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and finds LOTS of things wrong with environmental dogma HERE. |
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 Get "AN EVENING WITH BJORN LOMBORG" (DVD) |
Posted on 12/23/2004 6:23:50 AM PST by OESY
In today's segmented America, Michael Crichton's new novel "State of Fear" might seem to be just reading for red states....
The theory of global warming — Crichton says warming has amounted to just half a degree Celsius in 100 years — is that "greenhouse gases," particularly carbon dioxide, trap heat on Earth, causing . . . well, no one knows what, or when.
Crichton's heroic skeptics delight in noting things like the decline of global temperature from 1940 to 1970. And that since 1970 glaciers in Iceland have been advancing. And that Antarctica is getting colder and its ice is getting thicker....
One of the good guys in "State of Fear" cites Montaigne's axiom: "Nothing is so firmly believed as that which least is known." Which is why 30 years ago the fashionable panic was about global cooling.
The New York Times (Aug. 14, 1975) saw "many signs" that "Earth may be heading for another ice age." Science magazine (Dec. 10, 1976) warned about "extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation." "Continued rapid cooling of the Earth" (Global Ecology, 1971) could herald "a full-blown 10,000 year ice age" (Science, March 1, 1975). The Christian Science Monitor reported (Aug. 27, 1974) that Nebraska's armadillos were retreating south from the cooling....
Gregg Easterbrook, an acerbic student of eco-pessimism, offers a "Law of Doomsaying": Predict catastrophe no later than 10 years hence but no sooner than five years away — soon enough to terrify, but far enough off that people will forget if you are wrong.
Because Crichton remembers yesterday's discarded certitudes, millions of his readers will be wholesomely skeptical of today's.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
---with a Martin Sheen-like character meeting a grisly end, it sounds like it would make a must-see movie---
I bought Crichton's book a few days ago. I'm looking forward to another good novel with the added bonus of laughing at the Eco Terrorist's chicken little predictions.
I just shoveled a few inches of fresh global warming off my driveway.
An interesting side note-here in Akron, Ohio, we've missed out on the big snowfall totals in every major winter storm the last 10 years. We have always been on either the eastern or western edge of the snow/ice and might get 3-6 inches from the same storm that dumps a foot somewhere else. The big President' Day storm in '03-we got maybe 7 inches, most of the rest of the state got over a foot. Superstorm '93 (March 12 1993) we got 7 inches where other places got several feet. This storm-we officially got 3.5 at the Akron/Canton airport but a bit more in town.
The sun IS in middle age...maybe it's getting hot flashes! ;-)
lol!
"They even made a movie about Mitch, and I always thought that he killed himself, not out of despair over his romance with his live-in, but as a result of being played by Martin Sheen." -- Scott Cook, HERE
"Martin Sheen is a pompous ass." -- Neal Boortz "He really is." -- Environmentalist Belinda Skelton (they met him in New Hampshire) 1-28-04
| "Global Warming is questionable. ... Are things warmer than they were a few years ago? Yes. But... WHY? That's the real question. There is also global warming on Mars, Jupiter, and Titan. Did SUV's cause that as well? Are Martians using fossil fuels? Or are we looking at a solar event over which we have zero control? I personally think we're looking at a normal solar cycle. Things warm up and cool down when you look at the long term climate history. We STILL aren't anywhere near as warm as we were during the Medieval Warm Period!" -- "Reese," aka "Mamapajamas" |
The upshot was that you can't accuse Crichton of coming to this book with an agenda. His book ended up being the exact opposite what he originally set out to write. Bless Crichton a REAL SCIENTIST who is also a great novelist who likes to write about science. He is smart enough to be able to research the scientific principles, studies and evidence until he is qualified to weave them into the plots of his books. The fact that Crichton has the integrity to go with the science and not the politics makes me respect him more as an author.
---we've been spared his presence here in Nevada recently--he must have something to do besides get arrested at Yucca Mountain protests--
This may be a godsend. Thank God for foreign oil.
It makes Crichton and Will's point very nicely.
The perception of global warming as a man-made catastrophe is a religion backed up with anti-capitalist/anti-development conspiracy. Millions of people will indeed die but not from the affects of global warming. Rather they will succomb to unsound environmental regulations and busybody tampering in developing nations.
The New York Times (Aug. 14, 1975) saw "many signs" that "Earth may be heading for another ice age." Science magazine (Dec. 10, 1976) warned about "extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation." "Continued rapid cooling of the Earth" (Global Ecology, 1971) could herald "a full-blown 10,000 year ice age" (Science, March 1, 1975). The Christian Science Monitor reported (Aug. 27, 1974) that Nebraska's armadillos were retreating south from the cooling....
And you said:
It makes Crichton and Will's point very nicely.
If Will's point is that predictions of doom and disaster are commonly spread by the media, then the perception that scientists were predicting another Ice Age was spread by the media, and the media love scare stories. Was that your point?
Unfortunately, the scientists weren't really predicting another Ice Age.
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and finds LOTS of things wrong with environmental dogma HERE. |
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Get "AN EVENING WITH BJORN LOMBORG" (DVD) |
Uh, yea. I could modify it a bit, but that is the general gist of it.
Unfortunately, the scientists weren't really predicting another Ice Age.
Who is "the scientists"? You are attempting to speak for an awful lot of people in an awful lot of specialties with an awful lot of differing points of view.
Thanks Keys. I thought somebody else would have good info on Bjorn Lomborg. He appears to be a young and handsome guy. Perhaps we can exploit that with envirobabes.
Got a penchant for marketing calendars? ;^D
I forgot to mention:
| The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World by Bjorn Lomborg |
| Global Crises, Global Solutions by Bjorn Lomborg (Editor) |
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