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Michael Shellenberger

American author and environmental policy writer

Michael Shellenberger
Michael Shellenberger.jpg
Shellenberger in 2017
Born (1971-06-16) June 16, 1971 (age 51)
Alma materEarlham College 02 (BA 02)[1]
Political partyNo Party Preference 02 (2021–present)
Other political
affiliations		Democratic (until 2021)
MovementEcomodernism
Spouse(s)Helen Lee
Children2
AwardsHero of the Environment - Leader and Visionary, 2008
Stevens Institute of Technology’s Center for Science Writings Green Book Award, 2008[2]
Writing career
SubjectEnergy, global warming, human development
Websiteshellenberger.org

Michael D. Shellenberger (born June 16, 1971) is an American author and former public relations professional whose writing has focused on the intersection of climate change, nuclear energy, and politics, and more recently on homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness.

A self-described ecomodernist, he argues for an embrace of modernization and technological development, usually through a combination of nuclear power and urbanization. A controversial figure, Shellenberger disagrees with most environmentalists over the impacts of environmental threats and policies for addressing them.[3] Shellenberger's positions have been called "bad science" and "inaccurate" by environmental scientists and academics.[a]

Shellenberger was a Democratic candidate for Governor in the 2018 California gubernatorial election, placing ninth in a field of twenty-seven candidates. He ran as a "No Party Preference" candidate in the 2022 gubernatorial election, failing to make the runoff.[14]

Education and career

Shellenberger graduated from the Peace and Global Studies program at Earlham College in 1993.[1] He earned an MA in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996.[15] After graduating, Shellenberger moved to San Francisco to work with Global Exchange. He then founded a number of public relations firms, including "Communication Works," "Lumina Strategies," and "American Environics" with future collaborator Ted Nordhaus.[16] Shellenberger co-founded the Breakthrough Institute with Nordhaus in 2003.[17] While at Breakthrough, Shellenberger wrote a number of articles with subjects ranging from positive treatment of nuclear energy and shale gas,[18] to critiques of the planetary boundaries hypothesis.[19]

In February 2016 Shellenberger left Breakthrough and founded Environmental Progress,[20] which is behind several public campaigns to keep nuclear power plants in operation.[21] Shellenberger has also been called by conservative lawmakers to testify before congress about climate change and in favor of nuclear energy.[22]

Writing and reception

"The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming in a Post-Environmental World"

In 2004 Nordhaus and Shellenberger co-authored "The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World."[23] The paper argued that environmentalism is incapable of dealing with climate change and should "die" so that a new politics can be born.

Former Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope called the essay "unclear, unfair and divisive." He said it contained multiple factual errors and misinterpretations. However, former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach praised the authors' arguments.[24]

Former Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando said in 2005, referring to both Shellenberger and his coauthor Ted Nordhaus, "These guys laid out some fascinating data, but they put it in this over-the-top language and did it in this in-your-face way."[25]

Michel Gelobter and other environmental experts and academics wrote The Soul of Environmentalism: Rediscovering transformational politics in the 21st century in response, criticizing "Death" for demanding increased technological innovation rather than addressing the systemic concerns of people of color.[11]

Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility

In 2007 Shellenberger and Nordhaus published Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. The book is an argument for what its authors describe as a positive, "post-environmental" politics that abandons the environmentalist focus on nature protection for a new focus on technological innovation to create a new economy. They were named Time magazine Heroes of the Environment (2008) after writing the book,[26][9] and received the 2008 Green Book Award from the science journalist John Horgan.[3]

The Wall Street Journal wrote that, "If heeded, Nordhaus and Shellenberger's call for an optimistic outlook—embracing economic dynamism and creative potential—will surely do more for the environment than any U.N. report or Nobel Prize."[27]

However, environmental scholars Julie Sze and Michael Ziser questioned Shellenberger and Nordhaus's goals in publishing Break Through, noting that their "evident relish in their notoriety as the 'sexy' cosmopolitan 'bad boys' of environmentalism (their own words) introduces some doubt about their sincerity and reliability." The authors asserted that Break Through fails "to incorporate the aims of environmental justice while actively trading on suspect political tropes," such as blaming China and other nations as large-scale polluters; and claim that Shellenberger and Nordhaus advocate technology-based approaches that miss entirely "the "structural environmental injustice" that natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina make visible. Ultimately, "Shellenberger believes that community-based environmental justice poses a threat to the smooth operation of a highly capitalized, global-scale Environmentalism."[4]

An Ecomodernist Manifesto

In April 2015, Shellenberger joined a group of scholars and Stewart Brand in issuing An Ecomodernist Manifesto. It proposed dropping the goal of “sustainable development” and replacing it with a strategy to shrink humanity's footprint by using natural resources more intensively through technological innovation. The authors argue that economic development is necessary to preserve the environment.[28][29]

An Ecomodernist Manifesto was met with critiques similar to Gelobter's evaluation of "Death" and Sze and Ziser's analysis of Break Through. Environmental historian Jeremy Caradonna and environmental economist Richard B. Norgaard led a group of environmental scholars in a critique, arguing that Ecomodernism "violates everything we know about ecosystems, energy, population, and natural resources," and "Far from being an ecological statement of principles, the Manifesto merely rehashes the naïve belief that technology will save us and that human ingenuity can never fail." Further, "The Manifesto suffers from factual errors and misleading statements."[8]

Environmental and Art historian T.J. Demos agreed with Caradonna, and wrote in 2017 that the Manifesto "is really nothing more than a bad utopian fantasy," that functions to support oil and gas industry and as "an apology for nuclear energy." Demos continued that "What is additionally striking about the Ecomodernist document, beyond its factual weaknesses and ecological falsehoods, is that there is no mention of social justice or democratic politics," and "no acknowledgement of the fact that big technologies like nuclear reinforce centralized power, the military-industrial complex, and the inequalities of corporate globalization."[7]

Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

In June 2020, Shellenberger published Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, in which the author argues that climate change is not the existential threat it is portrayed to be in popular media and activism. Rather, he posits that technological innovation and capital accumulation, if allowed to continue and grow, will remedy environmental issues. According to Shellenberger, the book "explores how and why so many of us came to see important but manageable environmental problems as the end of the world, and why the people who are the most apocalyptic about environmental problems tend to oppose the best and most obvious solutions to solving them."[30]

Before publication the book received favorable reviews from the climate scientists Tom Wigley and Kerry Emanuel, and from environmentalists such as Steve McCormick and Erle Ellis,[31] but reviews after publication were mixed.[3] For example, Emanuel said that while he did not regret his original positive review, he wished that "the book did not carry with it its own excesses and harmful baggage.”[32][33] In The Wall Street Journal, John Tierney (a long-standing critic of environmentalism) wrote that "Shellenberger makes a persuasive case, lucidly blending research data and policy analysis with a history of the green movement",[34] and favorable reviews were also published in the Financial Times[35] and Die Welt.[36]

However, in reviewing Apocalypse Never for Yale Climate Connections, environmental scientist Peter Gleick argued that "bad science and bad arguments abound" in Apocalypse Never, writing that "What is new in here isn't right, and what is right isn't new."[6] Shellenberger responded on his Environmental Progress foundation's website.[37] In a review for the Los Angeles Review of Books environmental economist Sam Bliss said that while "the book itself is well written," Shellenberger "plays fast and loose with the facts" and "Troublingly, he seems more concerned with showing climate-denying conservatives clever new ways to own the libs than with convincing environmentalists of anything."[9] Similarly, environmental and technological social scientists Taylor Dotson and Michael Bouchey have argued that as an "Environmental activist" and "ecomodernist," Shellenberger's writing in his books and on his foundation's website, "bombards readers with facts that are disconnected, out of context, poorly explained, and of questionable relevance," and ultimately, his "fanatic, scientistic discourse stands in the way of nuclear energy policy that is both intelligent and democratic."[13]

A 2020 Forbes article by Shellenberger, in which he promoted Apocalypse Never, was analyzed by seven academic reviewers and one editor from the Climate Feedback fact-checking project. The reviewers conclude that Shellenberger "mixes accurate and inaccurate claims in support of a misleading and overly simplistic argumentation about climate change."[5] Zeke Hausfather, Director of Climate and Energy for The Breakthrough Institute, wrote Shellenberger "includes a mix of accurate, misleading, and patently false statements. While it is useful to push back against claims that climate change will lead to the end of the world or human extinction, to do so by inaccurately downplaying real climate risks is deeply problematic and counterproductive."[5]

San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities

In 2021 Shellenberger published San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, a criticism of progressive social policies.[38]

Manhattan Institute fellow Charles Fain Lehman summarized Shellenberger's topic: "Many major municipalities are marred by violent crime, homelessness, uncontrolled mental illness, and general disorder. This all in spite of an ever-advancing cadre of progressive leaders, who promise their latest tax hike will finally target the 'root causes' of the breakdown."[39] San Francisco journalist Benjamin Schneider described the book's thesis as "[P]rogressives have embraced 'victimology,' a belief system wherein society’s downtrodden are subject to no rules or consequences for their actions. This ideology, cultivated in cities like San Francisco for decades and widely adopted over the past two years, is the key to understanding, and thus solving, our crises of homelessness, drug overdoses and crime."[40]

Wes Enzinna, writing in The New York Times, charged that Shellenberger "does exactly what he accuses his left-wing enemies of doing: ignoring facts, best practices and complicated and heterodox approaches in favor of dogma."[41] Tim Stanley, writing in The Daily Telegraph, described it as a "revelatory, must-read book", but added "There is much in the argument for liberal readers to contest."[42]

Politics

Endorsements

In the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, he backed recalling Newsom and endorsed former Mayor of San Diego Kevin Faulconer.[43]

2018 California gubernatorial election

In November 2017, Shellenberger announced he was running as a Democratic candidate for Governor in the 2018 California gubernatorial election.[44] In a field of 27 candidates, he finished ninth, with 31,692 votes (the winner was Gavin Newsom with 2,343,792 votes).

2022 California gubernatorial election

Shellenberger is running as an independent in the 2022 gubernatorial election on a platform calling for homelessness reform via removal of encampments and mandatory treatment for drug addiction and mental illness,[45] advocating for water desalination as an answer to California's water shortage,[46] and increasing use of nuclear power, specifically by keeping the Diablo Canyon Power Plant open and building new power plants.[47] According to HuffPost, he also supports “abortion rights, universal health care, gun safety regulation, a $15 minimum wage, collective bargaining rights, and alternatives to incarceration for drug-related crimes”.[48] The Wall Street Journal writes that Shellenberger is also a proponent of school choice initiatives.[49]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

References

  1. ^ a b "PAGS Graduates in the Media, Academics". Earlham College. Richmond, IN. nd. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  2. ^ "Stevens' Center for Science Writings honors environmental critics with Green Book Award". eurekalert.org / American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). January 9, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b c Horgan, John (August 4, 2020). "Does Optimism on Climate Change Make You Pro-Trump?". Scientific American. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Ziser, Michael; Sze, Julie (2007). "Climate Change, Environmental Aesthetics, and Global Environmental Justice Cultural Studies". Discourse. 29 (2/3): 384–410. JSTOR 41389785.
  5. ^ a b c "Article by Michael Shellenberger mixes accurate and inaccurate claims in support of a misleading and overly simplistic argumentation about climate change". Climate Feedback. July 6, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Gleick, Peter H. (July 15, 2020). "Book review: Bad science and bad arguments abound in 'Apocalypse Never' by Michael Shellenberger". Yale Climate Connections. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  7. ^ a b Demos, TJ (2017). Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today. MIT Press. pp. 46–49. ISBN 9783956792106.
  8. ^ a b Caradonna, Jeremy L.; Norgaard, Richard B.; Borowy, Iris (2015). "A Degrowth Response to an Ecomodernist Manifesto". Resilience.
  9. ^ a b c Bliss, Sam (October 6, 2020). "The Stories Michael Shellenberger Tells". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  10. ^ Kallis, Giorgos; Bliss, Sam (January 4, 2019). "Post-environmentalism: origins and evolution of a strange idea". Journal of Political Ecology. 26 (1): 466–85. doi:10.2458/v26i1.23238. S2CID 202259917.
  11. ^ a b Gelobter, Michel; Dorsey, Michael; Fields, Leslie; Goldtooth, Tom; Mendiratta, Anuja; Moore, Richard; Morello-Frosch, Rachel; Shepard, Peggy M.; Torres, Gerald (May 27, 2005). "The Soul of Environmentalism Rediscovering transformational politics in the 21st century". Grist. Archived from the original on July 11, 2005.
  12. ^ Adamson, Joni; Slovic, Scott (2009). "Guest Editors' Introduction the Shoulders We Stand on: An Introduction to Ethnicity and Ecocriticism". MELUS. 34 (2): 5–24. doi:10.1353/mel.0.0019. ISSN 0163-755X. JSTOR 20532676. S2CID 143615564.
  13. ^ a b Dotson, Taylor; Bouchey, Michael (2020). "Democracy and the Nuclear Stalemate". The New Atlantis. 62 (62): 15, 26. JSTOR 26934424 – via JSTOR.
  14. ^ Laurenzo, Nikki (March 10, 2022). "First on Inside California Politics: Author Michael Shellenberger to challenge Newsom for governor". Fox 40. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  15. ^ "Michael Shellenberger's Biography". justfacts.votesmart.org. Vote Smart. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  16. ^
    • Armstrong, David (August 5, 1997). "Progressive PR". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
    • Holmes, Paul (August 3, 2002). "Fenton Veterans Launch PR Firm for Progressive Clients". PRovoke Media. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
    • Collier, Robert (August 21, 2004). "Venezuelan politics suit Bay Area activists' talents". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
    • Franke-Ruta, Garance (January 18, 2006). "Remapping the Culture Debate". The American Prospect. Archived from the original on December 25, 2007. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  17. ^ Barringer, Felicity (February 6, 2005). "Paper Sets Off a Debate on Environmentalism's Future". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  18. ^
    • Totty, Michael (April 17, 2010). "Nuclear's Fall—and Rise". The Wall Street Journal.
    • Leonhardt, David (July 21, 2012). "Opinion | A Ray of Hope on Climate Change". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
    • Shellenberger, Michael; Nordhaus, Ted (December 16, 2011). "Opinion | A Boom in Shale Gas? Credit the Feds". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013.
    • Begos, Kevin (September 23, 2012). "Decades of Federal Dollars Helped Fuel Gas Boom". AP.
  19. ^ "Boundary conditions". The Economist. June 16, 2012.
  20. ^ Environmental Progress home page (accessed 1 July 2017
  21. ^
    • McDonnell, Tim (February 3, 2016). "Closing This Nuclear Plant Could Cause an Environmental Disaster". Mother Jones. Foundation For National Progress. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
    • "Open letter: Do the right thing — stand-up for California's largest source of clean energy". Save Diablo Canyon. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
    • "State Nuclear Profiles: Illinois". U.S. Energy Information Administration. April 26, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
    • "EP open letter to New York PSC". Environmental Progress. July 14, 2016.
    • "Open letter to South Korean president Moon Jae-in". Environmental Progress. May 7, 2017.
  22. ^ Shellenberger, Michael (January 15, 2020). "Full Committee Hearing - An Update on the Climate Crisis: From Science to Solutions". republicans-science.house.gov. Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  23. ^ Shellenberger, Michael; Nordhaus, Ted (2004). The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming in a Post-Environmental World (PDF) (Report). Breakthrough Institute. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  24. ^ "Dead movement walking?". Salon.com. January 14, 2005. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  25. ^ Barringer, Felicity (February 6, 2005). "Paper Sets Off a Debate on Environmentalism's Future". The New York Times.
  26. ^ Walsh, Bryan (September 24, 2008). "Leaders and Visionaries: Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger". Time. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  27. ^ Jonathan Adler, The Wall Street Journal, 27 November 2007, The Lowdown on Doomsday: Why the public shrugs at global warming
  28. ^ "An Ecomodernist Manifesto". Ecomodernism.org. Retrieved April 17, 2015. A good Anthropocene demands that humans use their growing social, economic, and technological powers to make life better for people, stabilize the climate, and protect the natural world.
  29. ^ Eduardo Porter (April 14, 2015). "A Call to Look Past Sustainable Development". The New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2015. On Tuesday, a group of scholars involved in the environmental debate, including Professor Roy and Professor Brook, Ruth DeFries of Columbia University, and Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute in Oakland, Calif., issued what they are calling the "Eco-modernist Manifesto."
  30. ^ Shellenberger, Michael (June 30, 2020). Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. New York City, NY: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-300169-5.
  31. ^ "Apocalypse Never". Reviews. HarperCollins. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  32. ^ Emanuel, Kerry (July 29, 2020). "MIT climate scientist Kerry Emanuel on energy and Shellenberger's 'Apocalypse' » Yale Climate Connections". Yale Climate Connections. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  33. ^ Readfearn, Graham (July 4, 2020). "The environmentalist's apology: how Michael Shellenberger unsettled some of his prominent supporters". the Guardian. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  34. ^ Tierney, John (June 21, 2020). "'Apocalypse Never' Review: False Gods for Lost Souls". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  35. ^ Ford, Jonathan (September 18, 2020). "Are cooler heads needed on climate change?". Financial Times. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  36. ^ Stein, Hannes (June 20, 2020). "Die Illusionen der Öko-Romantiker". Die Welt. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  37. ^ "Bad science and bad ethics in Peter Gleick's Review of "Apocalypse Never" at Yale Climate Connections". Environmental Progress. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  38. ^ Shellenberger, Michael (2021). San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. ISBN 978-0-06-309362-1.
  39. ^ Lehman, Charles Fain (October 17, 2021). "REVIEW: 'San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities'". Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  40. ^ Schneider, Benjamin (October 13, 2021). "Owning the Progressives: A new book takes aim at San Francisco's social policies". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  41. ^ Enzinna, Wes (November 23, 2021). "The San Francisco Homeless Crisis: What Has Gone Wrong?". The New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  42. ^ Stanley, Tim (December 5, 2021). "'San Fransicko': a must-read exposé of the misery caused by an ultra-liberal policy experiment". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  43. ^ Tavlian, Alex. "Down the stretch come endorsement: Elder, Kiley, Faulconer tout new backers". The Sun.
  44. ^ Untying the Nuclear Knot, retrieved May 10, 2022
  45. ^ "In governor's race, challengers attack Newsom's record on homelessness". Los Angeles Times. April 13, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  46. ^ "Arizona and California have been transformed by climate change | Masada Siegel". The Independent. May 6, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  47. ^ "California governor warms up to nuclear reactors". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. May 4, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  48. ^ "Why Centrist Michael Shellenberger Is Challenging California Gov. Gavin Newsom". HuffPost. April 4, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  49. ^ Finley, Allysia (May 9, 2022). "Opinion | Can Michael Shellenberger Beat Gavin Newsom?". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved May 10, 2022.

External links

  • Official website
  • 2022 Shellenberger for Governor campaign website
  • Breakthrough Institute
  • Appearances on C-SPAN
  • “​​How fear of nuclear power is hurting the environment | Michael Shellenberger | TED”. YouTube. Ted Talks. October 5, 2016.
  • "Why I changed my mind about nuclear power | Michael Shellenberger | TEDxBerlin". YouTube. TEDx Talks. November 17, 2017.
  • "Why renewables can't save the planet | Michael Shellenberger | TEDxDanube". YouTube. TEDx Talks. January 4, 2019.
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