"Apocalypse Never:
Why Environmental
Alarmism Hurts Us All",
by Michael Shellenberger.
This year we have
heard criticism
about the current
'green' orthodoxy
from within !
Very unusual.
Climate alarmists
still believe
the rising levels
of carbon dioxide
are a "crisis".
And believe
that future
global warming
could not
possibly
be pleasant,
even though
global warming
had been
very pleasant
for the past
325 years.
Alarmists rarely
admit that more
CO2 in the air
is greening
the planet,
by ignoring
thousands of
scientific studies.
But they are finally
disagreeing on
something !
This are disagreeing
on just HOW
to save the planet
( that does not
need saving ! )
This started with
Michael Moore's
"Planet of
the Humans",
a documentary
that exposes
profit-seeking
green crony
capitalism,
and the
environmental
damage caused
by burning trees
( called biomass,
or "green coal" )
Leftist critics
attempted to get
Moore’s film
blocked.
Less well known
is Shellenberger’s
new book,
"Apocalypse Never".
Berkeley-based
Shellenberger
has worked on
protecting habitats
for endangered
species,
and has 'battled'
climate change
since his high
school days.
Shellenberger
is disillusioned
with the policies
pushed by the
green lobby.
Many 'greens'
are against
economic growth,
which he thinks is
counterproductive
for their cause.
Shellenberger
claims that the
environmentalists
can win over the
general population,
by understanding
that people can
more easily afford
to protect nature
if economic growth
continues.
Shellenberger
demonstrates
how green policies,
backed by oligarch
-funded nonprofits,
work against
the economic
interests of
poor people
in Africa,
Southeast
Asia, and
South America.
Green nonprofits
block new energy
development—dams,
gas plants, pipelines—
desperately needed
in those countries.
“Rainforests in the Amazon
and elsewhere in the world
can only be saved if
the need for economic
development is accepted,
respected, and embraced,”
Shellenberger writes.
“By opposing many forms
of economic development
in the Amazon, particularly
the most productive forms,
many environmental NGOs,
European governments,
and philanthropies
have made the situation
worse.”
Shellenberger
criticizes
“stealth
environmental
activists working
as journalists”
who report
only the scary
environmental
predictions,
and ignore
contrary data.
“Much of what people
are being told about
the environment,
including the climate,
is wrong, and we
desperately need
to get it right."
Shellenberger is
“fed up with the
exaggeration, alarmism,
and extremism that are
the enemy of a positive,
humanistic, and rational
environmentalism.”
Shellenberger
hopes for
“competition from
outside traditional
news media
institutions,”
after observing
the gullibility
of most reporters.
Contrary to
environmentalist
predictions
from the 1970s,
natural resources,
including energy
and food, did not
run out.
They became
more available
than anyone
expected.
Shellenberger
says the hysteria
was because of
“the apocalyptic
environmental
tradition”.
Shellenberger labels
environmentalism as
“the dominant secular
religion of the educated,
upper-middle-class elite
in most developed
and many developing
nations.”
This applies to Britain’s
Extinction Rebellion, and
the more conventional
environmental groups,
such as the Sierra Club
and Friends of the Earth.
The greens
always predict
impending doom,
caused by human
activity.
“Apocalyptic
environmentalism
gives people
a purpose:
to save the world
from climate change,
or some other
environmental
disaster."
“It provides
people
with a story
that casts them
as heroes."
Shellenberger
says when people
become more
affluent, they can
more easily afford
to invest in research
and development
for new technologies
that will improve
the environment.
In the past:
-- Petroleum replaced
killing whales for oil.
-- Plastics reduced
shooting elephants
for ivory.
The United States,
United Kingdom,
and Scandinavia,
have all become
cleaner because
they could afford to.
The greens
must accept
the reality that
natural gas and
nuclear power
need to be part
of a cleaner future.
“It is only by embracing
the artificial that we can
save what’s natural,”
Shellenberger says.
“Richer countries
are more resilient,”
he says, quoting
MIT climate scientist
Kerry Emanuel,
“so let us focus on
making people richer
and more resilient.”
Link to a recent
Shellenberger
climate article,
written for Forbes,
that they decided to
unpublish (censored).