[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

Anyone here ever read "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton? I know he's a sort of commercial author, but he does present a good argument against the case for global warming. I'm not taking one side or another, but i do think many people are too willing to jump on the global warming bandwagon without considering the alternative argument.

It might be a good book, but the science content in "State of Fear" is widely discredited. Here are a couple of links--and a salient quote or two if you're strapped for time: most of these articles are pretty long.
http://www.wunderground.com/education/stateoffear.asp

Unfortunately, Crichton presents a error-filled and distorted version of the Global Warming science, favoring views of the handful of contrarians that attack the consensus science of the IPCC.

And this from NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt:
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.e...12-13-04b.html

[Chrichton] gives us his back-of-a-napkin estimate for the global warming that will occur over the next century -- an increase of approximately 0.8 degrees Celsius -- and claims that his guess is as good as any model's. He suggests that most of the warming will be due to land-use changes -- extremely unlikely, as globally speaking, land-use change has a cooling effect. As his faulty assumptions painfully demonstrate, simulations based on physics are better than just guessing.

And Time's "Eye on Science" blog weighs in:
http://time.blogs.com/eye_on_science...w_for_som.html

State of Fear" is an utterly misleading screed that denounces the idea of human-induced global warming as a fiendish lie concocted by evil environmentalists. In other words, it distorts the actual science beyond recognition.

In a way, it sounds like "State of Fear" is about as scientific as "Jurassic Park." Which is to say, not very.