State Of Fear (By Michael Crichton)--BOOK REVIEW
By Terry Francl

BOOK REVIEW
State Of Fear (By Michael Crichton)
(HarperCollins, 603 pages, $27.95),
By Terry Francl, Senior Economist American Farm Bureau Federation
March 31, 2005

State of Fear is a combination science and techno-political thriller that utilizes global warming and the Kyoto Protocol as a back drop to the story. Crichton is well known for some of his previous best sellers such as, The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. He is also a movie director - Westworld, Coma and The First Great Train Robbery - and was the creator and executive producer of the television series "ER." He actually created "ER" shortly after graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1969. From 1969-70, Crichton served as a post doctorate fellow at the Jonas Salk Institute for biological science before becoming a full-time writer.

Crichton has utilized his considerable knowledge as a doctor, scientist and writer to create what may become a watershed book in American literature and scientific history. By blending copious scientific facts and data into his story, Crichton will lead readers of this book to realize that the theory of anthropogenic (human induced) global warming was one of the greatest hoaxes of the twentieth century. State of Fear is an interesting book to read with various heroes and villains who weave through entrapments, diabolical schemes, murder and mayhem. It utilizes pseudonyms for environmental groups such as the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF) that seems extremely close to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The heroes are constantly pursued by the evil-minded environmentalist throughout the book. They are led into an ice crevace in Antarctica while trying to prevent the evildoers from shearing off a large glacier that would make the world's biggest iceberg that would, presumably, melt and raise the sea level. They are subsequently electrocuted by manmade lightening designed to create a flash flood that will drown hundreds of innocent children. Others are poisoned and near the end they are pursued by the indigenous cannibals in New Guinea as they attempt to prevent the evil-environmentalist from causing an earthquake/tsunami that would flood the California coast. All of these artificially created calamities were timed to coincide with a World Climate Conference being held in California to extract maximum media attention and promote world-wide political action to stop global warming.

Crichton comes up with a new acronym, the PLM for the Political-Legal-Media Complex. He notes that, "Western nations are fabulously safe. Yet people do not feel they are, because of PLM…. Politicians need fears to control the population [hence the title of the book]. Lawyers need dangers to litigate and make money. The Media needs scare stories to capture an audience. Together, these three estates are so compelling that they can go about their business even if the scare is totally groundless."

There are some extremely satisfying parts of the book for those who have been battling the constant diatribe of misinformation and lies regarding global warming and the Kyoto Protocol. One character in the book is an aging, egotistical actor named Ted Bradley. Bradley is a pathetically uninformed, yet boisterous character that appears completely isolated from any vestiges of the real world. He characterizes New Guinea as an environmental paradise. However, paradise turns out to be less than friendly as he meets his demise in a most unpleasant fashion.

Some of the best information available on climate history and global warming can be found towards the end of the book in the author's message, 25 succinct points about global warming and the Kyoto Protocol. On pages 562-563, there is a clear and concise rendition of the earth's geological history, only 400 words. Then in Appendix I, Crichton discusses "Why Politicizing Science is Dangerous." Starting on page 576 he notes, "the theory of eugenics postulates a crisis of the gene pool leading to the deterioration of the human race." While almost everybody will recognize this as a basis for the rise, and subsequent fall of Hitler and the Nazi empire, what most do not realize is that this was a widely respected scientific theory in the early 1900s -- not only in Europe, but also in the United States and other parts of the world.

Crichton goes on to point out a number of eugenics-supporting quotes by various scientists and world leaders including Francis Galton, a respected British psychologist; Margaret Sanger; H.G. Wells; Theodore Roosevelt; Luther Burbank; and George Bernard Shaw who said that "only eugenics can save mankind." Eugenics research was funded by the Carnegie Foundation and later by the Rockefeller Foundation. Finally, he notes that "after World War II, nobody was a eugenicist, and nobody had ever been a eugenicist. Eugenics ceases to be a college subject in classrooms, although some argue its ideas continue to have currency in disguised form."

This leads to another interesting Crichton point, not in the State of Fear, but in a lecture he gave in January 2003. Those who advocate global warming and support the Kyoto Protocol suggest there is a "scientific consensus that global warming is real. (Actually, to the extent there have been any surveys on this point, scientists practicing in related fields are skeptical about, as opposed to endorsing, the concept of anthropogenic global warming by a large factor.)

In his lecture Crichton noted:

"I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus."

Crichton also goes on to say:

"Once you abandon strict adherence to what science tells us, once you start arranging the truth in a press conference, then anything is possible…. The danger is always there, if you subvert science to political ends."

SUMMARY: State of Fear is a rare combination of entertainment, fact and knowledge that anyone who has ever had as much as a thought about global warming should read. It should be required reading for each and every student. It is an interesting science-thriller that brings home a real-world point: Despite the existence of the Kyoto Protocol, the concept or idea of anthropogenic global warming is not supported by science, data or fact. It is simply an artifact of PLM.