- State of Fear
On
The New Republic ,Sacha Zimmerman gave a mixed review and said: [On
The Guardian ,Peter Guttridge gave a unfavorable review and said: [Controversies
Despite it being a work of fiction, the book has found use by global warming skeptics. For example, United States Senator
Jim Inhofe , who once pronounced global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people",cite news | last = Mooney | first = Chris | title = Warmed Over - American Prospect: Sen. James Inhofe's Science Abuse | publisher =CBS News | date = 2005-01-11 | url = http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/11/opinion/main666190.shtml | accessdate = 2008-08-15] [cite news | last = Coile | first = Zachary | title = Senator says warming by humans just a hoax | publisher =San Francisco Chronicle | date = 2006-10-11 | url = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/11/WARMING.TMP | accessdate = 2008-08-15] made "State of Fear" “required reading” for theSenate Committee on Environment and Public Works , which he chaired from 2003-2007. In September 2005, Inhofe called Crichton to testify before this committee.cite news | last = Janofsky | first = Michael | title = Michael Crichton, Novelist, Becomes Senate Witness | publisher =The New York Times | date = 2005-09-29 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/books/29cric.html | accessdate = 2008-08-15] During Crichton's testimony Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton scolded him for views that "muddy the issues around sound science" and Senator Barbara Boxer said, "I think we have to focus on facts, not fiction." In part for his reliance on Crichton's novel as a scientific source,Chris Mooney ofThe American Prospect called Inhofe "the U.S. Senate's leading abuser of science."The novel received the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)2006 Journalism Award. AAPG Communications director Larry Nation told the "New York Times ", "It is fiction, but it has the absolute ring of truth." The presentation of this award has been criticized as a promotion of the politics of the oil industry and for blurring the lines betweenfiction and journalism.cite news | last = Dean | first = Cornelia | title = Truth? Fiction? Journalism? Award Goes to . . . | publisher =New York Times | date = 2006-02-09 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/national/09prize.html | accessdate = 2008-08-17] After some controversy within the organization, AAPG has since renamed the award the "Geosciences in the Media" Award. [ [http://www.aapg.org/explorer/president/2006/06june.cfm President 06:2006 EXPLORER] ] .Dr. Daniel P. Schrag, Director of the [http://www.eps.harvard.edu/people/faculty/schrag/ Center for the Environment] at
Harvard University , called the award "a total embarrassment" that he said "reflects the politics of the oil industry and a lack of professionalism" on the association's part. As for the book, he added, "I think it is unfortunate when somebody who has the audience that Crichton has shows such profound ignorance."Al Gore said onMarch 21 2007 before a US House committee: "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor [...] if your doctor tells you you need to intervene here, you don't say 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem.'" This, in several commentators' opinion, is a reference to "State of Fear". [ [http://news.ansible.co.uk/a237.html Ansible 237, April 2007] ] [ [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/04/01/climate_of_fear/ Climate of fear] ,The Boston Globe , 1 April 2007] [ [http://www.alaskareport.com/do77777.htm More from 'Inconvenient Gore'] , Alaska Report, 22 March 2007]References
External links
* [http://slate.com/id/2110815/fr/rss/ Slate review of book]
* [http://www.crichton-official.com/fear/index.html Official site from Michael Crichton]
* [http://www.pewclimate.org/state_of_fear.cfm Answers to Key Questions Raised by M. Crichton in State of Fear] –Pew Center on Global Climate Change
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