State of Fear

by Michael Crichton

[empressbrooke]

Reviews for this book seem to revolve around what the reviewer thinks about global warming - the more negative reviews seem to consider the message of the book negligent and dangerous, and the more positive reviews seem to think their disbelief of global warming is validated.

Both stances seem to miss some of what Crichton is positing. Essentially he says that when it comes to our environment, we are not doing a very good job of rigorously and systematically studying it and using the results to make sound policy decisions. The "author's note" at the end where he speaks directly to the reader certainly doesn't state that global warming doesn't exist, that human activity doesn't contribute to it, or that we should do nothing about it. He basically says his three-year review of the existing research shows that we don't know anything about our environment accurately enough to be able to do anything for it in a responsible way, partly due to research being influenced by its funding sources and politics. He also opines that environmental groups are stuck in the 1970s and haven't kept up with what science has discovered since then.

Using science more responsibly to make better decisions about our world doesn't seem like such a dangerous message.

As a fictional thriller, State of Fear hit all the expected notes without rising to the quality level of some of Crichton's earlier books. It's overly long but goes by pretty quickly. Like a Dan Brown thriller, there's a lot of characters being used as mouthpieces to share things the author researched, and not always in the most natural way. Based on my expectations going in, I have no complaints.