Michael Crichton, noted sci-fi author, has been presenting his idea that warnings about the dangers of global warming are the ravings of "religious" environmentalists. He presented this idea in his recent book and a talk at the Commonwealth Club. I have enjoyed Crichton's books. I liked Jurassic Park and Prey, even though I thought that for the scientific parts that I knew a little bit about (complexity theory, genomics, molecular biology), Crichton got the details wrong. Crichton's basic argument seems to be that environmentalism is the religion of choice for urban atheists. As such, the issue of global warming is one of belief not science. The trouble with Crichton's arguments are that he basically seems to be arguing his religion, non-environmentalism, against a strawman called environmental religion. The problem with analyzing the global warming issue is, as I see it, not the religion of the environmentalists. It's the dogmatism of those who refuse to look at this issue in any terms other than black and white. Crichton is in this camp. Of course, his excuse is that he's a fiction writer. For a non-fiction analysis of the Crichton arguments, check out The Earth Institute and RealClimate.org.