Michael Crichton

Overview

Michael Crichton is an American author, film producer, film director, and television producer; he is best known for his work in the techno-thriller genre.

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Crichton has been somewhat involved in the global warming controversy due to his stated opinion that claims of global warming are junk science, which is a significant theme in his novel State of Fear and in the nonfiction statement section (?) at the end of the book.

Influence

"Fred Barnes, in Rebel-in-Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush, states that George W. Bush 'avidly read Michael Crichton's 2004 novel State of Fear, whose villain falsifies scientific studies to justify draconian steps to curb global warming....Early in 2005, political adviser Karl Rove arranged for Crichton to meet with Bush at the White House. They talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement. The visit was not made public for fear of outraging environmentalists all the more.'" ([W])

Reference

• Wikipedia: |Michael Crichton| |State of Fear|

Criticisms

• From Dr. Jeffrey M. Masters' review of State of Fear ([1], thanks to [W]):

[F]lawed or misleading presentations of Global Warming science exist in the book, including those on Arctic sea ice thinning, correction of land-based temperature measurements for the urban heat island effect, and satellite vs. ground-based measurements of Earth's warming. I will spare the reader additional details. On the positive side, Crichton does emphasize the little-appreciated fact that while most of the world has been warming the past few decades, most of Antarctica has seen a cooling trend. The Antarctic ice sheet is actually expected in increase in mass over the next 100 years due to increased precipitation, according to the IPCC (although recent findings by NASA call this result into question). Additionally, Crichton correctly points out that there has been no rise in hurricane activity in the Atlantic over the past few decades (a point unchanged by the record four hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004).

Comments: (1) need a source for this quote; (2) how can there have been no rise in hurricane activity in the Atlantic in the past few decades when 2005 was, if I recall rightly, the first year they have ever run out of alphabetic characters for naming Atlantic hurricanes? --Woozle 08:25, 28 July 2006 (EDT)