, Mssrs Philip and Sah have put their own interpretation onto the discussions and reduced it now to personal abuse.  I am also saddened that the Moderators have permitted this to be done as it demeans the whole level of the econference.  Mssrs Philip and Sah have made incredibly sweeping comments and derogatory remarks about my input without any supporting justification whatsoever.  This is just insulting and adds nothing to the debate.  Justify your statements (which I know you cannot) or retract them.  If one thing has come out of this econference is that some participants do not appear to know how either to take or give constructive criticism within a professional debate.  This can be addressed by appropriate training and such training should be included by those involved in institutional capacity building for less experienced scientists.

 

Mssrs Philip and Sah give a sycophantic defence of ICIMOD and actually make no technical comment on my contributions but make broad sweeping accusatory personal statements about the apparent lack of "matured scientific reasoning" and "hitting below the belt" and "the tragedy of glaciological research" (what does that mean?).  Mssrs Philip and Sah have made no positive contribution to this econference at all and I would encourage them that if they are or anyone else is to contribute to this econference that they do so by keeping their comments to technical rather than personal issues and debating the issues professionally.  I am also unaware of any technical international journal publications by Mssrs Philip and Shah on the issues being debated and would welcome being told of any so that I can learn.

 

I have kept my arguments entirely technical, my contributions are backed up by technical papers published in international peer-reviewed journals and our track record in the Hindu Kush Himalayas speaks for itself.  I am now receiving emails directed to me personally apologising for the behaviour of others towards my contributions to this econference. 

 

I hope that that as this econference draws to a close that the Moderators are able to extract the positive aspects of this debate and draw some useful conclusions.  I have made contributions intended to move the issues forward, partially by commenting on what has been done in the past, but also raising awareness of material that participants may not know about and might find useful.  If some participants have found this difficult to accept then I am sorry for them.

 

Professor John M. Reynolds

Managing Director

 

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