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.

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Chris Mooney has a well-written review of Michael Crichton's State of Fear. I picked up a copy at the book store and read a couple of pages from the middle. It was like a Tech Central Station column, except that it was a speech by one of the characters, with occasional lame objections by another…

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.