Taking Crichton Down a Peg

The folks at Real Climate have hit the ground running. They carefully demonstrate how misleading Michael Crichton's new book State of Fear is on global warming. Let's hope they can keep this quality up.

Tags

More like this

That crazy pseudoscientific hack, Michael Crichton, has screwed up big time. In a teeny-tiny tantrum against a critic, he made up a character in his latest book with a similar name and background who also happens to be a depraved rapist of infants.
PZ's post on Crichton reminded me to point this out.  For those of you who don't know, Michael Crichton got kind of nasty, paying back a critic by making up a character in a book.  The made-up character had just enough similarity to let us know who he was getting
After New Republic writer Michael Crowley criticized Crichton's claims about climate change a character with the same name and biography showed up in his latest novel.
Until he became a global warming skeptic and an environmental advisor to the Bush White House, I'd always been a fan of Michael Crichton. His scientific dystopias always made for excellent pool-side reading and, when he was good, he could be very good.

And the GHG keeps billowing. Thanks for the point to the Real Climate site.

By Joseph Poliakon (not verified) on 13 Dec 2004 #permalink

Thanks for the link to Real Climate. This is a wonderful blog. Thanks.

At least some of us who are not in love with the present prevailing theory of global warming are not denying that it is occuring. The cause on the otherhand is still no where near proven. During the past 1000 years the earths climate has been warmer than now, and following that warm period it was much colder. The present chosen cause, CO2, Methane and other polution, was certainly not the cause of these swings. When the present climate theorists can explain, using there computer models, the reason for these past swings I'll be more likely to believe they know what they are talking about

I doubt that Crichton would come off nearly as badly as some commenters seem to believe, in a face to face discussion with the blogauthors of RealClimate blog. I was far from impressed by the level of discussion at the blog.
Climate scientists seem to have a bit more self esteem about their climate models than what they have earned. I understand that if you want a grant in climatology you must toe the line.

The climate is warming. The climate is cooling. Both statements are true. There are far too many holes in current climate predictions to warrant the amount of handwringing going on at the UN and the EU.