An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities".^[1] An environmentalist is engaged in or believes in the philosophy of environmentalism.

Most politically inclined environmentalists identify themselves as greens and they have strong views on issues that concern the environment. The Green Parties are generally applied to those in the environmental movement working as volunteers, activists or paid staff. However, the term could also be applied to environmental scientists. Some environmentalists are also green anarchists, arguing that true environmental change cannot occur under the present economic model. Others are eco-socialists, who combine Marxism, socialism and ecology with environmentalism to produce an anti-capitalist ideology that sees capitalism as the cause of environmental problems, social injustice and inequality.

Typically, environmentalists have conservationist views - in general, they advocate for the preservation, restoration, or enhancement of the natural environment.

Environmentalists are sometimes given names in an informal or derogatory context such as the terms "greenie" and "tree-hugger".^[2]

Notable environmentalists[link]

Some of the notable environmentalists who have been active in lobbying for environmental protection include:

See also[link]

• Environmentalism
• Conservationist
  • Conservation movement
  • Conservation ethic
  • Ecology movement
• Green libertarianism

References[link]

1. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Environmentalism (social science)
2. ^ Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, ed. (2005). Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd revised ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-861057-2. 

External links[link]

• EnviroLink Network - A non-profit clearinghouse of environmental news and information

Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton at Harvard University (April 18, 2002)
Born	John Michael Crichton (1942-10-23)October 23, 1942 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	November 4, 2008(2008-11-04) (aged 66) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Pen name	John Lange Jeffery Hudson Michael Douglas
Occupation	Author, film producer, film director, screenwriter, television producer
Language	English
Nationality	American
Education	Harvard College Harvard Medical School
Period	1966–2008
Genres	Action, adventure, science fiction, techno-thriller
Notable award(s)	1969 Edgar Award
Influences Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, George Orwell, Jules Verne[1]
Signature
www.crichton-official.com

John Michael Crichton ( /ˈkraɪtən/; rhymes with frighten;^[2] October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008), best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted into films. In 1994, Crichton became the only creative artist ever to have works simultaneously charting at #1 in television, film, and book sales (with ER, Jurassic Park, and Disclosure, respectively).^[3]

His literary works are usually based on the action genre and heavily feature technology. His novels epitomize the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, especially resulting in catastrophes with biotechnology. Many of his future history novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. He was the author of, among others, Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Travels, Sphere, Rising Sun, Disclosure, The Lost World, Airframe, Timeline, Prey, State of Fear, Next (the final book published before his death), Pirate Latitudes (published November 24, 2009), and a final unfinished techno-thriller, Micro, which was published in November 2011.^[4]

Early life and education[link]

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John Michael Crichton was born in Chicago Illinois,^[5][6][7][8] to John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton, on October 23, 1942. He was raised on Long Island, in Roslyn, New York,^[2] and had three siblings: two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a younger brother, Douglas.^{[citation needed]} Crichton showed a keen interest in writing from a young age and at the age of 14 had a column related to travel published in The New York Times.^[3] Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies at Harvard College in 1960.^[3] During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to catch out a professor whom he believed to be giving him abnormally low marks and criticizing his literary style.^[9] Informing another professor of his suspicions,^[10] Crichton plagiarized a work by George Orwell and submitted it as his own. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of "B−".^[11] His issues with the English department led Crichton to switch his course to biological anthropology as an undergraduate, obtaining his A.B. summa cum laude in 1964.^[12] He was also initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society.^{[citation needed]} He went on to become the Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellow^{[citation needed]} from 1964 to 1965 and Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1965.^{[citation needed]}

Crichton later enrolled at Harvard Medical School when he began publishing work.^[13] By this time he had become unusually tall. By his own account, he was approximately 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) tall in 1997.^[14][15] In reference to his height, while in medical school, he began writing novels under the pen names "John Lange"^{[citation needed]} and "Jeffrey Hudson"^{[citation needed]} ("Lange" is a surname in Germany, meaning "long", and Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous 17th-century dwarf in the court of Queen Consort Henrietta Maria of England). In "Travels", he recalls overhearing doctors discussing the flaws in his book "The Andromeda Strain", unaware that he was its author. "A Case of Need", written under the Hudson pseudonym, won him his first Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1969.^{[citation needed]} He also co-authored "Dealing" with his younger brother Douglas under the shared pen name "Michael Douglas".^{[citation needed]} The back cover of that book carried a picture, taken by their mother, of Michael and Douglas when very young.^{[citation needed]}

During his clinical rotations at the Boston City Hospital, Crichton grew disenchanted with the culture there, which appeared to emphasize the interests and reputations of doctors over the interests of patients.^[13] Crichton graduated from Harvard, obtaining an M.D. in 1969,^[16] and undertook a post-doctoral fellowship study at the Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, from 1969 to 1970.^{[citation needed]} He never obtained a license to practice medicine, devoting himself to his writing career instead.

Reflecting on his career in medicine years later, Crichton concluded that patients too often shunned responsibility for their own health, relying on doctors as miracle workers rather than advisors. He experimented with astral projection, aura viewing, and clairvoyance, coming to believe that these included real phenomena that scientists had too eagerly dismissed as paranormal.^[13]

In 1988, Crichton was a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[17]

Writing career[link]

Fiction[link]

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Odds On was Michael Crichton's first published novel. It was published in 1966, under the pseudonym of John Lange. It is a 215-page paperback novel which describes an attempted robbery in an isolated hotel on Costa Brava. The robbery is planned scientifically with the help of a Critical Path Analysis computer program, but unforeseen events get in the way. The following year he published Scratch One. The novel relates the story of Roger Carr, a handsome, charming and privileged man who practices law, more as a means to support his playboy lifestyle than a career. Carr is sent to Nice, France where he has notable political connections, but is mistaken for an assassin and finds his life in jeopardy, implicated in the world of terrorism. In 1968, he published two novels, Easy Go and A Case of Need, the second of which was re-published in 1993, under his real name. Easy Go relates the story of Harold Barnaby, a brilliant Egyptologist who discovers a concealed message while translating hieroglyphics, informing him of an unnamed Pharaoh whose tomb is yet to be discovered. A Case of Need, on the other hand was a medical thriller in which a Boston pathologist, Dr. John Berry, investigates an apparent illegal abortion conducted by an obstetrician friend which caused the early demise of a young woman. The novel would prove a turning point in Crichton's future novels, in which technology is important in the subject matter, although this novel was as much about medical practice. The novel earned him an Edgar Award in 1969.

In 1969, Crichton published three novels. The first, Zero Cool, dealt with an American radiologist on vacation in Spain who is caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact. The second, The Andromeda Strain, would prove to be the most important novel of his career and establish him as a best-selling author. The novel documented the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that fatally clots human blood, infecting the sufferer and causing death within two minutes. The microbe, code named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biological properties. The novel became an instant success, and it was only two years before the novel was sought after by film producers and turned into the 1971 film under the direction of Robert Wise and featuring Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid as Leavitt, and David Wayne. In September 2004, the Sci Fi Channel would announce a production of a miniseries, executive-produced by Ridley Scott, Tony Scott and Frank Darabont, premiering on May 26, 2008. Crichton's third novel of 1969, The Venom Business relates the story of a smuggler who uses his exceptional skill as a snake handler to his advantage by importing snakes to be used by drug companies and universities for medical research. The snakes are simply a ruse to hide the presence of rare Mexican artifacts. In 1969, Crichton also wrote a review for The New Republic (as J. Michael Crichton), critiquing Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.^{[citation needed]}

In 1970, Crichton again published three novels: Drug of Choice, Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues and Grave Descend. Grave Descend earned him an Edgar Award nomination the following year.^[18]

In 1972, Crichton published two novels. The first, Binary, relates the story of a villainous middle-class businessman who attempts to assassinate the President of the United States by stealing an army shipment of the two precursor chemicals that form a deadly nerve agent. The second, The Terminal Man is about a psychomotor epileptic sufferer, Harry Benson, who in regularly suffering seizures followed by blackouts, conducts himself inappropriately during seizures, waking up hours later with no knowledge of what he has done. Believed to be psychotic, he is investigated, electrodes are implanted in his brain, continuing the preoccupation in Crichton's novels with machine-human interaction and technology. The novel was adapted into a film directed by Mike Hodges and starring George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard A. Dysart and Donald Moffat, released in June 1974. However neither the novel nor the film was well received by critics.^{[citation needed]}

In 1975, Crichton ventured into the nineteenth century with his historical novel The Great Train Robbery, which would become a bestseller. The novel is a recreation of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, a massive gold heist, which takes place on a train traveling through Victorian era England. A considerable proportion of the book was set in London. The novel was later made into a 1979 film directed by Crichton himself, starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. The film would go on to be nominated for Best Cinematography Award by the British Society of Cinematographers, also garnering an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture by the Mystery Writers Association of America.

In 1976, Crichton published Eaters of the Dead, a novel about a tenth-century Muslim who travels with a group of Vikings to their settlement. Eaters of the Dead is narrated as a scientific commentary on an old manuscript and was inspired by two sources. The first three chapters retelling Ahmad ibn Fadlan's personal account of his journey north and his experiences in encountering the Rus', the early Russian peoples, whilst the remainder is based upon the story of Beowulf, culminating in battles with the 'mist-monsters', or 'wendol', a relict group of Neanderthals. The novel was adapted into film as The 13th Warrior, initially directed by John McTiernan, who was later fired with Crichton himself taking over direction.

In 1980, Crichton published the novel Congo, which centers on an expedition searching for diamonds in the tropical rain forest of Congo. They discover the legendary lost city of Zinj and an unusual race of barbarous gorillas. The novel was loosely adapted into a 1995 film, starring Laura Linney, Tim Curry, and Ernie Hudson. Seven years later, Crichton published Sphere, a novel which relates the story of psychologist Norman Johnson, who is required by the U.S. Navy to join a team of scientists assembled by the U.S. Government to examine an enormous alien spacecraft discovered on the bed of the Pacific Ocean, believed to have been there for over 300 years. The novel begins as a science fiction story, but rapidly changes into a psychological thriller, ultimately exploring the nature of the human imagination. The novel was adapted into the film Sphere in 1998, directed by Barry Levinson, with a cast including Dustin Hoffman as Norman Johnson, (renamed Norman Goodman), Samuel L. Jackson, Liev Schreiber and Sharon Stone.

Crichton's novel Jurassic Park and its sequels made into films would become a part of popular culture, with related parks established in places as far afield as Kletno, Poland.

In 1990, Crichton published the novel Jurassic Park. Crichton utilized the presentation of "fiction as fact", used in his previous novels, Eaters of the Dead and The Andromeda Strain. In addition, chaos theory and its philosophical implications are used to explain the collapse of an amusement park in a "biological preserve" on Isla Nublar, an island west of Costa Rica. Paleontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist graduate student, Ellie Sattler, are brought in by billionaire John Hammond to investigate. The park is revealed to contain genetically recreated dinosaur species, including Dilophosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex, among others. They have been recreated using damaged dinosaur DNA, found in mosquitoes that sucked Saurian blood and were then trapped and preserved in amber.

Crichton had originally conceived a screenplay about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur, but decided to explore his fascination with dinosaurs and cloning until he began writing the novel.^[19] Spielberg learned of the novel in October 1989, while he and Crichton were discussing a screenplay that would become the television series ER. Before the book was published, Crichton demanded a non-negotiable fee of $1.5 million as well as a substantial percentage of the gross. Warner Bros. and Tim Burton, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Richard Donner, and 20th Century Fox and Joe Dante bid for the rights,^[20] but Universal eventually acquired them in May 1990, for Spielberg.^[21] Universal paid Crichton a further $500,000 to adapt his own novel,^[22] which he had completed by the time Spielberg was filming Hook. Crichton noted that because the book was "fairly long", his script only had about 10–20 percent of the novel's content.^[23] The film, directed by Spielberg, was eventually released in 1993, starring Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm (the chaos theorist), and Richard Attenborough, as John Hammond, the billionaire CEO, of InGen. The film would go on to become extremely successful.

A mosquito preserved in amber. A specimen of this sort was the source of dinosaur DNA in Jurassic Park.

In 1992, Crichton published the novel Rising Sun, an international best-selling crime thriller about a murder in the Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a fictional Japanese corporation. The book was instantly adapted into a film, released the same year of the movie adaption of Jurassic Park in 1993, and starring Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Tia Carrere and Harvey Keitel. His next novel, Disclosure, published in 1994, addresses the theme of sexual harassment previously explored in his 1972 Binary. Unlike that novel however, Crichton centers on sexual politics in the workplace, emphasizing an array of paradoxes in traditional gender functions, by featuring a male protagonist who is being sexually harassed by a female executive. As a result, the book has been harshly criticized by feminist commentators and accused of anti-feminism. Crichton, anticipating this response, offered a rebuttal at the close of the novel which states that a "role-reversal" story uncovers aspects of the subject that would not be as easily seen with a female protagonist. The novel was made into a film the same year under the helm of Barry Levinson, and starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore and Donald Sutherland.

Crichton then published The Lost World in 1995, as the sequel to Jurassic Park. It was made into a film sequel two years later in 1997, again directed by Spielberg and starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn and Pete Postlethwaite. Then, in 1996, Crichton published Airframe, an aero-techno-thriller which relates the story of a quality assurance vice-president at the fictional aerospace manufacturer Norton Aircraft, as she investigates an in-flight accident aboard a Norton-manufactured airliner that leaves three passengers dead and fifty-six injured. Again, Crichton uses the false document literary device, presenting numerous technical documents to create a sense of authenticity. In the novel, Crichton draws from real life accidents to increase its sensation of realism, including American Airlines Flight 191 and Aeroflot Flight 593; the latter flew from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport and crashed on its way to Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport in 1994. Crichton challenges the public perception of air safety and the consequences of exaggerated media reports to sell the story. The book also continues Crichton's overall theme of the failure of humans in human-machine interaction, given that the plane itself worked perfectly and the accident would not have occurred had the pilot reacted properly.

In 1999, Crichton published Timeline, a science fiction novel which tells the story of a team of historians and archaeologists studying a site in the Dordogne region of France where the medieval towns of Castelgard and La Roque stood. They time-travel back to 1357, to uncover some startling truths. The novel, which continues Crichton's long history of combining technical details and action in his books, addresses quantum physics and time travel directly and received a warm welcome from medieval scholars, who praised his depiction of the challenges in studying the Middle Ages.^[24] The novel quickly spawned Timeline Computer Entertainment, a computer game developer that created the Timeline PC game published by Eidos Interactive in 2000. A film based on the book was released in 2003, by Paramount Pictures, with a screen adaptation by Jeff Maguire and George Nolfi, under the direction of Richard Donner. The film stars Paul Walker, Gerard Butler and Frances O'Connor.

In 2002, Crichton published Prey, a cautionary tale about developments in science and technology; specifically nanotechnology. The novel explores relatively recent phenomena engendered by the work of the scientific community, such as artificial life, emergence (and by extension, complexity), genetic algorithms, and agent-based computing. Reiterating components in many of his other novels, Crichton once again devises fictional companies, this time Xymos, a nanorobotics company which is claimed to be on the verge of perfecting a revolutionary new medical imaging technology based on nanotechnology and a rival company, MediaTronics.

In 2004, Crichton published State of Fear, a novel concerning eco-terrorists who attempt mass murder to support their views. Global warming and climate change serve as a central theme to the novel, and in Appendix I of the book, Crichton warns both sides of the global warming debate against the politicization of science.^[25] He provides two examples of the disastrous combination of pseudo-science and politics, the early 20th-century idea of eugenics, which allowed for the Holocaust, and Lysenkoism. The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the #1 bestseller position at Amazon.com and #2 on The New York Times Best Seller list for one week in January 2005.^[26][27]

The last novel published while he was still living was Next, printed in 2006. The novel follows many characters, including transgenic animals, in the quest to survive in a world dominated by genetic research, corporate greed, and legal interventions where government and private investors spend billions of dollars every year on genetic research.

His last novel, Pirate Latitudes, was originally scheduled for a release date of December 2, 2008.^[28] However, it was postponed until November 24, 2009. Additionally, an unfinished novel, titled Micro,^[29] was published on November 22, 2011. The novel has been co-written by Richard Preston.^[4]

Non-fiction[link]

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Crichton's first published book of non-fiction, Five Patients, recounts his experiences of practices in the late 1960s at Massachusetts General Hospital and the issues of costs and politics within the American Healthcare Service.

Aside from fiction, Crichton wrote several other books based on medical or scientific themes, often based upon his own observations in his field of expertise. In 1970, he published Five Patients, a book which recounts his experiences of hospital practices in the late 1960s at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The book follows each of five patients through their hospital experience and the context of their treatment, revealing inadequacies in the hospital institution at the time. The book relates the experiences of Ralph Orlando, a construction worker seriously injured in a scaffold collapse; John O'Connor, a middle aged dispatcher suffering from fever that has reduced him to a delirious wreck; Peter Luchesi, a young man who severs his hand in an accident; Sylvia Thompson, an airline passenger who suffers chest pains; and Edith Murphy, a mother of three who is diagnosed with a life threatening disease. In Five Patients, Crichton examines a brief history of medicine up to 1969, to help place hospital culture and practice into context, and addresses the costs and politics of the national healthcare service. As a personal friend to the artist Jasper Johns, Crichton compiled many of his works in a coffee table book, published as Jasper Johns. It was originally published in 1970, by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art and again in January 1977, with a second revised edition published in 1994.

In 1983, Crichton authored Electronic Life, a book that introduces BASIC programming to its readers. The book, written like a glossary, with entries such as "Afraid of Computers (everybody is)," "Buying a Computer," and "Computer Crime", was intended to introduce the idea of personal computers to a reader who might be faced with the hardship of using them at work or at home for the first time. It defined basic computer jargon and assured readers that they could master the machine when it inevitably arrived. In his words, being able to program a computer is liberation; "In my experience, you assert control over a computer—show it who's the boss—by making it do something unique. That means programming it....If you devote a couple of hours to programming a new machine, you'll feel better about it ever afterwards".^[30] In the book, Crichton predicts a number of events in the history of computer development, that computer networks would increase in importance as a matter of convenience, including the sharing of information and pictures that we see online today which the telephone never could. He also makes predictions for computer games, dismissing them as "the hula hoops of the '80s", and saying "already there are indications that the mania for twitch games may be fading." In a section of the book called "Microprocessors, or how I flunked biostatistics at Harvard," Crichton again seeks his revenge on the medical school teacher who had given him abnormally low grades in college. Within the book, Crichton included many self-written demonstrative Applesoft (for Apple II) and BASICA (for IBM PC compatibles) programs.

Then, in 1988, he published Travels, which also contains autobiographical episodes covered in a similar fashion to his 1970 book Five Patients.

Literary techniques[link]

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Crichton's novels, including Jurassic Park, have been described by The Guardian as "harking back to the fantasy adventure fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Edgar Wallace, but with a contemporary spin, assisted by cutting-edge technology references made accessible for the general reader".^[31] According to The Guardian, "Michael Crichton wasn't really interested in characters, but his innate talent for storytelling enabled him to breathe new life into the science fiction thriller".^[31] Like The Guardian, The New York Times has also noted the boys adventure quality to his novels interfused with modern technology and science. According to The New York Times,

All the Crichton books depend to a certain extent on a little frisson of fear and suspense: that's what kept you turning the pages. But a deeper source of their appeal was the author's extravagant care in working out the clockwork mechanics of his experiments — the DNA replication in Jurassic Park, the time travel in Timeline, the submarine technology in Sphere. The novels have embedded in them little lectures or mini-seminars on, say, the Bernoulli principle, voice-recognition software or medieval jousting etiquette ... The best of the Crichton novels have about them a boys' adventure quality. They owe something to the Saturday-afternoon movie serials that Mr. Crichton watched as a boy and to the adventure novels of Arthur Conan Doyle (from whom Mr. Crichton borrowed the title The Lost World and whose example showed that a novel could never have too many dinosaurs). These books thrive on yarn spinning, but they also take immense delight in the inner workings of things (as opposed to people, women especially), and they make the world — or the made-up world, anyway — seem boundlessly interesting. Readers come away entertained and also with the belief, not entirely illusory, that they have actually learned something"

— The New York Times on the works of Michael Crichton^[32]

Crichton's works were frequently cautionary; his plots often portrayed scientific advancements going awry, commonly resulting in worst-case scenarios. A notable recurring theme in Crichton's plots is the pathological failure of complex systems and their safeguards, whether biological (Jurassic Park), military/organizational (The Andromeda Strain), technical (Airframe) or cybernetic (Westworld). This theme of the inevitable breakdown of "perfect" systems and the failure of "fail-safe measures" can be seen strongly in the poster for Westworld (slogan: "Where nothing can possibly go worng ..." (sic) ) and in the discussion of chaos theory in Jurassic Park.

The use of author surrogate was a feature of Crichton's writings from the beginning of his career. In A Case of Need, one of his pseudonymous whodunit stories, Crichton used first-person narrative to portray the hero, a Bostonian pathologist, who is running against the clock to clear a friend's name from medical malpractice in a girl's death from a hack-job abortion.

Some of Crichton's fiction used a literary technique called false document. For example, Eaters of the Dead is a fabricated recreation of the Old English epic Beowulf in the form of a scholarly translation of Ahmad ibn Fadlan's 10th century manuscript. Other novels, such as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, incorporated fictionalized scientific documents in the form of diagrams, computer output, DNA sequences, footnotes and bibliography. Some of his novels included authentic published scientific works to illustrate his point, such as in The Terminal Man and State of Fear.

At the prose level, one of Crichton's trademarks was the single word paragraph: a dramatic question answered by a single word on its own as a paragraph.

Works[link]

Fiction[link]

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Non-fiction[link]

As a film director and screenwriter[link]

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Crichton wrote or directed several motion pictures and episodes of TV series. In the 1970s in particular he was intent on being a successful filmmaker. His first film, Pursuit (1972), was a TV movie both written and directed by Crichton that is based on his novel Binary.

Westworld was the first feature film that used 2D computer-generated imagery (CGI).

Crichton directed the film Coma, adapted from a Robin Cook novel. There are other similarities in terms of genre and the fact that both Cook and Crichton had medical degrees, were of similar age, and wrote about similar subjects.

Other major releases directed by Crichton include The Great Train Robbery (1979), Looker (1981), Runaway (1984), and Physical Evidence (1989). The middle two films were science fiction, set in the very near future at the time, and included particularly flashy styles of filmmaking, for their time.

He wrote the screenplay for the movies Extreme Close Up (1973) and Twister (1996), the latter co-written with Anne-Marie Martin, his wife at the time. While Jurassic Park and The Lost World were both based on Crichton's novels, Jurassic Park III was not (though scenes from the Jurassic Park novel were incorporated into the third film, such as the aviary).

Crichton was also the creator and executive producer of the television drama ER. He had written what became the pilot script in 1974. Twenty years later Steven Spielberg helped develop the show, serving as a producer on season one and offering advice (he insisted on Julianna Margulies becoming a regular, for example). It was also through Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment that John Wells was contacted to be the show's executive producer. In 1994, Crichton achieved the unique distinction of having a #1 movie, Jurassic Park,^{[citation needed]} a #1 TV show, ER,^{[citation needed]} and a #1 book, Disclosure.^[60][61]

Crichton wrote only three episodes of ER:^{[citation needed]}

• Episode 1-1: "24 Hours"
• Episode 1-2: "Day One"
• Episode 1-3: "Going Home"

Computer games[link]

Amazon is a graphical text adventure game created by Michael Crichton and produced by John Wells under Trillium Corp. Amazon was released in the United States in 1984, and it runs on Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and the DOS systems. It sold more than 100,000 copies, making it a significant commercial success at the time. It featured plot elements similar to those later used in Congo.^[62]

In 1999, Crichton founded Timeline Computer Entertainment with David Smith. Despite signing a multi-title publishing deal with Eidos Interactive, only one game was ever published, Timeline. Released on December 8, 2000, for the PC, the game received negative reviews and sold poorly.

Speeches[link]

Crichton delivered a number of notable speeches in his lifetime.

Intelligence Squared "Global Warming is Not a Crisis" debate[link]

On March 14, 2007, Intelligence Squared held a debate in New York City entitled Global Warming is Not a Crisis, moderated by Brian Lehrer. Crichton was on the for the motion side along with Richard Lindzen and Philip Stott against Gavin Schmidt, Richard Somerville, and Brenda Ekwurzel. Before the debate, the audience were largely on the Against the motion side at 57% vs 30% in favor of the for side, with a 12% undecided.^[63] At the end of the debate, there was a notable shift in the audience vote at 46% vs 42% in favor of the for the motion side leaving the debate with the conclusion that Crichton's group won.^[63] Schmidt later reflected on the debate in a RealClimate blog posting, conceding that his side's presentation was "pretty dull" and calling Crichton's debating skills "extremely polished."^[64]

In the debate, although he admitted that man must have at some point contributed to global warming but not necessarily caused it, Crichton argued that most of the media and attention of the general public are being dedicated to the uncertain anthropogenic global warming scares instead of the more urgent issues like poverty. He also suggested that private jets be banned as they add more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the benefit of the few who could afford them.

Genetic research and legislative needs[link]

While writing Next, Crichton concluded that laws covering genetic research desperately needed to be revised, and spoke to Congressional staff members about problems ahead. A Talk to Legislative Staffers Washington, D.C. September 14, 2006^[65]

Complexity theory and environmental management[link]

In previous speeches, Crichton criticized environmental groups for failing to incorporate complexity theory. Here he explains in detail why complexity theory is essential to environmental management, using the history of Yellowstone Park as an example of what not to do. Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy Washington, D.C. November 6, 2005 ^[66][67]

Testimony before the United States Senate[link]

Together with climate scientists, Crichton was invited to testify before the Senate in September 2005, as an expert witness on global warming.^[68]

Crichton argued for independent verification of research used for public policy, and criticized the so-called "hockeystick" study, for reasons that were the subject of intense debate by U.S. Legislators^[69] Committee on Environment and Public Works Washington, D.C.

Caltech Michelin Lecture[link]

"Aliens Cause Global Warming" January 17, 2003. In the spirit of his science fiction writing Crichton details the fallacy of Carl Sagan's nuclear winter and SETI Drake equations relative to global warming alarmism.^[70]

The Case for Skepticism on Global Warming[link]

On January 25, 2005 at the National Press Club Washington, D.C., Crichton delivered a detailed explanation of why he criticizes global warming scenarios. Using published UN data, he reviews why claims for catastrophic warming arouse doubt; why reducing CO₂ is vastly more difficult than we are being told; and why we are morally unjustified in spending vast sums on this speculative issue when people around the world are dying of starvation and disease.^[71]

Science Policy in the 21st Century[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Crichton outlined several issues before a joint meeting of liberal and conservative think tanks. Joint Session AEI-Brookings Institution Washington, D.C. January 25, 2005

Environmentalism as Religion[link]

This was not the first discussion of environmentalism as a religion, but it caught on and was widely quoted. Crichton explains why religious approaches to the environment are inappropriate and cause damage to the natural world they intend to protect.^[71] Commonwealth Club San Francisco, California September 15, 2003

Ritual Abuse, Hot Air, and Missed Opportunities: Science Views Media[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The AAAS invited Crichton to address scientists' concerns about how they are portrayed in the media. American Association for the Advancement of Science Anaheim, California January 25, 1999

Mediasaurus: The Decline of Conventional Media[link]

A 1993 speech which predicted the decline of mainstream media. National Press Club, Washington, D.C. April 7, 1993.^[72]

Reception[link]

Criticism of Crichton's environmental views[link]

Many of Crichton's publicly expressed views, particularly on subjects like the global warming controversy, have been contested by a number of scientists and commentators.^[73] An example is meteorologist Jeffrey Masters' review of State of Fear:

Flawed or misleading presentations of global warming science exist in the book, including those on Arctic sea ice thinning, correction of land-based temperature measurements for the urban heat island effect, and satellite vs. ground-based measurements of Earth's warming. I will spare the reader additional details. On the positive side, Crichton does emphasize the little-appreciated fact that while most of the world has been warming the past few decades, most of Antarctica has seen a cooling trend. The Antarctic ice sheet is actually expected to increase in mass over the next 100 years due to increased precipitation, according to the IPCC."^[74]

Peter Doran, author of the paper in the January 2002, issue of Nature which reported the finding referred to above that some areas of Antarctica had cooled between 1986 and 2000, wrote an opinion piece in the July 27, 2006, The New York Times in which he stated "Our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel State of Fear."^[26] Al Gore said on March 21, 2007, before a U.S. House committee: "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor [...] if your doctor tells you you need to intervene here, you don't say 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem'." This has been recognized by several commentators as a reference to State of Fear.^{[75][76][77][78]}

Michael Crowley[link]

In his 2006 novel, Next, Crichton introduced a character named "Mick Crowley" who is a Yale graduate and a Washington D.C.-based political columnist. "Crowley" was portrayed by Crichton as a child molester with a small penis. From page 227 as quoted in The New York Times:^[79] "Alex Burnet was in the middle of the most difficult trial of her career, a rape case involving the sexual assault of a two-year-old boy in Malibu. The defendant, thirty-year-old Mick Crowley, was a Washington-based political columnist who was visiting his sister-in-law when he experienced an overwhelming urge to have anal sex with her young son, still in diapers." The character is a minor one who does not appear elsewhere in the book.^[79]

A real person named Michael Crowley is also a Yale graduate, and a senior editor of The New Republic, a liberal Washington D.C.-based political magazine. In March 2006, the real Crowley had written an article strongly critical of Crichton for his stance on global warming in State of Fear.^[80] Crowley responded to the "Mick Crowley" character in The New Republic with the article "Cock And Bull" stating the following:

Awards[link]

• Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Novel, 1969 — A Case of Need^[82]
• Association of American Medical Writers Award, 1970
• Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Motion Picture, 1980 — The Great Train Robbery^[82]
• Named to the list of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People" by People magazine, 1992
• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technical Achievement Award, 1994^[83]
• Writers Guild of America Award, Best Long Form Television Script of 1995
• George Foster Peabody Award, 1994 — ER
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, 1996 — ER
• Ankylosaur named Crichtonsaurus bohlini, 2002
• The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Journalism Award, 2006

Associations[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

• Phi Beta Kappa
• Author's Guild
• Writers Guild of America
• P.E.N. America Center
• Directors Guild of America
• Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
• Member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Board of Directors, International Design Conference at Aspen, 1985–91
• Board of Trustees, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, La Jolla, 1986–91
• Board of Overseers, Harvard University, 1990–96
• Board of Directors, Drug Strategies, 1994–2008
• Author's Guild Council, 1995–2008
• Board of Directors, Gorilla Foundation, 2002–2008
• Board of Trustees, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2006–2008

Personal life[link]

Wikinews has related news: American author Michael Crichton dies at age 66

As an adolescent Crichton felt isolated because of his height (at 6'9"). As an adult he was acutely aware of his intellect which often left him feeling alienated from the people around him. During the 1970s and 1980s he consulted psychics and enlightenment gurus to make him feel more socially acceptable and to improve his karma. As a result of these experiences, Crichton practiced meditation throughout much of his life. Crichton was a workaholic. When drafting a novel which would typically take him six or seven weeks, Crichton withdrew completely to follow what he called "a structured approach" of ritualistic self-denial. As he neared writing the end of each book, he would rise increasingly earlier each day, meaning that he would sleep for less than four hours by going to bed at 10 pm and waking at 2 am.^[3] In 1992, Crichton was ranked among People magazine's 50 most beautiful people.^[84] He was a deist.^[85]

Marriages and children[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

He married five times; four of the marriages ended in divorce. He was married to Suzanna Childs, Joan Radam (1965–1970), Kathleen St. Johns (1978–1980), and actress Anne-Marie Martin (1987–2003), the mother of his daughter Taylor Anne (born 1989). At the time of his death, Crichton was married to Sherri Alexander, who was six months pregnant with their son. John Michael Todd Crichton was born on February 12, 2009.

Intellectual property cases[link]

In November 2006, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Crichton jokingly considered himself an expert in intellectual property law. He had been involved in several lawsuits with others claiming credit for his work.^[86] In 1985, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard Berkic v. Crichton, 761 F.2d 1289 (1985). Plaintiff Ted Berkic wrote a screenplay called "Reincarnation Inc.," which he claims Crichton plagiarized for the movie Coma. The court ruled in Crichton's favor stating the works were not substantially similar.^[87] In 1996, Williams v. Crichton, 84 F.3d 581 (2d Cir. 1996), Geoffrey Williams claimed that Jurassic Park violated his copyright covering his dinosaur themed children's stories published in the late 1980s. The court granted summary judgment in favor of Crichton.^[88] In 1998, A United States District Court in Missouri heard the case of Kessler v. Crichton that actually went all the way to a jury trial, unlike the other cases. Plaintiff Stephen Kessler claimed the movie Twister was based on his work "Catch the Wind." It took the jury about 45 minutes to reach a verdict in favor of Crichton. After the verdict, Crichton refused to shake Kessler's hand.^[89] At the National Press Club in 2006, Crichton summarized his intellectual property legal problems by stating, "I always win."^[86]

Illness and death[link]

In accordance with the private way in which Crichton lived his life, his battle with throat cancer was not made public until his death. According to Crichton's brother Douglas, Crichton was diagnosed with lymphoma in early 2008.^[90] He was undergoing chemotherapy treatment at the time of his death. Crichton's physicians and family members had been expecting him to make a recovery. He unexpectedly died of the disease on November 4, 2008.^[91][92][93]

Michael's talent outscaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the earth. In the early days, Michael had just sold The Andromeda Strain to Robert Wise at Universal and I had recently signed on as a contract TV director there. My first assignment was to show Michael Crichton around the Universal lot. We became friends and professionally Jurassic Park, ER, and Twister followed. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.^[94]

—Steven Spielberg on Michael Crichton's death.

Crichton had an impressive collection of 20th century American art, which was auctioned by Christie's in May 2010.^[95]

Unfinished novels[link]

On April 6, 2009, Crichton's publisher, HarperCollins, announced the posthumous publication of two of his novels. The first was Pirate Latitudes, found completed on his computer by his assistant after he died. This was the second of a two-novel deal that started with Next.

The other novel, titled Micro, is a techno-thriller that was released in November 2011. The novel explores the outer edges of new science and technology.^[96] The novel is based on Michael Crichton's notes and files, and was roughly a third of the way finished when he died. HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham, and Crichton's agent Lynn Nesbit, looked for a co-writer to finish the novel.^[4] Ultimately, Richard Preston was chosen to complete the book.^[29]

Film and television[link]

Novels adapted into films[link]

As a screenwriter and/or director[link]

TV series[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michael Crichton

• Official website
• Musings on Michael Crichton — News and Analysis on his Life and Works
• Michael Crichton on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Michael Crichton in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Works by Michael Crichton on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• Michael Crichton at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Crichton at IGN
• Michael Crichton Obituary. Associated Press. Chicago Sun-Times
• McGrath, Charles (November 5, 2008). "Builder of Windup Realms That Thrillingly Run Amok". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/books/06appr.html. 
• John J. Miller (November 11, 2008). "He Brought Science to Life". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122635800348015413.html. 
• Michael Crichton bibliography on the Internet Book List
• Complete bibliography and cover gallery of the first editions
• Comprehensive listing and info on Michael Crichton's complete works

Bjørn Lomborg
Bjørn Lomborg
Born	(1965-01-06) January 6, 1965 (age 47) Denmark
Occupation	Author, Researcher, Analyst
Subjects	Environmental Economics
Influences Julian Simon

Bjørn Lomborg (born January 6, 1965) is a Danish author, academic, and environmental writer. He is an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre and a former director of the Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen. He became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist.

In 2002, Lomborg and the Environmental Assessment Institute founded the Copenhagen Consensus, which seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics.

Until 2010 Lomborg campaigned against the Kyoto Protocol and other measures to cut carbon emissions in the short-term, and argued for adaptation to short-term temperature rises as they are inevitable, and for spending money on research and development for longer-term environmental solutions, and on other important world problems such as AIDS, malaria and malnutrition.

In 2010, in conjunction with an announcement of a forth-coming book, Lomborg revised his position regarding mitigation of anthropogenic global warming. He initially called the greenhouse effect 'a myth' ^[1] and 'extremely doubtful' and in his 2001 book The Skeptical Environmentalist he casts doubt on IPCC models indicating anthropogenic global warming arguing that "the rapid temperature increase from 1910 to 1945 is still left unexplained" ^[2] by them. However, Lomborg claims to have consistently supported the position that global warming exists, but cost benefit analyses, as calculated by the Copenhagen Consensus ranked climate mitigation initiatives low on a list of international development initiatives when first done in 2004. In 2008, the issue of global warming saw an increase in its priority ranking, culminating with examination of a broader list of possible solutions. He announced his agreement with "tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change" and declared global warming to be "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront".^[3][4] In a 2010 interview with the New Statesman, Lomborg summarized his position on climate change: "Global warming is real – it is man-made and it is an important problem. But it is not the end of the world."^[5]

Academic career[link]

Lomborg spent a year as an undergraduate at the University of Georgia, earned an M.A. degree in political science at the University of Aarhus in 1991, and a Ph.D. degree in political science at the University of Copenhagen in 1994.

He lectured in statistics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Aarhus as an assistant professor (1994–1996) and associate professor (1997–2005). He left the university in February 2005 and in May of that year became an Adjunct Professor at Copenhagen Business School.

Early in his career his professional areas of interest lay in the simulation of strategies in collective action dilemmas, simulation of party behavior in proportional voting systems, and the use of surveys in public administration. In 1996, Lomborg's paper, "Nucleus and Shield: Evolution of Social Structure in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma", was published in the academic journal, American Sociological Review.^[6]

Later Lomborg's interests shifted to the use of statistics in the environmental arena. His most famous book in this area is The Skeptical Environmentalist, whose English translation was published as a work in environmental economics by Cambridge University Press in 2001. He later edited Global Crises, Global Solutions, which presented the first conclusions of the Copenhagen Consensus, published in 2004 by the Cambridge University Press. In 2007, he authored a book entitled Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming.

[edit] The Skeptical Environmentalist

Main article: The Skeptical Environmentalist

In 1998, Lomborg published four essays about the state of the environment in the leading Danish newspaper Politiken, which according to him "resulted in a firestorm debate spanning over 400 articles in major metropolitan newspapers."^[7]

In 2001, he attained significant attention by publishing The Skeptical Environmentalist, a controversial book whose main thesis is that many of the most-publicized claims and predictions on environmental issues are wrong.

Accusations of scientific dishonesty[link]

After the publication of The Skeptical Environmentalist, Lomborg was accused of scientific dishonesty. Several environmental scientists brought a total of three complaints against Lomborg to the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD), a body under Denmark's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The charges claimed that The Skeptical Environmentalist contained deliberately misleading data and flawed conclusions. Due to the similarity of the complaints, the DCSD decided to proceed on the three cases under one investigation.

DCSD investigation[link]

On January 6, 2003 the DCSD reached a decision on the complaints. The ruling sent a mixed message, deciding the book to be scientifically dishonest, but Lomborg himself not guilty because of lack of expertise in the fields in question:^[8]

Objectively speaking, the publication of the work under consideration is deemed to fall within the concept of scientific dishonesty. ...In view of the subjective requirements made in terms of intent or gross negligence, however, Bjørn Lomborg's publication cannot fall within the bounds of this characterization. Conversely, the publication is deemed clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice.

The DCSD cited The Skeptical Environmentalist for:

1. Fabrication of data;
2. Selective discarding of unwanted results (selective citation);
3. Deliberately misleading use of statistical methods;
4. Distorted interpretation of conclusions;
5. Plagiarism;
6. Deliberate misinterpretation of others' results.

MSTI review[link]

On February 13, 2003, Lomborg filed a complaint against the DCSD's decision, with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MSTI), which has oversight over the DCSD. On December 17, 2003, the Ministry annulled the decision made by DCSD. In doing so, MSTI cited several procedural errors, including:

• The DCSD did not provide specific statements on actual errors. On this point the MSTI stated "the DCSD has not documented where [Dr. Lomborg] has allegedly been biased in his choice of data and in his argumentation, and ... the ruling is completely void of argumentation for why the DCSD find that the complainants are right in their criticisms of [his] working methods. It is not sufficient that the criticisms of a researcher's working methods exist; the DCSD must consider the criticisms and take a position on whether or not the criticisms are justified, and why."^[9]
• The DCSD did not use a precise standard for deciding "good scientific practice" in the social sciences;^{[citation needed]}
• The DCSD's definition of "objective scientific dishonesty" was not clear about whether "distortion of statistical data" had to be deliberate or not;^{[citation needed]}
• The DCSD had not properly documented that The Skeptical Environmentalist was a scientific publication on which they had the right to intervene in the first place;

The Ministry remitted the case to the DCSD. In doing so the Ministry indicated that it regarded the DCSD's previous findings of scientific dishonesty in regard to the book as invalid.^[10][11] The Ministry also instructed the DCSD to decide whether to reinvestigate.

DCSD response[link]

On March 12, 2004, the Committee formally decided not to act further on the complaints, reasoning that renewed scrutiny would, in all likelihood, result in the same conclusion.^[10]

Response of the scientific community[link]

The original DCSD decision about Lomborg provoked a petition^[12] among Danish academics. 308 scientists, many of them from the social sciences, criticised the DCSD's methods in the case and called for the DCSD to be disbanded.^[13] The Danish Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation then asked the Danish Research Agency to form an independent working group to review DCSD practices.^[14] In response to this, another group of Danish scientists collected over 600 signatures (primarily from the medical and natural sciences community) to support the continued existence of the DCSD and presented their petition to the Danish Research Agency.^[13]

The top 50 sustainability books[link]

A panel of "senior business leaders and their peers in government and civil society",^[15] the alumni network of the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL), voted The Skeptical Environmentalist among its list of the top 50 sustainability books.^[16]

Continued debate and criticism[link]

The rulings of the Danish authorities in 2003-2004 left Lomborg's critics frustrated. Lomborg claimed vindication as a result of MSTI's decision to set aside the original finding of DCSD.

The Lomborg Deception by Howard Friel claims to offer a "careful analysis" of the ways in which Lomborg has "selectively used (and sometimes distorted) the available evidence".^[17] Lomborg has denied the claims.

A Dutch think tank, HAN, Heidelberg Appeal the Netherlands, published a report in which they claimed 25 out of 27 accusations against Lomborg to be unsubstantiated or not to the point.^[18] A group of scientists with relation to this think tank also published an article in 2005 in the Journal of Information Ethics,^[19] in which they concluded that most criticism against Lomborg was unjustified, and that the scientific community misused their authority to suppress Lomborg.

Kåre Fog[link]

The claim that the accusations against Lomborg were unjustified was challenged in the next issue of Journal of Information Ethics^[20] by Kåre Fog, one of the original plaintiffs. Fog reasserted his contention that, despite the ministry's decision, most of the accusations against Lomborg were valid. He also rejected what he called "the Galileo hypothesis", which he describes as the conception that Lomborg is just a brave young man confronting old-fashioned opposition.

Kåre Fog has established a catalogue of criticisms against Lomborg on the Lomborg-errors website, established in 2004.^[21] Fog maintains the catalogue, which includes a section for each page in each chapter in The Skeptical Environmentalist. In each section, Fog lists and details what he believes to be flaws and errors in Lomborg's work. Fog explicitly indicates if there are any details which he believes support the interpretation that the particular error may have been made deliberately by Lomborg, in order to mislead. Lomborg has on numerous occasions commented and defended himself against Kåre Fog's critique, especially in the web-book "Godhedens Pris".^[22][23]

Further career[link]

Government work[link]

In March 2002, the newly elected center-right prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, appointed Lomborg to run Denmark's new Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI). On June 22, 2004, Lomborg announced his decision to resign from this post to go back to the University of Aarhus, saying his work at the Institute was done and that he could better serve the public debate from the academic sector.

In 2002, Lomborg and the Environmental Assessment Institute founded the Copenhagen Consensus, which seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics. A panel of prominent economists was assembled to evaluate and rank a series of problems every four years. The project was funded largely by the Danish government, and co-sponsored by The Economist. A book summarizing the conclusions of the economists' first assessment, Global Crises, Global Solutions, edited by Lomborg, was published in October 2004 by Cambridge University Press.

Further books[link]

Solutions for the World's Biggest Problems, published in 2007, offers an "... overview of twenty-three of the world's biggest problems relating to the environment, governance, economics, and health and population. Leading economists provide a short survey of the state-of-the-art analysis and sketch out some policy solutions for which they provide cost-benefit ratios."^[24]

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, also published in 2007, argues against taking immediate and "drastic" action to curb greenhouse gases while simultaneously stating that "Global warming is happening. It's a serious and important problem ...". He argues that "... the cost and benefits of the proposed measures against global warming. ... is the worst way to spend our money. Climate change is a 100-year problem — we should not try to fix it in 10 years."^[25]

Howard Friel wrote a book entitled The Lomborg Deception, which criticizes Lomborg, claiming that the sources Lomborg provides in the footnotes do not support—and in some cases are in direct contradiction to—Lomborg's assertions in the text of the book;^[26] Lomborg has denied these claims in a public rebuttal.^[27]

Personal life[link]

Lomborg is openly gay and a vegetarian.^[28] As a public figure he has been a participant in information campaigns in Denmark about homosexuality, and states that "Being a public gay is to my view a civic responsibility. It's important to show that the width of the gay world cannot be described by a tired stereotype, but goes from leather gays on parade-wagons to suit-and-tie yuppies on the direction floor, as well as everything in between"^[29]

Recognitions and awards[link]

In November 2001, Lomborg was selected "Global Leader for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum. In June 2002, BusinessWeek named Lomborg one of the "50 Stars of Europe" (June 17), in the category of Agenda Setters. The magazine noted, "No matter what they think of his views, nobody denies that Bjorn Lomborg has shaken the environmental movement to its core."^[30] Lomborg was selected as one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2004. In 2008 he came 41st in the Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll run by Foreign Policy and Prospect Magazine,^[31] having placed 14th the previous time the poll was conducted in 2005,^[32] and was named as one of the 50 people who could save the planet by The Guardian.^[33]

Discussions in the media[link]

After the release of The Skeptical Environmentalist in 2001, Lomborg was subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism in the media, where his scientific qualifications and integrity were both attacked and defended. The verdict of the Danish Committees for Scientific Dishonesty fueled this debate and brought it into the spotlight of international mass media. By the end of 2003 Lomborg had become an international celebrity, with frequent appearances on radio, television and print media around the world.

• Scientific American published strong criticism of Lomborg's book. Lomborg responded on his own website, quoting the article at such length that Scientific American threatened to sue for copyright infringement. Lomborg eventually removed the rebuttal from his website; it was later published in PDF format on Scientific American's site.^[34] The magazine also printed a response to the rebuttal.^[35]
• The Economist defended Lomborg, claiming the panel of experts that had criticised Lomborg in Scientific American was both biased and did not actually counter Lomborg's book. The Economist argued that the panel's opinion had come under no scrutiny at all, and that Lomborg's responses had not been reported.^[36]
• Penn & Teller: Bullshit! — the U.S. Showtime television programme featured an episode entitled "Environmental Hysteria" in which Lomborg criticised what he claimed was environmentalists' refusal to accept a cost-benefit analysis of environmental questions, and stressed the need to prioritise some issues above others.^[37] Rolling Stone stated, "Lomborg pulls off the remarkable feat of welding the techno-optimism of the Internet age with a lefty's concern for the fate of the planet."^[38]
• The Union of Concerned Scientists strongly criticised The Skeptical Environmentalist, claiming it to be "seriously flawed and failing to meet basic standards of credible scientific analysis", accusing Lomborg of presenting data in a fraudulent way, using flawed logic and selectively citing non-peer-reviewed literature.^[39] The review was conducted by Peter Gleick, Jerry D. Mahlman, Edward O. Wilson, Thomas Lovejoy, Norman Myers, Jeff Harvey, and Stuart Pimm. Lomborg countered that some of the scientists involved in this report were also named and criticised in The Skeptical Environmentalist, and thus had a vested interest in discrediting it and its author.

Publications[link]

• Bjørn Lomborg, "Nucleus and Shield: Evolution of Social Structure in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma", American Sociological Review, 1996.
• Bjørn Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• Bjørn Lomborg (editor), Global Crises, Global Solutions, Copenhagen Consensus, Cambridge University Press, 2004
• Bjørn Lomborg, "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming", 2007
• Bjørn Lomborg, "Smart Solutions to Climate Change, Comparing Costs and Benefits", Cambridge University Press, November 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-76342-4.^[40]

Documentary film[link]

Bjørn Lomborg released a documentary feature film COOL IT on 12 November 2010 in the US.^[41][42] The Atlantic review of Cool It described it as "An urgent, intelligent, and entertaining account of the climate policy debate, with a strong focus on cost-effective solutions.""^[43]

The Bloggers' Briefing with Bjorn Lomborg and his movie COOL IT. Accuracy In Media^[44]

See also[link]

• List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people
• Environmentalism
• Environmental skepticism
• Project Syndicate

References[link]

• Bjørn Lomborg: The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. Cambridge University Press 2001 (ISBN 0-521-01068-3).
• Nichola Wade: "From an Unlikely Quarter, Eco-Optimism". The New York Times, 7 August 2001.
• Stephen Schneider, John P. Holdren, John Bongaarts, Thomas Lovejoy: "Misleading Math about the Earth". Scientific American, January 2002.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bjørn Lomborg

• Lomborg's personal website, with own articles, links to related broadcasts on radio and TV, and Lomborg's opinion on the issues with the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty
• Column archive at The Guardian
• Column archive at Project Syndicate
• Bjørn Lomborg at TED Conferences
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Bjørn Lomborg at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Bjørn Lomborg in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Bjørn Lomborg collected news and commentary at The New York Times

Interviews

• Wired magazine interviews Lomborg, June 2004, regarding the Copenhagen Consensus.
• ZenSci Lomborg portrait Interview on climate and science politics.
• E&E.tv: Skeptical enviro Bjorn Lomborg discusses post-Kyoto roadmap, calls Kyoto "feel good strategy" (OnPoint, 12 December 2007)
• Interview on the British Magazine New Statesman, September 2010

Articles

• Kåre Fog's "Lomborg errors" website contains a catalogue of claims of errors in Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist, Fog's opinion on Lomborg and his career.
• Article on Bjørn Lomborg in the online edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The article was written by Michael Allaby, author of many (although not peer-reviewed) books on climate, who had previously expressed ideas similar to Lomborg. If you cannot access the full text, click the first link in this Google search.
• Grist magazine article Rebuttals from scientists working in the various fields his book makes claims about.
• HAN investigation of complaints made by Lomborg critics, by a number of Dutch scientists of the complaints made by Lomborg critics.
• Correcting myths from Bjørn Lomborg, extensive collection of criticisms of Lomborg, with replies.
• Skeptical About The Skeptical Environmentalist, Richard M. Fisher's review of The Skeptical Environmentalist, in "The Skeptical Inquirer".
• Vanishing Point: On Lomborg and Extinction, a criticism of Lomborg, from Edward O. Wilson
• Letter in Support of Lomborg in Scientific American, a defense of Lomborg's work, from Matt Ridley, former scientific correspondent of The Economist
• An Economic Approach to the Environment; Resources are limited. Cost-benefit analysis can inform our decisions opinion piece in April 23, 2012 Wall Street Journal

Salatin giving a tour of his farm

Joel F. Salatin (born 1957) is an American farmer, lecturer, and author whose books include Folks, This Ain't Normal, You Can Farm, and Salad Bar Beef.

Salatin raises livestock using holistic methods of animal husbandry, free of potentially harmful chemicals, on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Meat from the farm is sold by direct-marketing to consumers and restaurants.^[1]

Biography[link]

In high school, Salatin began his own business selling rabbits, eggs, butter and chicken from his family farm at the Staunton Curb Market.^[2] He then attended Bob Jones University where he majored in English and was a student leader. He graduated in 1979.^[3] Salatin married his childhood sweetheart in 1980 and became a feature writer at the Staunton, Virginia newspaper, The News Leader, where he had worked earlier typing obituaries and police reports.^[4]

Tired of "having his stories spiked," he decided to try farming full-time after first getting involved in a walnut-buying station run by two high school boys.^[5] Salatin's grandfather had been an avid gardener and beekeeper and a follower of J. I. Rodale, the founder of regenerative organic gardening. Salatin's father worked as an accountant and his mother taught high school physical education. Salatin's parents had bought the land that became Polyface in 1961 after losing a farm in Venezuela to political turmoil. They had raised cattle using organic methods, but could not make a living at farming alone.^[6]

Salatin, a self-described "Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist-lunatic-Farmer" produces high-quality "beyond organic" meats, which are raised using environmentally responsible, ecologically beneficial, sustainable agriculture. Jo Robinson, the author of Pasture Perfect: The Far-Reaching Benefits of Choosing Meat, Eggs and Dairy Products From Grass-Fed Animals (2004) said of Salatin, "He's not going back to the old model. There's nothing in county extension or old-fashioned ag science that really informs him. He is just looking totally afresh at how to maximize production in an integrated system on a holistic farm. He's just totally innovative."^[1]

Salatin with a flock of egg-laying hens that are housed in a large, portable coop, surrounded by predator-deterrent electric netting.

Salatin considers his farming a ministry, and he condemns the negative impact on his livelihood and lifestyle of what he considers an increasingly regulatory approach taken by the agencies of the United States government toward farming.^[7] Salatin now spends a hundred days a year lecturing at colleges and to environmental groups.^[2]

Salatin's farm[link]

Salatin's 550-acre (2.2 km²) farm is featured prominently in Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006) and the documentary films, Food, Inc. and Fresh. His unconventional farming practices have drawn attention from the alternative agriculture community especially those interested in sustainable livestock management. For example, Pollan became interested in Salatin because of his refusal to send food to locations not within a four-hour drive of his farm, i.e. outside his local "foodshed." "We want [prospective customers] to find farms in their areas and keep the money in their own community," said Salatin. "We think there is strength in decentralization and spreading out rather than in being concentrated and centralized."^[8]

Salatin’s philosophy of farming emphasizes healthy grass on which animals can thrive in a symbiotic cycle of feeding. Cows are moved from one pasture to another rather than being centrally corn fed. Then chickens in portable coops are moved in behind them, where they dig through the cow dung to eat protein-rich fly larvae while further fertilizing the field with their droppings.^[2]

Criticism[link]

Salatin expresses his concerns for deviation from traditional gender roles. He attributes these changing gender roles to removal from the traditional farm. He highlights in an interview, “Hey, 40 years ago, every woman in the country – I'll be real sexist here – every woman in the country knew how to cut up a chicken... Now 60% of our customers don't even know that a chicken has bones! I'm serious. We have moved to an incredibly ignorant culinary connection.^[9]” Vasile Stanescu, co-senior editor for the Journal of Critical Animal Studies, mentions in his essay, "Green’ Eggs and Ham? The Myth of Sustainable Meat and the Danger of the Local", that “Salatin believes so firmly in traditional gender roles that in the past he did not even accept women as workers or interns for the farm labor aspect of his farm although they could work in the kitchen.^[10]"

Awards[link]

• The 15th Heinz Awards (with special focus on the environment)^[11]

Works[link]

• Salad Bar Beef. (1996). ISBN 978-0-9638109-1-5
• Pastured Poultry Profit$. (1996). ISBN 978-0-9638109-0-8
• You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. (1998). ISBN 978-0-9638109-2-2
• Family Friendly Farming: A Multigenerational Home-Based Business Testament. (2001). ISBN 978-0-9638109-3-9
• Holy Cows And Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide To Farm Friendly Food. (2005). ISBN 978-0-9638109-4-6
• Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front. (2007). ISBN 978-0-9638109-5-3
• The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer. (2010). ISBN 978-0-9638109-6-0
• Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World. Center Street. 2011. ISBN 978-0-89296-819-0. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Polyface Farm, Inc.
• BusinessWeek article about Salatin
• "High Priest of the Pasture", a New York Times article about Salatin
• Video podcast of Salatin Lecture 24-Feb-2005 @ U.C. Berkeley (2hrs)
• Scribed talk notes of Joel Salatin 19-Feb-2009 @ Stanford
• Flavor Magazine (Salatin writes a column, "Rebel with a Cause," for this bi-monthly magazine focused on the DC foodshed)

Ann McElhinney is an Irish journalist and documentary filmmaker. She has written and produced the political documentaries Not Evil Just Wrong and Mine Your Own Business, as well as The Search for Tristan's Mum and Return to Sender. She is married to fellow documentary-maker and journalist Phelim McAleer.

Films[link]

[edit] Not Evil Just Wrong

Not Evil Just Wrong is a film McElhinney and McAleer directed and produced to challenge Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. It suggests that the evidence for human-caused global warming is inconclusive, and that the impact of suggested legislation for mitigating climate change would be much more harmful to humans than beneficial.^[1] The movie was filmed in 2008, and was screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam^{[2][dead link]} and at the Right Online conference in 2009.^[3]

In 2010, the directors cooperated with the Independent Women's Forum to create a program, Balanced Education for Everyone (B.E.E.) that seeks to place Not Evil Just Wrong in schools.^{[4][dead link]}

Mine Your Own Business[link]

Mine Your Own Business is a documentary funded by the Canadian Mining Company^[5] that looked at campaigns by foreign environmentalists against a large scale mining project in Romania^[6] that never came to fruition. The film looked at how the lives of the poor people in the area would have been affected if the mine had been built.

The Search for Tristan's Mum[link]

McElhinney directed and co-producted "The Search for Tristan's Mum," which highlights the case of a toddler Tristan Dowse who was adopted by an Irish couple at birth—and then abandoned in an Indonesian orphanage two years later. It broadcast on RTÉ 1, the Irish state television station, in 2005.^[7] As part of the film project, McElhinney located Tristan's mother, and reunited her with her son.^{[8][dead link]}

This film was selected to be part of Input 2006, a showcase for programs representing national public broadcasters from around the world, and was duly screened for industry professionals at the film festival that year in Taiwan in May.^{[9][dead link]}

FrackNation[link]

FrackNation is a feature documentary that aims to address misinformation about the process of hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking.

Journalism[link]

McElhinney has made documentaries for the BBC, CBC (Canada), and RTE (Ireland).^[10] She has been a guest on Dennis Miller and the Randi Rhodes show. McElhinney has worked as a journalist and filmmaker in the US, Canada, Romania, Bulgaria, Chile, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Ghana and Uganda.^[11]

Public appearances[link]

McElhinney is a popular speaker at conservative conferences. Her most recent appearance was at Right Online in Las Vegas, hosted by Americans for Prosperity, where she spoke out in reaction to Van Jones--who had made an appearance at Netroots Nation.^[12] She spoke at both the 2009 and 2010 Conservative Political Action Conferences. In 2009, a U.S. poll identified McElhinney and her husband, Phelim McAleer, as the most popular conservative speakers after broadcaster Rush Limbaugh and columnist Ann Coulter.^[13]

James Cameron[link]

AB 32[link]

In October 2010, James Cameron donated $1 million to oppose California's Prop 23, which would have overturned AB 32—California's climate change legislation.^[14] In response to this donation, McElhinney and McAleer made an short film; it alleged that passage of AB 32 would increase Californians' energy costs, and suggested that Cameron, who'd been quoted as saying, "we are going to have to live with less," lives a more energy-extravagant life than most Americans.^[15] The Independent said that this attack advertisement might "be tapping a rich rhetorical vein", but "conveniently ignores the fact that Cameron pays to off-set his personal carbon emissions".^[16]

References[link]