Michael Shellenberger: Difference between revisions

| date = November 30, 2017

| website = SFGATE

 

A controversial figure, Shellenberger disagrees with most [[environmentalist]]s over the impending threats and the best policies for addressing them.<ref name="HorganSciAm"/><ref name=":18">{{Cite news |date=2020-10-06 |title=Los Angeles Review of Books |language=en |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-stories-michael-shellenberger-tells/ |access-date=2022-06-29 |quote=Shellenberger has a history of anti-green contrarianism. He thrust himself into the limelight in 2004, when he and Ted Nordhaus wrote an essay titled "The Death of Environmentalism." Thirty-three at the time, Shellenberger was already portraying himself as an environmentalist who had realized that environmentalism’s problem was environmentalism itself... The story Shellenberger has stuck with is that the things environmentalists resist — nuclear, GMOs, fracking, industrial agriculture, and so on — are actually good for the environment.}}</ref><ref name=":17" /> He argues that [[Climate change|global warming]] is "not the end of the world,"<ref name=":17" /> and that [[Genetically modified organism|GMO]], industrial agriculture, [[fracking]], and nuclear power are important tools in protecting the environment.<ref name=":18" /> His writing on climate change and environmentalism has received criticism from environmental scientists and academics, who have called his arguments "bad science" and "inaccurate".{{refn|<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=Article by Michael Shellenberger mixes accurate and inaccurate claims in support of a misleading and overly simplistic argumentation about climate change|url=https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/article-by-michael-shellenberger-mixes-accurate-and-inaccurate-claims-in-support-of-a-misleading-and-overly-simplistic-argumentation-about-climate-change/|access-date=24 September 2020|website=[[Climate Feedback]]|date=July 6, 2020}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web|last=Gleick|first=Peter H.|date=15 July 2020|title=Book review: Bad science and bad arguments abound in 'Apocalypse Never' by Michael Shellenberger|url=https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/review-bad-science-and-bad-arguments-abound-in-apocalypse-never/|access-date=24 September 2020|website=Yale Climate Connections|publisher=[[Yale Program on Climate Change Communication]]}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Demos|first=TJ|title=Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today|publisher=MIT Press|year=2017|isbn=9783956792106|location=|pages=46–49}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last1=Caradonna|first1=Jeremy L.|last2=Norgaard|first2=Richard B.|last3=Borowy|first3=Iris|date=2015|title=A Degrowth Response to an Ecomodernist Manifesto|url=https://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-05-06/a-degrowth-response-to-an-ecomodernist-manifesto/|access-date=|website=Resilience}}</ref><ref name="LARB" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kallis|first1=Giorgos|last2=Bliss|first2=Sam|date=2019-01-04|title=Post-environmentalism: origins and evolution of a strange idea|url=https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/id/2123/|journal=Journal of Political Ecology|language=|volume=26|issue=1|pages=466–85|doi=10.2458/v26i1.23238|s2cid=202259917|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Adamson|first1=Joni|last2=Slovic|first2=Scott|date=2009|title=Guest Editors' Introduction the Shoulders We Stand on: An Introduction to Ethnicity and Ecocriticism|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20532676|journal=MELUS|volume=34|issue=2|pages=5–24|doi=10.1353/mel.0.0019|jstor=20532676|s2cid=143615564|issn=0163-755X}}</ref><ref name="DotsonBouchey2020"/>}} Response to his work from journalists has been mixed.{{refn|<ref name="HorganSciAm" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":12" /><ref name=":13" /><ref name=":14" />}} In a similar manner, many academics criticized Shellenberger's positions and writings on homelessness, and he has received a mixed reception from writers and journalists on the topic.{{refn|<ref name="LehmanReview" /><ref name="SchneiderReview" /><ref name=":16" /><ref name=":17" /><ref name=":15" />}}

 

In October 2023, Shellenberger was among the signatories of the Westminster Declaration,<ref>https://westminsterdeclaration.org/</ref> warning the public of theoretical increasing censorship by governments, media companies and NGOs, that signatories alleged would endanger [[freedom of speech]] and undermine the foundational principles of democracy.

 

Shellenberger is the co-founder of "Public", a newsletter on [[Substack]] that covers "… stories on the most important issues of the day, from censorship and cities to mental health and addiction to energy and the environment."<ref>{{cite web |title=About Public |url=https://public.substack.com/about |website=public.substack.com |publisher=Michael Shellenberger |access-date=30 November 2023}}</ref> In 2023, Public was credited by the Wall Street Journal for publicly identifying three scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who were allegedly working on Coronaviruses and had taken ill near the beginning of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gordon |first=Michael |date=June 20, 2023 |title=U.S.-Funded Scientist Among Three Chinese Researchers Who Fell Ill Amid Early Covid-19 Outbreak |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-funded-scientist-among-three-chinese-researchers-who-fell-ill-amid-early-covid-19-outbreak-3f919567?fbclid=IwAR27b1r-L5PKZtdd17qx9bx8WD9pZ7mZ2W2PLLiiWW-JRi8YLk_0mrAaK9g |access-date=January 23, 2024 |website=Wall Street Journal}}</ref>