State of Fear

Blockbuster writer Michael Crichton's eco-thriller is a dizzying, adventure-packed novel, embedded with a controversial message. A highly organized group of environmental extremists are linked to the bizarre deaths of a graduate student in wave mechanics and a man who leases submarines, as well as the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy donor to environmental causes. Their plan is to raise awareness of global warming by artificially precipitating natural disasters that will reap a high cost in human lives. Crichton uses his fiction to address some very real concerns of his, citing actual scientific research to contend that global warming is probably a nonexistent threat, and that no one is doing anything effective to determine and solve genuine environmental problems. He further suggests that most environmentalists ignore or twist the research of scientists whose evidence contradicts their agenda, that the people running environmental groups are motivated by greed, and that the activists supporting the groups are motivated by ignorance. Some may dismiss the novel as a right-wing polemic; others may find it a chillingly possible vision of things to come.