"Fate of Stear"

My latest audio book is Michael Crichton's "State of Fear." Interesting, though as usual with Crichton I have no idea where the real science ends and the fiction begins. Not that I let it bother me much. I find his books entertaining, and cautiously informative.

I have to laugh at this one just a bit, though. The one constant theme of his in the books/movies I've seen is the idea of the "academic-as-hero." I think in this one Crichton is poking a little fun at himself in the character of Dr. John Kenner. The character is a scientist turned anti-eco-terrorist spy--a real action hero type.

And what are the most famous action figures of all time (other than perhaps GI Joe)? Star Wars. And who made at least the original Star Wars action figures? Kenner. Coincidence? I highly doubt it. Not from Crichton.

Anyway, it's a fun book, though I find his treatment of the main character, Peter Evans, just a little heavy-handed. There's no question of where Crichton stands on the issue. And I happen to agree with him that much of the environmental doom-n-gloom science we hear about these days is likely manipulation at best or bad science at worst. However, that does not excuse us from being more careful with the environment than we are. Just because we can't prove anything catastrophic is happening because of human impact doesn't mean that we aren't having a negative impact. There is plenty of things we can prove that we should be concerned about, even without Global Warming in the picture.

Anyway, Peter Evans is his foil, his 100% true blue, body-of-believers environmentalist who, though the proof he clings to is shaky, refuses to believe any of the counter-science he is bombarded with by Dr. Action-hero. I suspect by the end of the book he'll come around, of course, but right now his tenacious clinging to "my scientists are unbiased, pure, and trustworthy while yours are all disreputable pawns of big business" is really getting old. It would be easier to buy if this character weren't a lawyer. I thought lawyers were supposed to be good at seeing things in shades of gray.

At any rate, I'll hold my judgement until the end of the book, but I'm really hoping that Crichton adopts a middle-line at some point; no, we're not on the edge of disaster that we know of, but yes, we should be paying more attention to what we're doing and being better stewards of the planet, because we don't know that we're not destroying the place, either. And certainly, his message about not believing everything you hear in the media is valid, especially surrounding research and science. The media are notorious about misrepresenting data and the scientific significance of various studies. It doesn't mean they're wrong, just that we should always question, something we should have learned from our high school science teachers a long time ago.

Incidentally, has anyone verified his quoted sources? Being an audio book--one that I listen to while driving, no less--that's a little hard for me to do, currently.