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Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
 Posted - 05/09/2005 : 08:04:27
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 I just finished Michael Crichton's latest novel, State of Fear. It is based on a lawsuit that was to be filed by the fictional island of Vanutu against the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The grounds for the suit were that the islanders were in danger of having to evacuate due to the rising sea level caused by global warming. Their position was that the United States pumps out the most carbon dioxide, and is therefore most responsible for global warming. (All this is on the first page of the book.)
Here's the thing. It's fiction (of course) but it is full of footnote references to documented research, and appendix and a bibliography. He also includes a disclaimer, but I expect the book comes across to many as fact with a story built around it - kind of like Titanic (the movie). Jack and Rose aren't real, but the big boat really did sink. Gotcha.
One of the characters in the book states his theory that politicians, lawyers, and the media need the public to be in a constant "state of fear" so that we can be manipulated, and so that they can make money. Now that the Cold War is over they have to come up with other things to frighten us. Interesting.
As you might expect, a lot of folks have a case of the ass about this book. I'm wondering if anyone here has read it, and if so, if it pissed you off.
[Edited to add book link - Dave W.]
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Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2005 : 17:38:35 [Permalink]
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Thinly veiled fiction. Rising sea levels did prompt an island nation to sue the U.S. for being responsible for global warming, except the island was Tuvalu.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 05/09/2005 17:41:53 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26031 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2005 : 17:53:26 [Permalink]
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| There was a large review of the book in the last issue of Skeptical Inquirer. The reviewer didn't much care for it. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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questionit
New Member
21 Posts |
Posted - 05/12/2005 : 07:59:36 [Permalink]
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I didn't care for it. Global warming aside, I thought it was very poorly written thouigh I agree completely with the "state of fear" theory.
I read some other book about ten years ago about that same subject, something about an agency which has somnething in pplace where there's always some main bogeyman to keep us scared, whether its communists or terrorisys or any kind of ists. Can't remember the title. |
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Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
Posted - 05/12/2005 : 08:27:00 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by questionit
I didn't care for it. Global warming aside, I thought it was very poorly written thouigh I agree completely with the "state of fear" theory.
Thanks, questionit. You've touched on the very issue that caused me to start this thread. I think the "state of fear" theory is a such a good one it left me with mixed feelings about the book, which is mostly crap otherwise.
quote:
Originally posted by questionit
I read some other book about ten years ago about that same subject, something about an agency which has somnething in pplace where there's always some main bogeyman to keep us scared, whether its communists or terrorisys or any kind of ists. Can't remember the title.
Please don't go to any trouble, but if you happen to remember the name of that book I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know. I'd like to check it out.
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Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26031 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26031 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2005 : 18:51:22 [Permalink]
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This just in:But after considerable study of his own, leading to "State of Fear," Mr. Crichton has concluded that the science is mixed at best, and that lawmakers should take that into consideration when they decide what they might do about it.
His is an unpopular and contrary stance when measured against the judgment of groups like the National Academy of Sciences. But it was not those organizations that asked Mr. Crichton to Washington to counsel Congress on how to consider diverse scientific opinion when making policy. It was the committee chairman, Senator James M. Inhofe, a plainspoken Oklahoma Republican who has unabashedly pronounced global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
— Janofsky, Michael K., "Michael Crichton, Novelist, Becomes Senate Witness," New York Times, 2005/09/29. Thanks to penguin over at Skepticality for the link. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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