The articles mentioned herein have since been more completely removed from Crichton's site, but mirrors are still available (and the content no less recommended than before!):

September 2003 Remarks to the Commonwealth Club: here, here, and here.
January 2003 Caltech Michelin Lecture ("Aliens Cause Global Warming"): here, and a PDF here.

I've gained new respect for Michael Crichton's mind, after stumbling across a transcript of a talk he gave last September. It's well worth reading in its entirety and original order of development, so I'll refrain from trying to quote him comprehensively and instead encourage folks to read the full article.

Making it clear at the outset that he sees environmental protection as a legitimate and worthy imperative, Crichton goes on to examine aspects of the contemporary culture of environmentalism that bear intriguing resemblance to patterns of thought and behavior that we traditionally associate with religion. Certain seemingly timeless, possibly "hard-wired" characteristics of human behavior, he argues -- among them a readiness to accept some kinds of assertions without demanding solid evidence, and a difficulty disabusing ourselves of misapprehensions long after they have been proven unfounded -- are of serious concern, as they impede the commitment to skepticism that doing real science, and making effective environmental policy, demand. "We need an environmental movement," he states, "and such a movement is not very effective if it is conducted as a religion." Into this he weaves a number of related points concerning our misconceptions about nature, and the uneasy and often harmful science-politics relationship, many insightful gems among them.

Interestingly, Crichton has removed the link to the article from his "Speeches" page since I first took notice of it, stating that he is in the process of writing a book on the topic. (Likewise "removed" yet equally well worth reading is Crichton's earlier Caltech Michelin Lecture, "Aliens Cause Global Warming".)

I'll be very interested to see whether Crichton's upcoming book successfully advances his claim. The collection of journal citations he says he can produce will be of particular interest to me at least (although a key aspect of his argument that should not be missed is that the facts are in some regard irrelevant, since our behavior seems to be more strongly motivated by belief or fear than by verifiable knowledge). It will also be quite something to see the reception that the book provokes, given that Crichton's general tack seems to amount to heresy against an environmental orthodoxy. I have no doubt he will face some very dedicated criticism.

The note on Crichton's home page seems to allow for the book to address additional issues beyond environmental culture and policy. I wonder, rather hopefully, whether he intends to expound on the more general assertion from which he launched into the particular example of environmentalism: that "the greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda."

"In short, our struggle to determine what is true is the struggle to decide which of our perceptions are genuine, and which are false because they are handed down, or sold to us, or generated by our own hopes and fears."

An insightful point in itself, that certainly merits further discussion and development.