Global Non-Warming

I am just about finished with State of Fear, the latest novel by Michael Crichton. I am only reading it now because I am too poor to be buying hard cover novels willy-nilly like some kind of rich guy.

The book is everything I had hoped it would be after reading various speeches by Crichton and reviews of the book. In fact, it is more. Never have I seen a novel so loaded with footnotes and bibliography. Every "outrageous" claim regarding global warming, the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on a people, is backed up with raw data.

Even for those who prefer non-fiction (and you know who you are) to novels, there is enough science in the book to make it extremely interesting. While some may enjoy the action and intrigue of the book, my favorite part is the endless stream of global warming sycophants who run up against MIT scientist John Kenner. The leftists sound just like most do, and Kenner slaps them all down with facts and data that go a long way to disproving the global warming myth.

Just so we are clear, the data Kenner uses is documented fact, it is only the plot of the book that is fiction.

On a whim I did a search on the book and global warming, and of course there is no shortage of websites dedicted to chipping away at and assassinating the character of Chichton. I did find a review at Reasononline though, that manages to condense the overall message of the book into a reasonably short column. Here is an excerpt:

Contrary to claims that rising global temperatures will melt the ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica, thus elevating sea levels catastrophically, average temperatures over Greenland have been falling since 1987 at a rather steep rate of 2.2 degrees Celsius per decade. Over Antarctica, they’ve been falling for 50 years. Crichton also correctly reports that Nils-Axel Mörner, a professor of geodynamics at Stockholm University, has found “a total absence of any recent sea level rise” and has instead found evidence of a fall in sea levels in the last 20 years.

Temperature in Greenland falling. Check. Antartica too. Check. No sea level rise. Check.

According to satellite data, since 1978 the planet has been warming up at a rate of 0.08 degree Celsius per decade. Simple arithmetic reveals that, if that rate continues, the planet will warm by 0.8 degree Celsius by the end of the century. That compares with an increase of 0.6 degree Celsius during the 20th century. No catastrophe there.

In the 21st century, the temperature will rise at a rate .2 degrees faster than in the 20th century, most of which occurred before the myth of global warming was dreamt up. Check.

Column author Ronald Bailey did find one error in State of Fear though, and here it is:

The MIT professor Kenner claims at one point that “environmental groups in the U.S. generate half a billion dollars a year.” The actual amount for just the 12 largest environmental lobby groups in the U.S. in 2002 was almost $2 billion.

$2 billion. Check. The going rate for fear-mongerers attempting to create hysteria through bogus science.