book by Michael Crichton ISBN:0066214130

on Environmental Ism

in terms of the fiction, I found the characters rather 2-dimensional, like reading [AynRand]. But the storyline itself was kinda fun.

I wish he's put the non-fictional bits (endnote, references, etc.) online for better cross-reference.

His main points seem to be:

• we don't know enough about the environment/climate to predict its future or evaluate the relative importance of various factors in changing the future

• support for Environmental Ism is part of a wider effort to control the US populace through Fear. Other vectors include safety and... (health/nutrition?)

  • this broader effort started at the time of the destruction of the Soviet Union, since a new scary monster was needed

• the main activists in this effort, parallel to the [Military Industrial Complex] of the ColdWar, consists of the politicians, lawyers, media, and universities

some criticisms:

• [Gavin Schmidt] http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=74

• [Gavin Schmidt] again http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2005/02/01/schmidt-fear/

• [Chris Mooney] checks Crichton's footnotes http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/02/06/checking_crichtons_footnotes/

• David Brin slags Crichton in general: In effect, by disdaining "consensus science", and offering no alternative, this branch of an obstinate aristocratic clade is - through Crichton - telling Civilizat Ion's finest minds to return to their labs and tend their own business. As "boffins" they should stick to test tubes and leave policy to whichever self-chosen elite of aristocrats, politicos and/or philosopher kings happens to sit at the pinnacle of government and finance... Not one of these lecturing heroes ever mentions the one corrective prescription that might actually work - general openness (Transparent Society). The way we have often managed to get so many advances without hubristic calamities... Let there be no mistake, this plot outline is not [Modern Ist]. It is Romant Ic at every level.

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