Is my end near?

  Recently, I met with a dietician to discuss a diet plan that would help me shed some unwanted (and dangerous) pounds. In the questionnaire there was this question: "Why do you want to become healthier?" Of course, the list is long—to spend time with future grandchildren, to finish my novel, to go as far as I can down the road hand-in-hand with my wife.

   But I was feeling a bit frisky that day, so I replied, "I want to live long enough for Al Gore to become nothing more than the butt of a joke." The reply got a laugh and a nod from the dietician. I have nothing personally against Al Gore, but everything against him philosophically. I think he is disingenuous, a demagogue and a coward.

  Then Vice President Gore appeared on The Tonight Show and, in the course of his usual sermon, let loose this whopper:

   Actually, the core of the earth is somewhere in the neighborhood of  9000 degrees Fahrenheit. He only missed it by "millions of degrees." This is not atypical of Al Gore's message, and the only thing that makes him appear wise is that he won't debate anyone. Smart move.

   But here is my concern: Al Gore is becoming the butt of jokes. So, should I be sure my will and medical directive are up-to-date?

—W.S.

 

On global warming fear-mongering

Michael Crichton (1942-2008)

And one other thing. If we want to manage complexity, we must eliminate fear. Fear may draw a television audience. It may generate cash for an advocacy group. It may support the legal profession. But fear paralyzes us. It freezes us. And we need to be flexible in our responses, as we move into a new era of managing complexity. So we have to stop responding to fear.

Is this really the end of the world? Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods?

No, we simply live on an active planet. Earthquakes are continuous, a million and a half of them every year, or three every minute. A Richter 5 quake every six hours, a major quake every 3 weeks. A quake as destructive as the one in Pakistan every 8 months. It’s nothing new, it’s right on schedule.

At any moment there are 1,500 electrical storms on the planet. A tornado touches down every six hours. We have ninety hurricanes a year, or one every four days. Again, right on schedule. Violent, disruptive, chaotic activity is a constant feature of our globe.

Is this the end of the world? No: this is the world.

It’s time we knew it.

Michael Crichton, from a speech delivered at the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy, Washington, DC, on November 6, 2005.

On the idea that we can control the environment

"If the Earth came with an operating manual, the chapter on climate might begin with a caveat that the system has been adjusted at the factory for optimum comfort, so don't touch the dials." —Dr. J. W. C. White of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research of the University of Colorado. Quoted in a 1993 NYT article.