Fear of Man
This article, via Glenn, doesn’t surprise me. I am on a mailing list that includes the “Killer B’s”: Benford, Brin, and Bear. It’s on encouraging kids to read, and learn to read, through science fiction, which often is what will get an otherwise bored-with-reading kid hooked. There’s a lot of discussion of teaching ideas and so forth.
Lately it has also included bashing on Michael Crichton over being “anti-science,” not merely with State of Fear (which I have not yet read far, but is intriguing for the first few chapters that set things up), but in general.
Not that I would be surprised if some of the facts cited in Crichton’s book are debatable, but even if not a bonfire of delusion fed by power grabbing conspirators, that we are that responsible for climate change is a pretty haughty assumption for humans to make, given what Mr. Sun can do to climate simply by having a hyperactive billionth or so of a solar lifespan.
UPDATE: Added to today’s Beltway Traffic Jam.
I haven’t read State of Fear, but the hallmark of Chrichton’s earlier works is that they are so well researched. None of them are true, per se, like Jurassic Park for example. However, he studied enough DNA and computer programming and science to build a “plausable” story.
The thing that amazes me is that his knowledge (or research) is not limited to one area. From The Great Train Robbery, to The Andromeda Strain to Disclosure, each was in a completely different setting, yet none felt like they typical print-mill fiction with all its hole and blind spots.
I’m sure the issues in the book are debatable - but that is what we need. A debate...instead of forcing the environmental dogma down our collective throats.
Posted by King of Fools on 01/28 at 05:51 AM
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