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I like to think that if Crichton hadn't died so young he would've eventually given up being a climate denier.
by causi 4y ago
I like to think that if Crichton hadn't died so young he would've eventually given up being a climate denier.
- ggm 4y agoThe take down on his footnote riddled state of fear is good. Shame about the politics because is was a great airport thriller. Full of mcguffins left right and centre.
- evv555 4y agoWas he a climate denier or a critic of the emerging scientism in the climate change debate? There are unintended consequences to arriving at the right conclusion(climate change is real) for the wrong reasons. It undermines societies ability to move forward viable solutions.
- notahacker 4y agoNo, he was a full blown denier, fond of making outlandish claims like the Antarctic ice area actually increasing, misrepresenting what the scientists had actually predicted in order to claim their predictions had failed, as well as writing an entertaining-but-silly novel about eco-terrorists faking natural disasters full of nonsense gotchas like "look, the temperature record in this place is lower than it was x years ago" He just was smart enough to caveat it with "maybe the world is getting a little bit warmer but we can't be sure why" and to focus on attacking the notion of scientific consensus and modelling rather than defending alternative hypotheses in any detail.
- xenonite 4y agoI rather see his story as a reminder that scientific studies are often used to "prove" a claim, rather than openly looking for the outcome.
- evv555 4y agoI don't agree that this is an accurate characterization of Crichton's perspective.
- notahacker 4y agoSuuuure, he was actually trying to ensure society moved forward viable solutions to anthropogenic climate change by repeatedly asserting there was actually no evidence of its existence, misrepresenting accurate past predictions of warming in order to discredit them, even writing a book in which the natural disasters attributed to climate change were actually part of a murderous conspiracy to fake it, with a great big long appendix about the dangers of scientists advising government on public policy when contrarians like him could be doing that instead...
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- pessimizer 4y agoSeems unlikely, he was typical of a cluster of opinion that has become more widespread since. Climate denial wasn't his only thing, for example, he also was a "the real sexism is against men" guy.
- xenonite 4y agoI don’t think that he spread such a plain opinion. I think he rather tried to add balance to a one sided discussion.
- 0xcde4c3db 4y agoSee also: Scott Adams, who seems to be on a similar arc. 1990s Dilbert: Office workers express skepticism and frustration surrounding their boss's incompetence and how meaningful their work really is. 2020s Dilbert: A robot indignantly asks "did you just assume my gender?" after having a "wokeness chip" installed [1]. I expect that within another decade he'll go full Mallard Fillmore and just have Dilbert's head in the corner with the rest of the comic being a giant speech bubble filled with a barely-coherent rant against people who only exist in his imagination. [1] https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-09-05 https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-09-05
- mongol 4y agoTo be fair, wokeness wasn't a thing in the 1990s.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoWe called it "political correctness" then. It was a big deal back then, and subsided a bit in the 00s, to come roaring back in the 2010s.
- mongol 4y agoIt was not the same thing. The Dilbert strip linked would have made no sense in the 1990s. It makes complete sense today.