"State of Fear" - Michael Crichton

Madpaddy · Expert Joined: Jun 25, 2004 Posts: 2128

I'm just about to finish the book "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton.

It is well worth a read as it confronts many of the popular beliefs surrounding global warming and rubbishes them. The author IMO is selective in his arguements but the book is still worth a read. Here is one (contoversial) review;

http://varifrank.com/archives/2005/01/michael_crichto.php

mrflora · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 115

You should read "Michael Crichton's State of Confusion":

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=74

and "Michael Crichton's State of Confusion II: Return of the Science":

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=76

It turns out that Crichton gets just about everything wrong.

Regards,
M.R.F.

ChicknLittle · Heavy Crude Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 115

TheTurtle

Too many good books out there to waste my time reading Crichton's propaganda. Mad

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mgibbons19 · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Aug 20, 2004 Posts: 1089

I'm with the crazy mick. As I said on the other thread devoted to this text, I loved it. I know for damn sure that a lot of the discourse surrounding global warming is NOT scientific. As such I enjoyed the footnoting and citing. That we shouldn't read it because it might be inconvenient to our worldview? Well, that sounds like religous bullshit to me. sorry.

TheTurtle

Colorado-Valley · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 733

Chrichton has created a goldmine on the U.S. speaking circuit. Do a little research on his new career. He's in huge demand among certain groups.

All you have to do to become a highly paid speaker is find a topic that will be loved by conservative businessmen, and then get paid huge amounts of money going around the country pandering to their biases and hostility toward science and ecology.

It's very common in America to compromise your principles in the hope of making the big bucks. Maybe "common" is too cautious a word. It's how we function ...

thuja

Most of the world would desperately love Global Warming to go away; or at least to think that human beings are not the cause of it. Because if we are involved, which most of the scientific community believes, than we have to radically change how we are living and acting on this planet. Michael Crichton fills a needed niche of selectively arguing against the GW/human causation theory.

So voila, a huge sector of corporate rightists, anti-environmentalists and Rush Limbaugh Republicans will swoop up this book in the millions and pay him huge fees to speak to them and tell them its ok you don't have to worry or change anything you're doing. Sounds like it was a niche needing to be filled. Of course the world is filled with denialists right now. Its one of the main reasons no one knows, or wants to know, about Peak Oil.

Rincewind

The issue of what science and technologies get accepted by societies is an interesting one.

My rule of thumb is:

If a scientific result or a technology sustains or enhances the current paradigm (consume consume consume) - it is Good science or a good technology

If If a scientific result or a technology questions the sustainability or provides an alternative to the current paradigm - it is Bad or Junk science

justgas · Tar Sands Joined: Dec 06, 2005 Posts: 24

I find it interesting that people are more willing to believe that humans presently have the ability to create tsunamis, lighting strikes, flash floods and other environmental disasters just when and where we want them rather than believe that we are have the ability to prevent or slow down climate change.

As far as I know we cannot create tsunamis or flash floods. The science on whether we can cause enough shifts in the global climates to make life miserable for many of us might be less than totally convincing, but it should be more believable than the giant tsunamis making cavitation machine that Crichton made up.

mgibbons19 · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Aug 20, 2004 Posts: 1089

In all fairness, I would suspect that those who are agnostic on global warming probably are not those who think the tsunami was a US military creation.

Madpaddy · Expert Joined: Jun 25, 2004 Posts: 2128

The good thing about this book is it made me look up and actually study global warming and the effects of manmade pollution rather than casually accept that man is a parasite and deserves to die off in large numbers to allow Gaia to revert to a healthy equilibrium. I was very like the lawyer character Peter Evans who could give no scientific references for his beliefs.

One thing I did learn from the book is that nature is chaotic and is never in equilibrium as seen by the well meaning but tragic attempts to maintain Yellowstone park in the condition that it was in 1880.

Using the book as a basis for government inaction on the environment is even more tragic however. I agree that it is the activities of man that are probably causing adverse climate change. It seems obvious that belching billions of tonnes of s..t into the atmosphere is bound to be harmful.

Finally, having Crichton testify in front of the senate on global warming is farcical. At the end of the day as was pointed out, he is just a writer.
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gg3

You're about to go on a long drive, in a car with no gas gauge, into an area where there are no gas stations. One of your passengers says you might run out of gas and you should fill up before you leave town. The other passenger says there's plenty of gas so you should just get on your way and not worry about it. Who do you listen to?

Hint: How many peer-reviewed papers has Michael Crichton published in scientific journals....?

Case CLOSED.

Doly · Expert Joined: Dec 03, 2004 Posts: 4041

Battle_Scarred_Galactico · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 07, 2005 Posts: 970

Check out his next book, "Big Business Whore, Sucking for Money!" It's tipped to be a best-seller.
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