Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Centurty

Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy ^ | November 6, 2005 | Michael Crichton

[alwaysconservative]

Fear, Complexity, & Environmental Management in the 21st Century

Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy Washington DC November 6, 2005

By Michael Crichton

I am going to challenge you today to revise your thinking, and to reconsider some fundamental assumptions. Assumptions so deeply embedded in our consciousness that we don’t even realize they are there. Here is a map by the artist Tom Friedman, that challenges certain assumptions. . .

[alwaysconservative]

This is a very long, but incredibly valuable article that is well-worth reading about the damage being done by the purveyors of fear in the environmental movement. It is a brilliant analysis by Dr. Crichton.

[alwaysconservative]

Ping to your global-warming-hoax list, if you are still maintaining it. :)

[Froufrou]

Thanks, ac! Nicely done! I'm a big fan of Crichton simply because he can put concepts into terms even a nematode could understand!

This was pretty long but it's always great fun to see all the scientific jargon for "hey, that's life. Deal with it."

[alwaysconservative]

You are most welcome!

This was pretty long but it's always great fun to see all the scientific jargon for "hey, that's life. Deal with it."

LOL! That's what I thought in reading this one.

[backhoe]

Excellent article, with far too many good points and illustrations to summarize-- everyone should read it.

But, here's just a sample:

If you have a teenager, or if you invest in the stock market, you know very well that a complex system cannot be controlled, it can only be managed. Because responses cannot be predicted, the system can only be observed and responded to. The system may resist attempts to change its state. It may show resiliency. Or fragility. Or both.

[alwaysconservative]

Thanks for your kind words! I thought the historical perspective of the well-intentioned "do gooders" actually doing great harm was extremely instructive.