Mr. Crichton's book was widely hailed by the climate deniers/skeptics, despite the fact that Mr. Crichton has no credentials whatsoever in regards to climate science. Nonetheless, the book covered a lot of ground related to global warming.
On pages 490-492 (in my paperback version), in the chapter titled "Culver City: Tuesday, October 12, 1:20 PM" Mr. Crichton presents 14 different temperature graphs from around the world showing temperature trends from 1875 to 2003. Some go up, some go down, some go sideways. In the story, one of the main protagonists comes across a stack of these graphs and is disturbed that so many do not seem to agree with his preconceived notion of global warming.
Of course, 14 charts, or even 140 charts that have been hand selected, have no meaning whatsoever. Crichton could pick whatever graphs he wanted to put in his book, so one must assume he did not come up with a random selection. The IPCC, the National Academies and other scientific organizations have said repeatedly that rising temperatures are "unequivocal."
Besides, one does not need thermometers to know the temperature is rising: the earth is telling us. Birds, insects, freezing lakes and rivers, glaciers, sea level, flora ranges, blossoming flowers, seasons and dozens more systems are telling us the temperature is rising. These changes have been documented in literally tens of thousands of studies. 14 charts do not tell us anything. 30,000 studies do.
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