State of Fear and a reflection about global warming

I must admit that for the last reading quiz about State of Fear I did not feel enough confident, probably because at that moment I was just a few pages to finish the first chapter (Akamai). At the beginning it was difficult for me to understand what was really happening in the book. I felt that they were so man they were so many characters and places.   However I been reading the book this weekend and I am starting to feel interested about it. What I am enjoying more about the novel is that Michael Crichton shows much evidence that make you doubt about how real is the theory of the global warming. Some part of the novel seems more Crichton trying to persuade the reader to consider different points of view about the topic of global warming. I think that Crichton represents himself with the character of Kennel, because this is the character that represents the skepticism.

I think that Crichton has a point with that we should be more critic and analytic of all the information that we receive, however, the fact that the global warming is not something completely certain, does not means that we should sit and relax because all that is not true. The scientists have a concept named the precaution principle, this means that when there is something that seems to be affecting people or the environment in some way, those affected need to provide evidnce that there is a relation with X activity and Y effect, while those who actually perform the activity, need to show evidence that there is no relation between X activity and Y effect. But the most important thing of the precautionary principle is that the lack of full scientific evidence does not mean that the measures to protect the environment from a serious threat should not be done.

Crichton says that many “crisis” of the past were fake or not that serious and that might be true. But in the case of global warming we are risking the equilibrium of the earth. The discrepancy between scientists makes this like a playing with dice. We need to something.  If the global warming turn to be rejected theory, we cannot feel bad, because many of the changes that we need to do to reduce our greenhouse gases, are changes that will still benefit us in a certain way.