All these events are timed to happen during a NERF-sponsored climate conference that will highlight the 'catastrophe' of global warming.

The ELF is attempting to create 'natural' disasters to convince the public of the dangers of global warming. Soon afterward, Morton is visited by two men, John Kenner and Sanjong Thapa, who appear on the surface to be researchers at MIT, but, in fact, are international law enforcement agents on the trail of an eco-terrorist group, the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) (modeled on the Earth Liberation Front). Morton becomes suspicious of NERF's director, Nicholas Drake, after discovering that Drake has misused some of the funds Morton had donated to the group. Evans' main duties are managing the legal affairs surrounding Morton's contributions to an environmentalist organization, the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF) (modeled after the Natural Resources Defense Council). Peter Evans is a lawyer for a millionaire philanthropist, George Morton. The book is thought to have popularised the Antarctica cooling controversy. The novel itself has garnered mixed reviews, with some literary reviewers stating that the book's misrepresentation of facts and stance on the global warming debate distract it from its plot. The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the #1 bestseller position at Amazon and #2 on The New York Times Best Seller list for one week in January 2005. Many climate scientists, science journalists, environmental groups, and science advocacy organizations dispute the presented views as being error-filled and distorted.

Despite being a work of fiction, the book contains many graphs and footnotes, two appendices, and a 20-page bibliography in support of Crichton's beliefs about global warming.

State of Fear is a 2004 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his fourteenth under his own name and twenty-fourth overall, in which eco-terrorists plot mass murder to publicize the danger of global warming.

State of fear by michael crichton