Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

Well written look at the way the desire for most people to have a clean world gets hijacked. He takes a very consistent approach in the construction of his chapters which makes for good flow of information. His writing is clear and straightforward and very readable.
The author shows clearly the law of unintended consequences as it pertains to first world activists dictating conduct and policy to the developing world. The self serving conduct of Jerry Brown’s closing of nuclear power plants is worth the book alone. His family provided the oil and gas imports from Indonesia.
Excellent book, worth anyone’s time.

Anyone unduly worried about a climate change cataclysm should read this book. I was considering the purchase of rooftop solar panels until I read Shellenberger's thoughtful analysis and realized they made no sense for me to acquire, i. e., the break even point and the end of depreciation point fall uncomfortably close together.
The author puts solutions to climate change in a sobering perspective. The manufacturers of wind turbines have thwarted census efforts for the birds, bats and insects killed by these structures. Antinuclear hysteria has been fanned by those who stand to profit by replacing nuclear energy with inadequate renewables that will inevitably cause greater carbon emissions. Many climate alarmists are elitists who distain show more the poor of the third world and dismiss out of hand their desire for reliable, abundant and practical ("real" is their idiom) electricity.

I quit the Nature Conservancy after reading this book. show less

An excellent book about how foolish many of today’s perceived “fixes” for climate change are and how they are doing more harm than good. Shellenberger is not a climate change “denier”. He is a strong environmentalist and has been most of his life; yet, through very detailed research and extraordinary documentation, he proves his case that we need to move to strong nuclear and hydroelectric sources of energy. Use of any other sources (fossil fuels, solar, wind) will not reduce but could make it worse, not better. Unfortunately, our news media and politicians do not understand these issues and continue to push foolish choices. So many of those that should read his book and truly research what he is saying, will condemn it or show more totally ignore it. Our “Green New Deal” is idiocy, and we will suffer the consequences – of course, our continuing to ruin the climate and cause additional climate change by following foolish paths pointed out by Shellenberger will simply be used by the news media and politicians to push for more spending on non-nuclear sources of energy. We cannot get where we need to get by relying on solar and wind.

If you care about climate change and the need to change our ways, read his book and then try to prove his arguments wrong. show less

I couldn't give this 5 stars because it is missing what is, to me, perhaps the most important part: a non-catastrophizing description of climate change and trade-offs. I agree that much of the discussion has been politicized, with one side 'denying' climate change in almost any shape or form (outside of admitting that it exists, but that it doesn't actually matter), and one side increasingly unable to brook any dissent from the 'extinction' and '100% green renewables by 2030' lines (or else you are, ipso facto, a climate change denying right-wing nutjob).

Fine. And detailing how ridiculous much of the exaggeration is, and how damaging, and how neo-colonial, and how anti-science and etc. is very important (especially given the overlap show more with people who tend to claim loudly how opposed to all those things they are.)

But what about setting the record straight, or at least conveying what e.g. the IPCC consensus on "business as usual", progress at the current rate, etc. are? A couple of chapters laying that out, toward the end, would serve very well. Without it, the hints and suggestions sprinkled throughout the book as to what those are (or might be) are underwhelming and leaves the overall tone of the book closer to that of just yet another volley in the socio-political war that has eaten (along with everything else) discussion of climate change. show less

Pretty good argument from someone who is an environmentalist about how the religion of climate change hurts the both human development and the overall environment. There were a few areas which were weak or incorrect (vegetarianism presented vs. standard diet with the argument of "animals take up less space than plants" or something like that, not factoring in the land for growing animal feed...), but most of it was pretty good. Exposing anti-nuclear as basically fearmongering or politics (anti-weapons people transitioning to anti-power), the essential racism/etc. of forcing people in developing economies to do with less, and the massive benefits of natural gas (or even coal) vs. a lot of traditional power sources for people seemed good. show more I think someone could probably write a better book on this topic, but this is the best one I've found so far.

Most of the targets of the book were "activist organizations" vs science, although there is an allegation that IPCC is primarily activist vs. scientific in how it presents reports to policymakers (so, it's hybrid; decent science, but unconnected policy recommendations). The primary targets were weird self-flagellationists like Greta and Extinction Rebellion, so that's mostly attacking strawmen. My biggest problem with this book is it seems to use a broad brush for both these activists and real science. I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars as a result; it does some good (especially the pro-nuclear parts), but also gets enough wrong to cause some harm, and probably should be held to a higher standard. show less

Shellenberger is a reformed environmentalist, rejecting the apocalyptic predictions of the world’s demise unless we de-populate, de-industrialize, de-capitalize and eliminate our use of oil and gas. He recognizes growth results in a cleaner environment and better lives for all.

He does a good job of showing the corruption of the current environmental movement and how the IPCC has become political and less scientific.

Here are my favorite quotes from the book and makes up most of the last chapter about the psychology of the current climate change movement:

Page 263
Environmentalism today is the dominant secular religion of the educated, upper-middle-class elite in most developed and many developing nations. It provides a new story about show more our collective and individual purpose. It designates good guys and bad buys, heroes and villains. And it does so in the language of science, which provides it with legitimacy. [51]

. . . it is a kind of new Judeo-Christian religion, one that has replaced God with nature.

Page 265.
The trouble with the new environmental religion is that it has become increasingly apocalyptic, destructive, and self-defeating. It leads its adherents to demonize their opponents, often hypocritically. It drives them to seek to restrict power and prosperity at home and abroad. And it spreads anxiety and depression without meeting the deeper psychological, existential, and spiritual needs its ostensibly secular devotees seek. show less

Profound and persuasive. It is ;provocative in that the book challenges my belief system. Required reading.