Michael Crichton (RIP) on the Environment

Michael Crich­ton has died of can­cer. You know him best as the author of Juras­sic Park and The Androm­e­da Strain. But some will remem­ber him for the con­tro­ver­sy that sur­round­ed his lat­er career. Crich­ton’s 2004 nov­el, State of Fear launched a lit­er­ary assault on envi­ron­men­tal­ism and the con­cept of glob­al warm­ing. And the next thing you know, Crich­ton tes­ti­fied before the US Sen­ate at the invi­ta­tion of Sen­a­tor James M. Inhofe, who called glob­al warm­ing “the great­est hoax ever per­pe­trat­ed on the Amer­i­can peo­ple.” (Inhofe also made State of Fear — a nov­el, mind you — required read­ing for the Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on Envi­ron­ment and Pub­lic Works.) Below, we fea­ture Crich­ton offer­ing his thoughts on why envi­ron­men­tal­ism is “one of the most pow­er­ful reli­gions in the West­ern world.”

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