Global Warning Is A Myth: Ask This Scientician!
By OK, this is probably the essence of Bushism–getting scientific information about crucial issues from fourth-rate hack novelists:
In his new book about Mr. Bush, “Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush,” Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, “State of Fear,” suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.
Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as “a dissenter on the theory of global warming,” writes that the president “avidly read” the novel and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest “talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement.”
“The visit was not made public for fear of outraging environmentalists all the more,” he adds.
And so it has, fueling a common perception among environmental groups that Mr. Crichton’s dismissal of global warming, coupled with his popularity as a novelist and screenwriter, has undermined efforts to pass legislation intended to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that leading scientists say causes climate change.
Mr. Crichton, whose views in “State of Fear” helped him win the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ annual journalism award this month, has been a leading doubter of global warming and last September appeared before a Senate committee to argue that the supporting science was mixed, at best.
“This shows the president is more interested in science fiction than science,” Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said after learning of the White House meeting. Mr. O’Donnell’s group monitors environmental policy.
While I’m not sure if the worse crime here is political or aesthetic, I know I particularly enjoyed the bit about him winning a journalism award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Athenae predicts: “Next week: Bush consults with Danielle Steel on marriage initiatives, interviews John Grisham for a job in the White House counsel’s office, orders every book in NASA’s library chucked out and replaced with Piers Anthony stories, appoints Tom Clancy head of the Joint Chiefs, Robert Ludlum chief of the CIA, and hires fucking Scott Turow as Attorney General.” (Actually, Turow as AG would be a gigantic improvement.) And as Michael notes, this could be a bad sign for trade relations with Japan. (If only Clinton had been aware of the real truth about sexual harassment.)
As Chris Mooney demonstrates, the novel is of course as scientifically inaccurate as it is bad.