Originally Posted by aerohead
In Michael Crichton's,2004,'State of Fear','Crichton claims that a prediction James Hansen made in his 1988 congressional testimony had been ' wrong by 300 percent.' '
'Crichton insisted that the technical aspects of his book were accurate;and he advertised this claim with academic-looking footnotes and a bibliography,which for the rare reader who bothered to examine them,demonstrated that he looked exclusively to deniers for scientific insight and misrepresented the conclusions of real scientists as it suited his purpose.'
A review of the book in MIT's national magazine,Technology Review,began,'Michael Crichton has written the rarest of books,an intellectually dishonest novel.'
In the Fall of 2005,Crichton accepted an invitation by Oklahoma,US Senator,James Inhofe,Chairman,Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works,to provide testimony on climate science at one of his committee's hearings. (In 2003,Inhofe,on the floor of the Senate said that global warming was 'the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.').
Crichton's testimony parroted that of J.Patrick Michaels,paid climate skeptic of The Marshall Institute,Western Fuels Association,and Exxon-Mobil.Michaels had doctored materials created for Hansen's 1988 congressional testimony,cherry-picking a 'business-as-usual',worse-case-scenario,giving an illusion of evidence to support Michaels' bogus claims.
Crichton ignored 18-years worth of temperature records he had access to,which supported Hansen's predictions.
Crichton also criticized the modern temperature analysis,arguing 'heat-island' bias,without actually reading Hansen et al.,which had long-since corrected all data to reflect heat-island effects.Of which he had clear access to.
And unbeknownst to Crichton,most warming was occurring in remote,non-urban global locations such as Arctic,Siberia,and mountain glaciers.
It's a federal crime to lie to the government.
Since Crichton failed to fact-check his data,tracing it back to it's origin,his book succeeded in:
*character assassination by pseudo-expert
*biased interpretation
*manipulation of data
*misinterpretation of data
*guilt of omission
*distortion of scientific findings for personal gain
*attempting to link a complex dynamic to a simplistic explanation
*implied scientific rigor unsupported by fact
*Obfuscation of critical information impacting federal policy decision-making
*ignoring counterfactual evidence
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Crichton would become the only climate '
expert' consulting to President George W. Bush at the White House in 2005,brought together by Karl Rove.
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A fabulous miscarriage of democracy.And clear and present danger.
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This data is from: CENSORING SCIENCE,Inside The Political Attack on DR. James Hansen And Truth of Global Warming,PH.D. Mark Bowan,2008,Dutton (Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,N.Y.,N.Y.,pps 186-87,236,266,272-73
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PS I found a copy of 'State of Fear' this morning for $3. I'll have a look for myself.
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