 First edition cover | |
| Author | Michael Crichton |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction, Techno-thriller, Dystopian novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
Publication date | December 7, 2004 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 641 (798 in special paperback ed.) |
| ISBN | 0-00-718159-0 |
| OCLC | 56759026 |
| Preceded by | Prey |
| Followed by | Next |
State of Fear is a 2004techno-thriller novel byMichael Crichton, his fourteenth under his own name and twenty-fourth overall, in whicheco-terrorists plotmass murder to publicize the danger ofglobal warming.
Despite being a work of fiction, the book contains many graphs and footnotes, two appendices, and a 20-page bibliography; all combining to give an actual or fictional impression of scientific authority, in support of Crichton's beliefs which are critical of thescientific consensus on climate change.Climate scientists,science journalists,environmental groups, science advocacy organizations andthe scientific community at large have characterized the presented views as being inaccurate, cherry-picked, misleading and distorted.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the #1 bestseller position atAmazon and #2 onThe New York Times Best Seller list for one week in January 2005. The novel garnered mixed reviews, with some reviewers stating that the book's misrepresentation of scientific facts andglobal warming denial distracts from the story. The book is thought to have popularizedclimate change denial andAntarctica cooling controversy.
Peter Evans is a lawyer for a millionaire philanthropist, George Morton. Evans' main duties are managing the legal affairs surrounding Morton's contributions to an environmentalist organization, the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF) (modeled after theNatural Resources Defense Council).[9]
Morton becomes suspicious of NERF's director, Nicholas Drake, after discovering that Drake has misused some of the funds Morton had donated to the group. Soon afterward, Morton is visited by two men, John Kenner and Sanjong Thapa, who appear on the surface to be researchers at MIT, but, in fact, are international law enforcement agents on the trail of aneco-terrorist group, the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) (modeled on theEarth Liberation Front). The ELF is attempting to create "natural" disasters to convince the public of the dangers of global warming. All these events are timed to happen during a NERF-sponsored climateconference that will highlight the "catastrophe" ofglobal warming. The eco-terrorists have no qualms about how many people are killed in their manufactured "natural" disasters and ruthlessly assassinate anyone who gets in their way (few would recognize their preferred methods as murder: the venom of a rare Australianblue-ringed octopus which causes paralysis, and "lightning attractors" which cause their victims to get electrocuted during electrical storms). Kenner and Thapa suspect Drake of being involved with the ELF to further his own ends (garnering more donations to NERF from the environmentally-minded public).
Evans joins Kenner, Thapa, and Morton's assistant, Sarah Jones, on a globe-spanning series of adventures to thwart various ELF-manufactured disasters before they kill thousands of people. Kenner's niece, Jennifer Haynes, joins the group for the final leg as they travel to a remote island in theSolomon Islands to stop the ELF'spièce de résistance, atsunami that will inundate theCalifornia coastline just as Drake is winding up the international conference on the "catastrophe" of global warming. Along the way, the group battles man-eating crocodiles and cannibalistic tribesmen (who feast on Ted Bradley, an environmentalist TV actor whom Drake had sent to spy on Kenner and his team). The rest of the group is rescued in the nick of time by Morton, who had previously faked his own death to throw Drake off the trail so that he could keep watch on the ELF's activities on the island while he waited for Kenner and his team to arrive.
The group has a final confrontation with the elite ELF team on the island during which Haynes is almost killed, and Evans kills one of the terrorists who had previously tried to kill both him and Jones inAntarctica. The rest of the ELF team is killed by thebackwash from their own tsunami, which Kenner and his team have sabotaged just enough to prevent it from becoming a full-size tsunami and reaching California.
Morton, Evans, and Jones return toLos Angeles. Evans quits his law firm to work for Morton's new, as yet unnamed, organization, which will practice environmental activism as a business, free from potentialconflicts of interest. Morton hopes Evans and Jones will take his place in the new organization after his death.
Several critics have suggested that Crichton uses the major characters as proxies for differing viewpoints on the topic of global warming in order to allow the reader to clearly follow the various positions portrayed in the book.
Crichton included a statement of his views on globalclimate change as an afterword. In the "Author's message", Crichton states that the cause, extent, and threat of climate change are largely unknown. He finishes by endorsing themanagement of wilderness and the continuation of research into all aspects of theEarth's environment.
In Appendix I, Crichton warns "both sides" of theglobal warming debate against thepoliticization of science. Here he provides two examples of the disastrous combination ofpseudoscience and politics: the early 20th-century ideas ofeugenics (which he directly cites as one of the theories that allowed for theHolocaust) andLysenkoism.
This appendix is followed by abibliography of 172 books and journal articles that Crichton presents "...to assist those readers who would like to review my thinking and arrive at their own conclusions."[16]
State of Fear is, like many of Crichton's books, a fictional work that uses a mix of speculation and real world data, plus technological innovations as fundamental storyline devices. Thedebate over global warming serves as the backdrop for the book. Crichton supplies a personal afterword and two appendices that link the fictional part of the book with real examples of his thesis.
The main villains in the plot areenvironmental extremists. Crichton does place blame on "industry" in both the plot line and the appendices. Various assertions appear in the book, for example:
The book contains numerous charts and quotations from real world data (including footnoted charts) which suggest mean global temperature is, in this era, lowering. Where local temperatures show a general rise in mean temperature, mostly in major world cities, Crichton's characters infer it is due tourban sprawl anddeforestation, notcarbon emissions.
Crichton argues for removing politics from science and uses global warming and real-life historical examples in the appendices to make this argument. In a 2003 speech at theCalifornia Institute of Technology, he expressed his concern about what he considered the "emerging crisis in the whole enterprise of science—namely the increasingly uneasy relationship between hard science and public policy."[17]
The novel has received mixed reviews from professional literary reviewers.[18]
The Wall Street Journal'sRonald Bailey gave a favorable review, calling it "a lightning-paced technopolitical thriller" and the "novelization of a speech that Mr. Crichton delivered in September 2003 at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club."[12]Entertainment Weekly's Gregory Kirschling gave a favorable A− review and said it was "one of Crichton's best because it's as hard to pigeonhole as greenhouse gas but certainly heats up the room."[19]
InThe New Republic, Sacha Zimmerman gave a mixed review. Zimmerman criticized Crichton's presentation of data as condescending to the reader but concluded that the book was a "globe-trotting thriller that pits man against nature in brutal spectacles while serving up just the right amount of international conspiracy and taking digs at fair-weather environmentalists.".[20] In March 2006,Michael Crowley, a senior editor ofThe New Republic, wrote a strongly critical review focusing on Crichton's stance on global warming.[21] In the same year, Crichton published the novelNext, which contains a minor character named "Mick Crowley", who is a Yale graduate and a Washington, D.C.–based political columnist. The character was portrayed as a child molesterwith a small penis.[22] The character does not appear elsewhere in the book.[22] The real Crowley, also a Yale graduate, alleged that by including a similarly named character Crichton had libeled him.[22]
Much criticism was given to Crichton's presentation of global warming data and the book's portrayal of the global warming debate as a whole. In theSydney Morning Herald,John Birmingham criticized the book's usage of real world research and said it was "boring after the first lecture, but mostly in the plotting... It's bad writing and it lets the reader ignore the larger point Crichton is trying to make."[23] InThe Guardian,Peter Guttridge wrote that the charts and research in the book got "in the way of the thriller elements" and stated the bibliography was more interesting than the plot.[24] InThe New York Times,Bruce Barcott criticized the novel's portrayal of the global warming debate heavily, stating that it only presented one side of the argument.[25]
In thePittsburgh Post-Gazette, Allan Walton gave a mostly favorable review and offered some praise for Crichton's work. Walton wrote that Crichton's books, "as meticulously researched as they are, have an amusement park feel. It's as if the author channels one of his own creations, "Jurassic Park's" John Hammond, and spares no expense when it comes to adventure, suspense and, ultimately, satisfaction."[26]
This novel received criticism from climate scientists,[5][4][2] science journalists[27][28] and environmental groups[29][3] for inaccuracies and misleading information. Sixteen of 18 US climate scientists interviewed byKnight Ridder said the author was bending scientific data and distorting research.[4]
Several scientists whose research had been referenced in the novel stated that Crichton had distorted it in the novel.Peter Doran, leading author of theNature paper,[30] wrote in theNew York Times: "our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novelState of Fear".[2]
Myles Allen wrote:[5]
Michael Crichton's latest blockbuster,State of Fear, is also on the theme of global warming and is, ... likely to mislead the unwary.... Although this is a work of fiction, Crichton's use of footnotes and appendices is clearly intended to give an impression of scientific authority.
TheAmerican Geophysical Union states in their newspaperEos "We have seen from encounters with the public how the political use ofState of Fear has changed public perception of scientists, especially researchers in global warming, toward suspicion and hostility."[31]
James E. Hansen wrote that Crichton "doesn't seem to have the foggiest notion about the science that he writes about."[7]Jeffrey Masters, chiefmeteorologist forWeather Underground, writes: "Crichton presents an error-filled and distorted version of the Global Warming science, favoring views of the handful of contrarians that attack the consensus science of theIPCC."[6]
TheUnion of Concerned Scientists devote a section of their website to what they describe as misconceptions readers may take away from the book.[3]
Despite being a work of fiction, the book has found use by advocates forclimate change denial. For example, US SenatorJim Inhofe, who once pronounced global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people",[32][33] madeState of Fear "required reading"[34] for theSenate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which he chaired from 2003 to 2007, and before which he called Crichton to testify in September 2005.[34]
Al Gore said on March 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'". Several commentators interpreted this as a reference toState of Fear.[35][36][37][38]
The novel received theAmerican Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) 2006 Journalism Award. AAPG Communications director Larry Nation told theNew 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 theoil industry and for blurring the lines between fiction and journalism.[31][39] After some controversy within the organization, AAPG has since renamed the award the "Geosciences in the Media" Award.[40]
Daniel P. Schrag, Director of the Center for the Environment atHarvard 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".[39]
On Page 227 Mr. Crichton writes: 'Alex Burnet was in the middle of the most difficult trial of her career, a rape case involving the sexual assault of a two-year-old boy in Malibu. The defendant, thirty-year-old Mick Crowley, was a Washington-based political columnist who was visiting his sister-in-law when he experienced an overwhelming urge to have anal sex with her young son, still in diapers.' Mick Crowley is described as a 'wealthy, spoiled Yale graduate' with a small penis that nonetheless 'caused significant tears to the toddler's rectum.'
