It was bad enough when Crichton penned the misguided, xenophobic Rising Sun, but the dangers of global warming are so accute, the author has truly disgraced himself this time. Just this month New Scientist magazine published an article on the disappearance of the Carteret Islands, which are literally being swallowed by the rising sea. And this quack has the audacity to question the near-unanimity of the scientific community with his half-baked reactionary polemic. Why exactly does he think the 10 hottest years on record have been in the last 14 years?The very idea that global warming is some kind of mass movement is utterly preposterous. If Crichton spent any length of time around climatologists not in the employ of the oil industry, he would learn the difference between belief based on a mountain of evidence and paranoia.