Apocalypse Never
Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
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4.4 • 14 Ratings
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- £12.99
Publisher Description
Now a National Bestseller!
Climate
change is real but it’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 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.
Customer Reviews
A story of hope
There are a lot of people out there trying to discredit this book but you get the feeling those people either haven’t read it, don’t understand it or, worse, don’t want to understand it because it doesn’t fit their closed narrative or agenda. This is a must-read book for environmentalists, economists, policy makers or anyone just wanting to hear the other side of the story for once. It is a story of hope, not denial and exposes the hypocrisy and meddling of anxiety-driven western governments and NGOs doing more harm than good in developing countries. It is great piece of work that is engaging, eye-opening, well-written and researched. I couldn’t rate this highly enough.
Fundamentally Flawed
In Apocalypse Never, Michael Shellenberger has released an apt description in the flaws of modern environmentalism.
Unfortunately this is in contrast to the books stated aim of proving that climate change may not be our largest environmental issue. Rising tides are barely mentioned and a significant amount of scientific literature that directly contradicts Michael exists to contradict his claim that climate change is not increasing the damage caused by natural disasters.
Perhaps worse still is the shady marketing campaign used to sell the book. A highly provocative article was written for Forbes, and when it was removed for its egregious self promotion, Michael claimed censorship.
In spite of the obvious work and talent that had been invested into this book I can only award it 2 stars.