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    Crichton's 'State of Fear' Brings Skepticism and Derision (from Climate   
   Scientists, naturally enough)   
   Posted by : wah on Monday, January 03, 2005 - 07:46 PM   
   	 		   
    	   
    We had a big long post on some of the latest developments in the global   
   warming arena back here. Today we are focusing on a bit of skeptical fiction   
   along the same lines. To wit: (via the Sunday Times (UK))   
   A giant wave envelops a tropical island. Victims scramble for survival. The   
   world watches in horror. Michael Crichton has a knack for novels that are of   
   the moment, but never has his fiction collided so savagely and swiftly with   
   reality. Until now, with State of Fear, the Jurassic Park author?s latest   
   blockbuster.   
      
   As befits one of the world?s top-selling authors, there is a monster twist in   
   the book. So while the real tsunami was a product of nature, Crichton?s   
   fictional one was started secretly by obsessive environmentalists trying to   
   frighten the world into believing that global warming is about to cause the   
   apocalypse.   
   Unfortunately for such a topic, we have now politicized various stances on the   
   science, which is not a good thing. The problem with politics is that it often   
   forces people to be combative and divisive when they need to be open-minded and   
   understanding. We see the politics here sneak in and wreak havoc on both sides.   
   Forget limousine liberals, Crichton?s new target is ?Gulfstream   
   environmentalists?.   
      
   ?I am asked to discuss it ? the kind of ?Why are you a heretic?? conversation,?   
   he says. ?Often they are in the entertainment industry and on the boards of   
   environmental groups. It soon becomes clear they have no information, only   
   attitudes.?   
      
   Two developments persuaded Crichton to abandon his Californian liberal world   
   view. One was in 2002 having a gun held to his head by burglars, who tied up   
   Taylor, his daughter, then aged 13. ?They told me not to move and I figured it   
   was best not to argue,? he says. It convinced him we must be tougher on bad   
   guys, be they cat burglars or Saddam Hussein.   
      
   His second awakening was seeing that scientists had become so cowed by   
   environmental activists and the media that they dared not proclaim what their   
   research showed: that, so far, it appears global warming is hardly happening.   
   My general caveat with this phrase is that 'hardly happening' is still   
   happening. And also, 'hardly' changing the climate is something of an   
   indeterminate adverb because changing a climate is hard...and we're doing it.   
   But we'll get more to that later, I just wanted to show how the politics smash   
   the reasoning on both sides. From another, critical review.   
   Michael Crichton's new novel, "State of Fear," not only unfairly bashes the   
   global environmental movement but represents yet another example of how   
   multinational corporations and their political allies are invading the popular   
   culture to advance fanatic and lunatic right-wing ideas and agendas.   
      
   The book demonizes scientists who argue that the world is heading toward   
   cataclysmic weather change unless something is done about the spewing forth of   
   greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere.   
      
   Crichton develops a story line that has environmentalists and scientists   
   creating weather-making doomsday machines that wreak havoc on the planet.   
      
   After all, the publisher of "State of Fear" is Harper Collins, a wholly owned   
   subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the same people who feed Americans   
   and people around the world a daily dosage of right-wing propaganda billed as   
   24-hour news.   
      
   Murdoch can wave his big money around and always expect to find some novelist;   
   screenwriter; movie director; journalist; left, center, or right-wing magazine   
   editor; cartoonist; or research institute fellow to allow himself or herself to   
   become human versions of coin-operated nickelodeons or Laundromats.   
      
   Crichton is no different than crossword puzzle editors who are now paid to   
   include as answers to their clues the names of corporations and brand names as   
   a form of subtle advertising -- a new low in the newspaper business.   
   [Wayne Madsen - Pittsburgh Live]   
      
   One might be quick to dismiss Mr. Madsen's critique as well, but it is worth   
   noting that the fairly positive review of Mr. Crichton's book in the Sunday   
   Times (a News Corp Property) fails to mention that there is a pretty solid   
   concensus that we (humans) are altering the planet's climate, and usually the   
   reason scientists all agree on something is because of the science involved in   
   reaching that concensus. The two major "bah, everything is fine" works to be   
   released have not been scientific works, but are psuedo-science. Crichton's   
   "State of Fear" is one of them, and it will push along with the might of big   
   money backing much as Lomborg's Skeptical Environmentalist did a couple of   
   years ago. Neither of these works posits a theory, gathers first-hand   
   information (experiment) directly dealing with that theory, and then critically   
   examines the theory in light of collected information. A refresher:   
   By now, most are familiar with the controversy surrounding Danish political   
   scientist Bjorn Lomborg and the claims made in his book The Skeptical   
   Environmentalist. The latest development took place in early January 2003 when   
   the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty issued a decision that declared   
   Lomborg's research "to fall within the concept of scientific dishonesty," and   
   to be "clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice." The   
   committee, however, did not find grounds that Lomborg "misled his readers   
   deliberately or with gross negligence." Instead, the decision recommends that   
   the book should be properly understood and interpreted as a "a provocative   
   debate-generating paper."   
      
   The Danish decision and the reviews that have appeared in Scientific American,   
   Science, and Nature strongly question the scientific merits of Lomborg's   
   claims. He remains, however, highly regarded by conservatives and by the   
   financial press. Last year, Lomborg was appointed director of Denmark's   
   Environmental Assessment Institute by the newly elected right wing government,   
   and among the many kudos emanating from the financial press, Lomborg was named   
   one of the 50 stars of Europe by Business Week magazine.   
      
   Clearly, The Skeptical Environmentalist has fueled Lomborg's personal   
   celebrity. So, how did a book authored by an obscure Danish academic with   
   little or no expertise in environmental science become an international media   
   event? Or more precisely, what was so newsworthy about this book?   
   To see how things will happen again this time, read how they happened first   
   last time.   
      
   Also, we now have the scientists themselves getting involved in the debate.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)