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I have to agree with Michael. Global warming isn't based on proven science. It's all about politics.
In testifying before Congress in 2005, Crichton -- more qualified than most to recognize junk science when he saw it -- said that a supposedly seminal study on global warming by American researcher Michael Mann, a study which informed a key United Nations' statement on the subject that in turn has forced corporations around the world to spend billions to reduce carbon emissions even as they lay off tens of thousands of workers, was deeply flawed.
Among other things, Mann's study "didn't show the well-known Medieval Warm Period, when temperatures were warmer than they are today, or the Little Ice Age that began around 1500, when the climate was colder than today," Crichton noted.
The study, hailed by vacuous and scientifically illiterate "eco-warriors" like Bono, also provided justification for the abandonment of industrial development projects meant to bring poorer nations out of poverty.
Yet when a pair of Canadian researchers attempted to recreate Mann's work, "they found grave errors," Crichton noted. "Calculation errors, data used twice, data filled in, and a computer program that generated a hockey stick [graph] out of any data fed into it," were among the study's flaws cited by Crichton.
"Why did the U.N. accept Mann's report so uncritically? Why didn't they catch the errors?" Crichton asked lawmakers. "I would remind the committee that in the end, it is the proper function of government to set standards for the integrity of information it uses to make policy," Crichton said.
Additional references: Paul McDougall, Michael Crichton Exposed Greens' Junk Science
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/11/michael_crichto.html - http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/11/michael_crichto.html
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