New must read book by an environmentalist

EastMT

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There’s a new book out, “Apocalypse Never” by Micheal Shellenberger. He’s been an environmentalist fighting for every green cause known to man. He’s come to realize that the green movement is more a struggle for power than climate. Here’s an excerpt:


Michael Shellenberger
HarperCollins, Jun 30, 2020

Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’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 “billions of people are going to die,” 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.

What’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.
 
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Yeah, the guy thinks that nuclear power plants and fish farming are the way forward....think I'll pass.
 
OP
EastMT

EastMT

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You are missing my point, you don’t have to agree with him on all points, but it’s a perspective from inside the movement that disagrees with them now. I for one would rather have nuclear than renewables, one of his points is we currently use .5% of our land for energy production, if we were to go all renewables it would take about 50% of all our land in the lower 48 to produce enough. Also that becoming a vegetarian reduces the carbon footprint by a total of 4% vs meat eaters. He goes through the list of green desires, and basically shows how they are pipe dreams one by one.

I disagree with him on plenty, but applaud an honest opinion even when I disagree with parts of it. Heck, very few things I read do I agree with 100%.
 

Elk97

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First one of the original global warming crowd that I know of to acknowledge that most, if not all, of the hysteria about climate change over the last 30 years has been exaggerated or just plain false.
 

mlgc20

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Thanks for the heads up. I will definitely give this a read. There was a great book on this topic written in the early 90s called Eco Sanity. It was written by Joseph Bast and PJ Hill. They are both well respected Libertarian thinkers associated with the Heartland Institute.
 
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You are missing my point, you don’t have to agree with him on all points, but it’s a perspective from inside the movement that disagrees with them now. I for one would rather have nuclear than renewables, one of his points is we currently use .5% of our land for energy production, if we were to go all renewables it would take about 50% of all our land in the lower 48 to produce enough. Also that becoming a vegetarian reduces the carbon footprint by a total of 4% vs meat eaters. He goes through the list of green desires, and basically shows how they are pipe dreams one by one.

I disagree with him on plenty, but applaud an honest opinion even when I disagree with parts of it. Heck, very few things I read do I agree with 100%.
No, I think I got the point...scoring a "Gotcha" based on one outlier....I'm sure there's one flat earther geologist out there as well, maybe find a marine biologist who believes in mermaids and you got the hat trick... :ROFLMAO:
 

ODB

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No, I think I got the point...scoring a "Gotcha" based on one outlier....I'm sure there's one flat earther geologist out there as well, maybe find a marine biologist who believes in mermaids and you got the hat trick... :ROFLMAO:

Have you actually researched/read him or do you always just revert to your fall-back position when someone brings up an alternative to your way of thinking?

Binary thinking got us in this mess, it won’t get us out.
 

nowen22

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While I agree that there are power-hungry people out there trying to change the world via climate change stuff, I have to disagree with the statement that carbon emissions have peaked. They haven’t. They are still going up and a little field work with a decent CO2 sensor can see that year to year. Doesn’t mean he’s wrong on other stuff, but that I disagree with.

My theory is that the some people looking for power and control and are the ones that pushed for quarantine. “No one leave your home except for an emergency” “work from home”. Traffic was nonexistent for a while there. The just wanted to further their agenda and decrease carbon emissions for a couple months to prove a point that they have control over us and when they get their way they’ll push for extreme measures.

 

jmez

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Well you could say the safety issue has been way overblown. The most serious incident on US soil was 3 mile island in 1979. Basically no environmental or health ramifications with the melt down.

Irrational fear is why we don't have more nuclear power. And yes, they can build one in my backyard if they wish.

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk
 

Smokeslider

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Ironic. Guy thinks environmentalism is about power and money. Decides to switch up his thinking so he'll sell more books to...... get this..... make more money.

I found this with a quick google search-

"If Michael Shellenberger was ever what would be regarded as a climate activist and ever an environmentalist, as is commonly understood, it doesn’t seem like it was recently. Apologising on behalf of environmentalists, for the climate scare, would then seem a rather bizarre thing to do. On the other hand, it’s very clever. It certainly gets the media’s attention. It also seems to make some people think that – if Shellenberger is changing his mind – maybe the climate scare is overblown. Not many seem to be actually considering whether or not he really is a reformed climate activist. Essentially, he’s managed to undermine a movement he’s trying to challenge, by apologising on their behalf, while also getting lots of coverage for his book.

Although this all seems rather cynical, and disingenuous, you do have to give Shellenberger credit for his ability to get media attention. If this wasn’t such a serious topic, it might even be quite funny."
 
OP
EastMT

EastMT

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Ironic. Guy thinks environmentalism is about power and money. Decides to switch up his thinking so he'll sell more books to...... get this..... make more money.

I found this with a quick google search-

"If Michael Shellenberger was ever what would be regarded as a climate activist and ever an environmentalist, as is commonly understood, it doesn’t seem like it was recently. Apologising on behalf of environmentalists, for the climate scare, would then seem a rather bizarre thing to do. On the other hand, it’s very clever. It certainly gets the media’s attention. It also seems to make some people think that – if Shellenberger is changing his mind – maybe the climate scare is overblown. Not many seem to be actually considering whether or not he really is a reformed climate activist. Essentially, he’s managed to undermine a movement he’s trying to challenge, by apologising on their behalf, while also getting lots of coverage for his book.

Although this all seems rather cynical, and disingenuous, you do have to give Shellenberger credit for his ability to get media attention. If this wasn’t such a serious topic, it might even be quite funny."

Anyone who disagrees with anything environmental is effectively erased. Happens every time. Don’t think it’s a big deal? You are destroyed. So it gets warm, big deal. I’d be way more worried about getting cold than warm. Harder to grow mass crops in cold weather. I can’t imagine going around freaking out over apocalypse after apocalypse. I’ve lived through so many end of the world, end of the US as we know it, I’m going fishing, I’ll toss my trash in a bin, dispose of my fishing line properly, burn gas in my truck/boat/ atv, and I think we will be fine.
 
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Follow the $, it’s the easy way to figure out what’s really going on in most cases.

There were apparently busses bringing BLM folks into town to protest, I asked “who’s paying for them?” Lots of puzzled looks.
 

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