Full Idea
Reduction is not the same as elimination; if chemists reduce water to H2O, or biologists reduce life to a complex chemical process, they have not shown that they don't exist.
Gist of Idea
If you explain water as H2O, you have reduced water, but not eliminated it
Source
Georges Rey (Contemporary Philosophy of Mind [1997], 1.2.1)
Book Reference
Rey,Georges: 'Contemporary Philosophy of Mind' [Blackwell 1997], p.22
A Reaction
Depends what you mean by 'elimination'. It is important to be clear whether you are eliminating something from life, or from strict philosophical ontology. Ontologists never mention mountains.