Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

by Michael Shellenberger

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.

• ISBN10: 0063001705
• ISBN13: 9780063001701
• Publish Date: 30 June 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Harper
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: Expected a fair bit more scientific rigour to the subject. Then again, given the absolute in the subtitle, "us all," I suppose I should've known better. Plus, the author is an environmentalist, not an environmental scientist. This book takes on extreme activism, and attempts to deconstruct it in order to show the negative impact it has on society. The fact that extreme activism disrupts people's lives isn't a surprise, yet the author lays out his arguments as though it's a novel discovery. He also takes a lot at lobbying from big corporations, which again is hardly a surprise.

What Apocalypse Never offers is a consolidated overview of both extremes towards the environment: those who cry doomsday happened yesterday and those who cover up negative environmental impacts human have on the earth. This juxtaposition offers a good view into the growing political polarisation we face today and its consequences. However, what was lacking for me was how to reconcile these views and work towards balancing how we live our lives against preserving our planet.