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Monday, July 20, 2009

Voice of Reason - Michael Crichton died too soon

He was one of my favorite writers. Who can forget books like Andromeda Strain, Coma, Terminal Man, Jurassic Park, Lost World, Rising Sun and so many others. All these were made into equally excellent movies. One of his most controversial works was "State of Fear" dealing with the debate on global warming. Here he makes a beautiful case for skepticism on global warming, a must read. Video: Michael Crichton discusses his reluctance to accept some of today's pop science conclusions Vid: Astrophysicist Dr. Sallie Baliunas (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) makes comments related to Michael Crichton's book 'State of Fear' and the modern global warming scare movement.
Posted by MariaS at 17:47
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1 comment:

  1. John CrossJuly 21, 2009 at 9:11 AM

    I liked Michael Crichton as well. I remember growing up reading a number of his books. Unfortunately he got into areas where his general understanding of science did not support the technologies he was talking about (did you ever read Prey - that was bad errors).

    State of Fear was another one. If there is any particular part of State of Fear that you find convincing then please let me know and we can discuss it. His speech that you linked to was just as bad. The only science he really seems to get around to in the criticism of Mann's work and even then he didn't understand it. For someone who claimed to have an interest in the science he took great care to avoid it.

    I also watched the Ballunis tape. I was interested since she was one of the initial authors of the initial OISM paper - and that paper has not faired well (to put it kindly). She has obviously learned from the experience since she actually presents nothing that casts even the remotest doubt on the science of global warming.

    In my opinion, the science of global warming begins with three statements.

    1) We are responsible for all the current rise in CO2.

    2) CO2 will absorb and then re-emit longwave radiation.

    3) Shining more longwave radiation on an object will cause it to either warm or cool less quickly.

    Do you have any problem with these three statements - and if so, which one?

    Regards,
    John

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