This is a typical Michael Crichton book: cartoon-like characters engaged in a fast-moving plot delivering usually interesting scientific information. This was best exemplified in "Jurassic Park", which I consumed in one long evening. Here his target is the environmental movement and the near universal concern over global warming.
Not being an expert in the matter, it's hard for me to agree or disagree with his conclusions. However, two points he makes strike me as fundamentally true: we tend to overstate man's influence on our environment, and to falsely assume that the earth is naturally in a static state. Drilling in the Greenland ice sheet, for example, has turned up evidence of abrupt climate changes in the past (when industrialization was not a factor).
Regardless of the merits of his argument, however, Crichton lets his viewpoints dominate the plot to the point of absurdity. An environmentally conscious actor who played the president on TV, for example, turns out to be a lascivious fool. He ends up being devoured by cannibals - I doubt Martin Sheen is interested in the part. The environmental movement is portrayed as universally stupid and corrupt in equal measure. Here's a representative bit of dialog:
"You don't suppose this guy is really a graduate student?"
"Could be, though I doubt it. Eco-terrorists aren't usually well educated."
Interesting since these same misguided fools are apparently capable of inducing killer hurricanes and breaking off huge chunks of the Antarctic ice shelf. Their only motive for these despicable acts appears to be fundraising. Makes me wonder what PBS is up to...
If you consider yourself an environmentalist, you should only read this book as part of a supervised anger management program. For everyone else, two stars.
