Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The eco-warrior who's made greens see RED: Going veggie? Almost pointless. Mass loss of species? A myth. The real climate change culprit? Poverty, not power stations. So says a Time Magazine 'environment hero' whose new book has fired up debate
Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 19:41 EDT, 22 July 2020 | Tom Leonard

Posted on 07/22/2020 10:28:15 PM PDT by Olog-hai

When it comes to radical activism, there are few who can hold an ethically-sourced candle to Michael Shellenberger. At 16, he threw his first fundraising party for a rainforest conservation group. At 17, he lived in Nicaragua to show “solidarity” with the Sandinista socialist revolution. […]

But far from being a “hero” of the Green movement, he’s now become a heretic they’d happily burn at the stake — if that didn’t increase the global carbon footprint, of course. For the American environmentalist has changed his mind. Rather drastically.

Distilling the contents of his new book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, he recently wrote an online opinion article for the business magazine Forbes entitled “On Behalf of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare”. He continued: “Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem.” […]

His essential message is not one his old comrades would want you to hear. His thesis is that rabid Green alarmism is creating a raft of dangerous myths about climate change and blinding the public to real solutions that could address far more pressing global problems. Having once campaigned for them, Shellenberger now believes that most forms of renewable energy such as solar and wind power are simply impractical for large scale use in much of the world. They’re also damaging because they require huge amounts of land and harm wildlife.

Meanwhile, hysterical Green doom-mongers — he singles out Britain’s Extinction Rebellion group and 17-year-old Swedish eco-warrior Greta Thunberg — must stop saying the world is about to end due to climate change. It isn’t even close, he says. …

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Weather
KEYWORDS: apocalypsenever; climatechangehoax; extinctionrebellion; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; gretathunberg; michaelshellenberger; pages; shellenberger; sweden
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

1 posted on 07/22/2020 10:28:15 PM PDT by Olog-hai
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

According to Shellenberger, the co-founder of a think tank called Environmental Progress, becoming a vegetarian actually reduces one’s emissions by less than four percent while “free range” beef — usually claimed to be more eco-friendly than the intensively farmed variety — requires 20 times more land and produces 300 percent more carbon emissions.

As for starvation fears, we produce 25 percent more food than we need and food surpluses will continue to rise as the world gets hotter. Meanwhile, switching to 100 percent renewable energy is unfeasible — the U.S. would need to devote between 25 and 50 percent of its total land to energy generation, compared with the 0.5 percent it takes up now.

He also attacks the “myth” that plastics linger for thousands of years in the ocean, saying they’re broken down by sunlight and other forces. As for the whales, they were saved not by Greenpeace as many believe, but by industry switching from whale oil to petroleum and palm oil, he says.

Again and again, says Shellenberger, the Greens have actually made things worse rather than better with their misguided views. …
Gets more and more interesting . . .
2 posted on 07/22/2020 10:34:35 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai

“At 17, he lived in Nicaragua to show “solidarity” with the Sandinista socialist revolution. […]”

I hope.he grew.out of that.


3 posted on 07/22/2020 10:35:02 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (The Revolution Will Not Be Televised but It Will Be Livestreamed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

WOW! I’m shocked the book even got published. Maybe they published it based on his earlier reputation, and didn’t actually read it prior to printing.


4 posted on 07/22/2020 10:40:36 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai
People should also eat farmed fish (which are much more ethically produced now than they used to be, he says) rather than wild ones because overfishing is a huge threat to the oceans.

I'll pass on the frankenfish. Fish straight from the sea or river is so much tastier.

5 posted on 07/22/2020 11:03:18 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (In time of peace, prepare for war.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lurkina.n.Learnin

Too bad the Mayor of NYC didn’t.


6 posted on 07/22/2020 11:27:11 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Dear Mr. Kotter, #Epsteindidntkillhimself - Signed, Epstein's Mother)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: AlaskaErik

I love the fresh Alaskan wild salmon Costco carries this time of year. I had some Monday night, everyone raved over it.


7 posted on 07/23/2020 2:08:22 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai

The Green movement and it’s originating epicenter ‘Green Peace’ were, are and always will be money making operations.

The problem is that people will only donate so much money... So how do you get even more money? You convince politicians to levy a ‘global warming carbon tax’ with funds going exclusively to green movement organizations and companies.

Green Peace, the Grand Daddy of the global warming movement started out saving seals in Newfoundland Canada. There was formerly a seal hunt there every year to hunt seals for their meat and desirable fur... The hunt had another benefit as well... It culled the sea of an animal that eats enormous amounts of fish. Each adult seal eats about 8,000 pounds of fish every year. During the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s the seal population off Newfoundland stood at about 1.5 to 2.5 million seals. This steady population of animals was a result of the yearly hunt.

With that amount of animals they were obviously not in danger of extinction, but Green Peace managed to convince the world (and mostly Europe, the main buyer of seal furs) that the population was dwindling and of course, they had gruesome pictures of Newfoundlander’s killing baby seals with clubs... The clubbing of a seal with a spike on the club isn’t much different than the typical method to kill a cow.

Green Peace was successful in their efforts to end the bulk of the hunt in the 1980’s, it still occurs on a limited bases and typically it is only done for the meat of the animal.

The awesome result of ending the hunt... The seal population now stands at 7+ million animals and that number grows each and every year. Another result... Growing amounts of seals eating fish stocks and essentially destroying COD stocks. COD fishing ended in Canada in the 1990’s... See the correlation?

Another odd and more recent result... More and more sharks heading to Northern latitudes for an endless supply of seal food. The global warming movement would say sharks are heading north because it’s warming in Newfoundland... That is total bunk.

The Green movement went on to save whales and other animals after their seal hunt funds dried up, but then they stumbled upon this new thing called ‘Global Warming’ and they discovered a new and endless supply of money by saving the future... And the great thing about the future... It’s always in the future, so there is no end point to their campaign. Suck in enough liberal and leftist politicians and Bob’s your uncle and the gravey train never stops.


8 posted on 07/23/2020 2:41:46 AM PDT by jerod (Nazi's were essentially Socialist in Hugo Boss uniforms... Get over it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai

Regarding whales.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenmeyer/2010/11/05/the-man-who-saved-the-whales/#7d50f23a596f

In the last half of the 19th century, whales were facing extinction. They were hunted in large part because their oil was the best, most affordable illuminant available to growing western nations. One man more than any other headed off their extinction, a man whose picture should be in on the wall of every Greenpeace office: John D. Rockefeller, founder of the Standard Oil Company.

Long before the proliferation of the automobile created a market for gasoline, the main use for petroleum in the 19th century was to make kerosene, which was an illuminant for lamps. Due in large part to Standard Oil, over these decades the price of kerosene dropped from 30 cents to 6 cents a gallon, while production increased astronomically and the quality of the product steadily improved.

Through Rockefeller’s work, kerosene became both cheaper and safer to use than whale oil, and quickly began to replace it in the marketplace. By 1890 the American whaling fleet had already dropped from a peak of 735 ships to just 200, and was still falling, in large part due to low cost kerosene produced by Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.


9 posted on 07/23/2020 2:49:06 AM PDT by abb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai

We are we worried of global warming when Russia and China are storing up grain in fear of solar minimum glaciation?


10 posted on 07/23/2020 2:57:35 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hatse:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai

Thanks for the post. It’s a highly interesting development. And the guy seems like a realist, not a fake “scientist” or anxious to preserve his or her job.


11 posted on 07/23/2020 3:12:34 AM PDT by poconopundit (Iron fist in an Irish velvet glove: Kayleigh the Shillelagh we salute your work!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FreedomPoster

Do you know what kind of salmon it was?


12 posted on 07/23/2020 3:19:17 AM PDT by FamiliarFace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai

The Whittaker Chambers of the environmental movement.


13 posted on 07/23/2020 3:24:25 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople (What if the Lord sent COVID-19 to immunize the world from something more deadly?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FamiliarFace

I don’t. I always load up on it thus time of year, probably have it once a week.


14 posted on 07/23/2020 3:53:35 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: FreedomPoster

I did a little quick research. It’s probably King salmon. The season ends July 31.


15 posted on 07/23/2020 4:02:18 AM PDT by FamiliarFace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: FamiliarFace

That rings a bell, now that you say it. It probably was King.


16 posted on 07/23/2020 4:21:38 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai
The real climate change culprit? Poverty

We really have become pagans, sacrificing virgins to appease gods who don't exist all to stop a natural phenomenon.

17 posted on 07/23/2020 4:54:56 AM PDT by AndyJackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: poconopundit
And the guy seems like a realist, not a fake “scientist” or anxious to preserve his or her job.

No, just promoting his new book... :). Not that I disagree with his new stance.

18 posted on 07/23/2020 6:59:17 AM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
The only sustainable economy is one based on surplus. But I am not trying to put words in his mouth.

19 posted on 07/23/2020 7:47:29 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: jerod

Too many seals eating too much fish is also the reason why the populations of Orcas and whales near Oregon and Washington are dwindling — the seals are eating most of the fish! Meanwhile, the lefties blame it all on river dams.


20 posted on 07/23/2020 11:24:58 AM PDT by ConjunctionJunction
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson