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Book Review: Fighting Fear & Debunking hysteria on global warming, by George Will
New York Post ^ | December 23, 2004 | GEORGE F. WILL

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Miscellaneous; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bookreview; crichton; georgewill; globalwarming; stateoffear
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1 posted on 12/23/2004 6:23:50 AM PST by OESY
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To: OESY
Was an imminent Ice Age predicted in the 70's?
2 posted on 12/23/2004 6:32:13 AM PST by cogitator
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To: OESY

---with a Martin Sheen-like character meeting a grisly end, it sounds like it would make a must-see movie---


3 posted on 12/23/2004 6:35:38 AM PST by rellimpank
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To: OESY

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.


4 posted on 12/23/2004 6:37:56 AM PST by Arkie2
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To: OESY

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.


5 posted on 12/23/2004 6:43:56 AM PST by RockinRight (Let's start now-Mark Sanford for President in 2008!)
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To: RockinRight
I think it would also be entirely naive to think that the temperature is not be adjusting at all too. I think that the earth may be heating up slightly, but it has absolutely nothing to do with "global warming." I believe a recent observation earlier this year noted that the ice caps on Mars are receding as well. I think the sun may be going through some changes (as it normally does throughout the ages), but is nothing to be concerned about.
6 posted on 12/23/2004 6:49:38 AM PST by mike182d
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To: mike182d

The sun IS in middle age...maybe it's getting hot flashes! ;-)


7 posted on 12/23/2004 7:34:55 AM PST by RockinRight (Let's start now-Mark Sanford for President in 2008!)
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To: RockinRight

lol!


8 posted on 12/23/2004 7:59:34 AM PST by mike182d
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To: rellimpank
---with a Martin Sheen-like character meeting a grisly end, it sounds like it would make a must-see movie---

"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"

9 posted on 12/23/2004 8:33:00 AM PST by FreeKeys ("One of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism." -- Michael Crichton)
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To: OESY
I saw Crichton being interviewed about this book and it was fascinating. He said his orignal idea was to write a global warming "catastrophe" book. He started preliminary research into the book and realized that there was no persuasive science to really back up any of the global warming fear. He then switched his focus on how so important a "theory" could become universally accepted in the mainstream when there was really nothing to back it up.

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.

10 posted on 12/23/2004 8:40:49 AM PST by joebuck
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To: FreeKeys

---we've been spared his presence here in Nevada recently--he must have something to do besides get arrested at Yucca Mountain protests--


11 posted on 12/23/2004 9:08:08 AM PST by rellimpank
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To: rellimpank

This may be a godsend. Thank God for foreign oil.


12 posted on 12/23/2004 9:18:56 AM PST by ClaireSolt (.)
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To: cogitator
Excellent link, cog.

It makes Crichton and Will's point very nicely.

13 posted on 12/23/2004 9:24:05 AM PST by TomB ("The terrorist wraps himself in the world's grievances to cloak his true motives." - S. Rushdie)
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To: cogitator
--aside from the references by George Will , Newsweak did a lot of prattling in 1975 about the oncoming ice age--
14 posted on 12/23/2004 9:40:01 AM PST by rellimpank
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To: OESY
Sounds like the Scandinavian statistician who went into a study of global warming with a preconceived notion but an open mind.

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.

15 posted on 12/23/2004 10:28:31 AM PST by jimfree (Freep and ye shall find.)
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To: TomB
Will wrote:

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.

16 posted on 12/23/2004 10:40:38 AM PST by cogitator
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To: jimfree
Sounds like the Scandinavian statistician who went into a study of global warming with a preconceived notion but an open mind.

Former "deep green" Bjorn Lomborg actually does some research 
and finds LOTS of things wrong with environmental dogma HERE.
Bjorn Lomborg is vindicated
Lomborg: Ignore Global Warming

Get "AN EVENING WITH BJORN LOMBORG" (DVD)

17 posted on 12/23/2004 11:18:14 AM PST by FreeKeys ("One of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism." -- Michael Crichton)
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To: cogitator
Was that your point?

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.

18 posted on 12/23/2004 12:15:38 PM PST by TomB ("The terrorist wraps himself in the world's grievances to cloak his true motives." - S. Rushdie)
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To: FreeKeys

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.


19 posted on 12/23/2004 12:22:44 PM PST by jimfree (Freep and ye shall find.)
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To: jimfree
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)

20 posted on 12/23/2004 12:44:35 PM PST by FreeKeys ("One of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism." -- Michael Crichton)
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