This afternoon Al Gore is taking the stage to present “Thinking Green: Economic Strategies for the 21st Century.” Part of the excellent IMPACT series put on by the Georgia Tech College of Management and the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship, I was not fortunate enough to get a ticket.

But, as my associates have voted that Al would be the most likely person to play me in “ATDC: The Movie” based on a picture taken while he was inventing the Internet, I am uniquely qualified to comment on Al’s speech. And while Al has not exactly been taking his own advice, his stance sure has gained some popularity.

A guy that seems to be losing a little popularity these days is Michael Crichton. He wrote Jurrasic Park. He also wrote State of Fear. Even though the latter book was a number one best seller, I don’t think they will be making a blockbuster movie based on it anytime soon. You see State of Fear is an anti-global warming techno-thriller that is loaded with graphs and footnotes as well as two appendices and a twenty page bibliography. It seems pretty well researched.

While I certainly think each of us should do as much as possible to reduce our impact on the environment and there is a need to address the energy issue in the world, I do think that Crichton is correct on some key conclusions in the author’s message portion of the book.

• We are in a global warming trend that began a long time ago and nobody knows how much of this trend is caused by man and how much is natural.

• There are many reasons to shift away from fossil fuels, and we will without legislation. No one banned horse transport.

• People are well intentioned.

• There is too much certainty in the world.

• Everybody has an agenda.

• Politicized science is dangerous.

The last point is extremely important. Science and politics is a bad combo. So if you have taken the time to see An Inconvenient Truth, take the time to read State of Fear to get a little balance.

You can also listen to the March 14 IQ2 debate on NPR.

You can also see Al’s 2006 Ted presentation.