State of Fear

State of Fear

Author: Michael Crichton

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 580

Crichton presents environmental facts in a new light in this thriller. He argues that Global Warming, which every one of us take for granted as true, is at the most an unproved scientific theory, if not a fraudulent one. The theme of the novel is that an environmental organization, using criminals and sophisticated equipment to influence world opinion by precipitating catastrophic events like calving of a giant piece of ice from the Antarctic ice shelf, materializing flash floods from an ordinary thunder storm in Arizona and the creation of a tsunami wave from New Guinea, calculated to hit the shores of California. But by the timely intervention of the lead characters, John Kenner, Sanjong Thapa, Peter Ivans and Sarah, these efforts are frustrated. The presentation is typical Crichton style – stunning facts, actions, a little bit of science and generalization of ideas.

Crichton claims that the graphs, charts and references given in plenty of footnotes are real. He argues that Global Warming is only a theory which is not borne out by observational data. He gives data for a number of cities which shows a clear downward trend in temperature data. Temperatures are showing a rising trend from 1850 onwards, he says, and not just from 1970. This period was preceded by 400 years of cooling. He also states that politicians, lawyers and media are intent on generating a fear psychosis (The State of Fear) in ordinary citizens to make the work easy for them. Media started giving undue emphasis on environmental disasters from 1989 onwards, he says. This was precisely after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and Communist states. The people, who were terrorized by the communist menace were then no longer subservient to that threat, and so, they devised environmental problems and global warming as the substitutes. His argument is convincing.