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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: greenspirit who wrote (114426)7/2/2009 3:43:09 PM
From: KonKilo  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 542763
 
Speaking of Crichton. More people should listen to his views on Global Warming...

Why not listen to a novelist's views on GW?

We elected an actor as POTUS and another as Senator from MN.



To: greenspirit who wrote (114426)7/2/2009 3:43:10 PM
From: Travis_Bickle  Respond to of 542763
 
Why? He is a novelist not a scientist.



To: greenspirit who wrote (114426)7/2/2009 5:20:17 PM
From: Wharf Rat  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 542763
 
Nobody should listen. He wrote fiction. I've got more. Don't try George Will, either. A serial climate liar committing treason.

13 December 2004
Michael Crichton’s State of Confusion
Filed under: Arctic and Antarctic Reviews Extras Instrumental Record Greenhouse gases Climate modelling Climate Science— gavin @ 10:09 PM - ()
In a departure from normal practice on this site, this post is a commentary on a piece of out-and-out fiction (unlike most of the other posts which deal with a more subtle kind). Michael Crichton’s new novel “State of Fear” is about a self-important NGO hyping the science of the global warming to further the ends of evil eco-terrorists. The inevitable conclusion of the book is that global warming is a non-problem. A lesson for our times maybe? Unfortunately, I think not.
realclimate.org

Michael Crichton’s State of Confusion II: Return of the Science
Filed under: Instrumental Record Climate modelling Greenhouse gases Climate Science— mike @ 1:54 PM
Our first post on Crichton’s new novel “State of Fear” hits most of the key points, though there are a few more errors in the book that we hope to expand upon in future posts.

But for those of you uninterested in buying and reading the book, you can actually find a similar-minded opinion piece by Crichton criticizing climate science (and everything from SETI and the “Drake Equation” to Carl Sagan in the process) here in the public domain.
realclimate.org

Inhofe and Crichton: Together at Last!
Filed under: Climate modelling Climate Science— group @ 10:33 PM
Gavin Schmidt and Michael Mann

Today we witnessed a rather curious event in the US Senate. Possibly for the first time ever, a chair of a Senate committee, one Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), invited a science fiction writer to advise the committee (Environment and Public Works), on science facts–in this case, the facts behind climate change. The author in question? None other than our old friend, Michael Crichton whom we’ve had reason to mention before (see here and here). The committee’s ranking member, Senator James Jeffords (I) of Vermont, was clearly not impressed. Joining Crichton on climate change issues was William Gray of hurricane forecasting fame, Richard Benedick (a negotiator on the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting chemicals), and David Sandalow (Brookings Institution). As might be expected, we paid a fair bit of attention to the scientific (and not-so-scientific) points made.

Many of the ‘usual suspects’ of half-truths and red herrings were put forth variously by Crichton, Gray, and Inhofe over the course of the hearing:

the claim that scientists were proclaiming an imminent ice age in the 1970s (no, they weren’t),
the claim that the 1940s to 1970s cooling in the northern hemisphere disproves global warming (no, it doesn’t),
the claim that important pieces of the science have not been independently reproduced (yes, they have),
the claim that global climate models can’t reproduce past climate change (yes, they can)
the claim that climate can’t be predicted because weather is chaotic (wrong…)
realclimate.org



To: greenspirit who wrote (114426)7/8/2009 2:26:23 PM
From: Rambi  Respond to of 542763
 
AM trying to catch up after being gone for a week.

Crichton was a very smart man with degrees from Harvard (which actually should disqualify him as credible for the anti-elites). He was first and foremost a writer despite his medical degree, and did enough research to write convincingly in his novels on a variety of scientific topics, but there has always been criticism of his actual use of "science", and State of Fear certainly has had its share.

What I did agree with him on was his warning to both sides to avoid the politicization of environmental issues, and to refrain from turning it into a religion. But as to being right or wrong, he isn't on my short list of truly qualified people.