Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

Michael Shellenberger on Climate Change Alarmism

Michael Shellenberger is a journalist and author of Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. He and Joe Rogan discuss censorship of Shellenberger’s articles on climate alarmism as well as censorship of his book Apocalypse Never.

Now a National Bestseller! 

Climate change is real but itโ€™s not the end of the world. It is not even our most serious environmental problem.

Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the worldโ€™s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to todayโ€™s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions.

But in 2019, as some claimed โ€œbillions of people are going to die,โ€ contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that, as a lifelong environmental activist, leading energy expert, and father of a teenage daughter, he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.

Despite decades of news media attention, many remain ignorant of basic facts. Carbon emissions peaked and have been declining in most developed nations for over a decade. Deaths from extreme weather, even in poor nations, declined 80 percent over the last four decades. And the risk of Earth warming to very high temperatures is increasingly unlikely thanks to slowing population growth and abundant natural gas.

Curiously, the people who are the most alarmist about the problems also tend to oppose the obvious solutions.

Whatโ€™s really behind the rise of apocalyptic environmentalism? There are powerful financial interests. There are desires for status and power. But most of all there is a desire among supposedly secular people for transcendence. This spiritual impulse can be natural and healthy. But in preaching fear without love, and guilt without redemption, the new religion is failing to satisfy our deepest psychological and existential needs.

Buy It Now!

Editorial Reviews

Review

Apocalypse Never is an extremely important book. Within its lively pages, Michael Shellenberger uses science and lived experience to rescue a subject drowning in misunderstanding and partisanship. His message is invigorating: if you have feared for the planetโ€™s future, take heart.” (Richard Rhodes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Making of the Atomic Bomb)

โ€œEnvironmental issues are frequently confused by conflicting and often extreme views, with both sides fueled to some degree by ideological biases, ignorance and misconceptions. Michael Shellenbergerโ€™s balanced and refreshing book delves deeply into a range of environmental issues and exposes misrepresentations by scientists, one-sided distortions by environmental organizations, and biases driven by financial interests. His conclusions are supported by examples, cogent and convincing arguments, facts and source documentation. Apocalypse Never may well be the most important book on the environment ever written.โ€ (Tom Wigley, climate scientist, University of Adelaide, former senior scientist National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS))

โ€œWe must protect the planet, but how? Some strands of the environmental movement have locked themselves into a narrative of sin and doom that is counterproductive, anti-human, and not terribly scientific. Shellenberger advocates a more constructive environmentalism that faces our wicked problems and shows what we have to do to solve them.โ€ (Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Enlightenment Now)

Buy It Now!

“If there is one thing that we have learned from the coronavirus pandemic, it is that strong passions and polarized politics lead to distortions of science, bad policy, and potentially vast, needless suffering. Are we making the same mistakes with environmental policies?  I have long known Michael Shellenberger to be a bold, innovative, and nonpartisan pragmatist. He is a lover of the natural world whose main moral commitment is to figure out what will actually work to safeguard it. If you share that mission, you must read Apocalypse Never.โ€ (Jonathan Haidt, author of Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion)

“The painfully slow global response to human-caused climate change is usually blamed on the political rightโ€™s climate change denial and love affair with fossil fuels. But in this engaging and well-researched treatise, Michael Shellenberger exposes the environmental movementโ€™s hypocrisy in painting climate change in apocalyptic terms while steadfastly working against nuclear power, the one green energy source whose implementation could feasibly avoid the worst climate risks. Disinformation from the left has replaced deception from the right as the greatest obstacle to mitigating climate change.” (Kerry Emanuel, professor of atmospheric science, MIT)

“The trouble with end-of-the-world environmental scenarios is that they hide evidence-based diagnoses and exile practical solutions. Love it or hate it, Apocalypse Never asks us to consider whether the apocalyptic headline of the day gets us any closer to a future in which nature and people prosper.โ€ (Peter Kareiva, director of the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA, and former chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy)

Buy It Now!

“In this tour de force of science journalism, Michael Shellenberger shows through interviews, personal experiences, vignettes, and case histories that environmental science offers paths away from hysteria and toward humanism. This superb book unpacks and explains the facts and forces behind deforestation, climate change, extinction, fracking, nature conservation, industrial agriculture, and other environmental challenges to make them amenable to improvements and solutions.” (Mark Sagoff, author of The Economy of the Earth)

“We environmentalists condemn those with antithetical views of being ignorant of science and susceptible to confirmation bias.  But too often we are guilty of the same.  Shellenberger offers โ€˜tough love:โ€™ a challenge to entrenched orthodoxies and rigid, self-defeating mindsets.  Apocalypse Never serves up occasionally stinging, but always well-crafted, evidence-based points of view that will help develop the โ€˜mental muscleโ€™ we need to envision and design not only a hopeful, but an attainable, future.โ€ (Steve McCormick, former CEO, The Nature Conservancy and former President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation)

“Michael Shellenberger loves the Earth too much to tolerate the conventional wisdom of environmentalism. This book, born of his passions, is a wonder: a research-driven page turner that will change how you view the world. I wish I’d been brave enough to write it, and grateful that he was.” (Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at MIT and author of More from Less)

“Will declaring a crisis save the planet? The stakes are high, but Michael Shellenberger shows that the real environmental solutions are good for people too. No one will come away from this lively, moving, and well-researched book without a deeper understanding of the very real social challenges and opportunities to making a better future in the Anthropocene.” (Erle Ellis, professor of geography and environmental systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction)

Buy It Now!

About the Author

Michael Shellenberger is a Time magazine โ€œHero of the Environmentโ€; the winner of the 2008 Green Book Award from the Stevens Institute of Technologyโ€™s Center for Science Writings; and an invited expert reviewer of the next Assessment Report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has written on energy and the environment for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street JournalNature Energy, and other publications for two decades. He is the founder and president of Environmental Progress, an independent, nonpartisan research organization based in Berkeley, California.

Buy It Now!
Book Knowledge
Book Knowledgehttps://www.thethinkingconservative.com/previews/books-magazines/
Book Knowledge shares books, magazines and other sources that help us grow in our knowledge of conservatism and help us make a difference in our country.

The Looming Threat To Our Homeland

After success of โ€œOperation Midnight Hammer,โ€ where U.S. military bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, the threat to America has never been greater.

Groundhog Day came late this year to the Land of Smiles.

itโ€™s the same rigmarole, on whatever pretext, the army commandeers the Thai state with vague promises to restore democracy at some unspecified future date.

Resource number one

Russia has an unsustainable birthrate worsened by mortality rate of Russian males through war and alcoholism. One solution, steal young children from other countries.ย 

Expansionist CCP Runs Amok in Pacific After U.S. Relocates Naval Assets to Mid-East

Caveat established, Chinaโ€™s been going bananas on the high seas as the eyes of the world, and U.S. military assets, hone in on Iran.

The Anti-Trump Protests โ€“ Why Are They So Important?

The anti-Trump stance is not a political position, but a desperate gesture, a mental diagnosis of those who refuse to accept the reality of the World today.

Supreme Court Temporarily Allows Deportations to Third Countries

Supreme Court temporarily lifted lower court order blocking Trump admin from deporting illegals to so-called third countries they have no connection.

US Manufacturing Output, Hiring Rise to Multi-Month Highs

U.S. manufacturing activity climbed in June, fueled by strong domestic demand and tariff-driven stockpiling, according to report from S&P Global.

Largest US Power Grid Issues Emergency Energy Alerts

The alerts follow a report released last month that predicted that parts of the country would face difficulties meeting electricity demand during the summer.

Activists Hopeful as CDC Advisers Vote on Thimerosal Removal

Advisers to the CDC are to vote on whether to recommend the CDC act to remove thimerosal from influenza vaccines, raising hopes for advocates wanting to eliminating preservative.

No Changes Planned for FDAโ€™s Vaccine Advisory Committee โ€˜At This Timeโ€™: Spokesperson

There are no plans to remove any members of the panel that advises the FDA on vaccines, a spokesperson said on June 20.

Trump Says Trade Deals Expected With India and Pakistan

President Trump expects US will sign trade deals with India and Pakistan, signaling growing momentum in push to reshape global trade through tariff diplomacy.

Trump Says US Intelligence Communityโ€™s Assessment of Iranโ€™s Nuclear Program โ€˜Was Wrongโ€™

President Trump said his director of national intelligenceโ€™s assessment in March that Iran had yet to decide on building a nuclear weapon was wrong.

NIH Ends Gain-of-Function Research, Implementing Trumpโ€™s Executive Order

The NIH announced the end of gain-of-function research. The instituteโ€™s update said the move is in compliance with President Trumpโ€™s EO on the topic.ย 
spot_img

Related Articles