I recently read Michael Crichton’s ‘State of Fear’. It opened my eyes.
The book is about ‘environmentalists-terrorists’ and a group of people who try to stop them. It came as a shock to me that even environmentalists could be extremists.
Circhton has used ample references to verify his facts that are a part of the story. Some of which are-
1) The earth’s temperature is indeed rising, the phenomenon we call as global-warming, but it has been happening since several hundred years after the mini Ice-age.
2) Nobody knows how much of human activity is responsible for the rise in earth’s temperature or for that matter, even the rise in the levels of carbon-di-oxide.
3) It has been ‘guessed’ that at the current rate, the phenomenon of ‘global-warming’ for which millions of dollars are being spent, will cause about 0.8 degree Celsius of rise in the earth’s temperature in a century!
4) The Kyoto treaty claims to bring down this rise by about 0.3 degree Celsius.
5) Nobody has an accurate data of temperature of the past century in the world. In fact, the warming is not even uniformly ‘global’ according to the data. The rates differ, in some parts the temperature has either remained the same or there has been a documented decline!
6) No rise in sea-level anywhere in the world attributed to global warming has been recorded.
7) Similarly, there is no evidence of global warming causing melting of glaciers or ice-caps anywhere around the world.
8) Our climate is too dynamic for us to exert any effect on it, positive or negative. Storms, earth-quakes, floods, draught, tsunamis, are not under our control.
9) We have a very little understanding of our environment. We really don’t know how to ‘manage’ wilderness.
10) All this is the result of lack of experts/scientists in environmental organizations which are run by litigators and donators who have no absolutely relation with science.
I signed the online petition forwarded to me by WWF favoring the Kyoto treaty few years ago. I thought ‘global warming’ would one day eventually submerge all the coastal cities. I thought somehow we were responsible for the natural calamities I’ve seen in my lifetime. I never knew how, but I do remember my science books in school claiming so and many NGOs and celebrity volunteers shouting the same as loud as they could into my ears through the media! Do they even know?
My beliefs are shaken. I’d take all news reports from now on with a pinch of salt. Especially the studies, which are more often than not sponsored and hence have an agenda. Blinded scientific studies are actually hard to find. Their results are already in the researchers’ expectations.
I’ve also decided to ‘learn’ about our environment rather than just assume that humans are responsible for all the disasters. In fact, that is the only way we can hope to reduce the damage we might be doing. Step one is to know the damage and its cause. Interestingly, ‘State of Fear’ also mentions that some global warming might even be advantageous! It may increase our crop production considerably.
Crichton has written this book to bring to our notice the farce of ignorant environmental organizations/individuals. The story is a by-product. He’s kept the language obviously simple. The concept of a state of fear is also very interesting but I’d like you to read the book to understand it. It tells you how the world thinks. Everyone should read it.