06.9.2020

20 Years On, Jurassic Park Author Michael Crichton is Still Right about Global Warming

Michael Crichton, who passed in 2008, was also a staunch critic of politicised science, and an articulate and effective global warming skeptic, who was just getting into his stride when he was sadly struck down at age 66 by cancer.

TWENTY YEARS ON, ALIENS STILL CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING Over the years, the Jurassic Park creator observed, science has drifted from its foundation as an objective search for truth toward political power games JONATHAN BARTLETT JUNE 7, 2020 In 2003, author and filmmaker Michael Crichton (1942–2008), best known for Jurassic Park, made a now-famous speech at Caltech, titled “Aliens Cause Global Warming.” The title was humorous but the content was serious. He was not addressing some strange theory of global warming; he was warning about the politicization of science. In 2003, author and filmmaker Michael Crichton (1942–2008), best known for Jurassic Park, made a now-famous speech at Caltech, titled “Aliens Cause Global Warming.” The title was humorous but the content was serious. He was not addressing some strange theory of global warming; he was warning about the politicization of science. Crichton (left, in 2002, courtesy Jon Chase, Harvard CC 3.0), noted that, over the years, science has drifted away from its foundation as an objective search for truth and given itself over to political power games. The first time that he witnessed that was with the famous Drake Equation, used to turn SETI speculations about space aliens into a science. The Drake equation was a series of probabilities multiplied together to estimate the probability that space aliens may exist who can communicate with us. Of course, none of the terms is known or even estimable, and they may not be expressible as probabilities. However, SETI was given a pass because it suited the scientific zeitgeist of the day. It probably helped capture public attention for science. The same thing happened during discussions of the effects of nuclear war. Paper after paper made nonsense claims about such a war’s effects, including nuclear winter. But no one wanted to intervene, fearing that skepticism might be portrayed as a defense of nuclear war. Thus, bad science, even from top-tier journals, was reported as fact by the scientific community. Crichton noted that some of these papers were actually part of an orchestrated media campaign: The first announcement of nuclear winter appeared in an article by Sagan in the Sunday supplement, Parade. The very next day, a highly-publicized, high-profile conference on the long-term consequences of nuclear war was held in Washington, chaired by Carl Sagan and Paul Ehrlich, the most famous and media-savvy scientists of their generation. Sagan appeared on the Johnny Carson show 40 times. Ehrlich was on 25 times. Following the conference, there were press conferences, meetings with congressmen, and so on. The formal papers in Science came months later. MICHAEL CRICHTON, “ALIENS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING” AT CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, PASADENA, CA (JANUARY 17, 2003) He summed it all up by saying, “This is not the way science is done, it is the way products are sold.” Painful, but true. … Read more: https://mindmatters.ai/2020/06/twenty-years-on-aliens-still-cause-global-warming/
The transcript of Crichton’s “Aliens Cause Global Warming” speech is available here. The Aliens speech is Crichton’s description of the chain of Noble Cause Corruption which led to the ongoing silence of the academic establishment in the face of scientifically indefensible climate alarmism. A video of Michael Crichton in action;
Crichton was popular on university campuses, because of his talent as a speaker, his scientific credibility as a qualified scientist, the immense popularity of his works of fiction, including Jurassic Park, Westworld, The Andromeda Strain, and the blockbuster medical TV series ER, and his unyielding support for reason and the scientific method.
Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies at Harvard College in 1960.[6] During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to expose a professor who he believed was giving him abnormally low marks and criticizing his literary style.[9]:4 Informing another professor of his suspicions,[10] Crichton submitted an essay by George Orwell under his own name. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of “B−”.[11] He later said, “Now Orwell was a wonderful writer, and if a B-minus was all he could get, I thought I’d better drop English as my major.”[8] His differences with the English department led Crichton to switch his undergraduate concentration. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in biological anthropology summa cum laude in 1964[12] and was initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society.[12] He received a Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship from 1964 to 1965 and was a visiting lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1965.[12] Crichton later enrolled at Harvard Medical School.[9][page needed] By this time, he had become exceptionally tall, by his own account, approximately 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) tall as of 1997.[13][14] Crichton later said “about two weeks into medical school I realized I hated it. This isn’t unusual since everyone hates medical school – even happy, practicing physicians.”[15] Source: Wikipedia
If Crichton had lived, there is no doubt he would have continued to be a powerful voice for reason, and a fearless critic of climate alarmism and government policy based on scientifically unfounded claims.   This article appeared on the Watts Up With That? website at https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/08/20-years-on-jurassic-park-author-michael-crichton-is-still-right-about-global-warming/]]>

Subscribe to Our Informative Weekly Newsletter Here:

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.