Michael Shellenberger
Encyclopedia
Break Through
In October 2004, Shellenberger and his colleague Ted Nordhaus, both long-time environmental strategists, authored a controversial essay, "The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World." The essay argues that environmentalismEnvironmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
is conceptually and institutionally incapable of dealing with climate change and should "die" so that a new politics can be born. The essay was widely discussed among liberals and greens in Salon.org, Grist.org, and The New York Times. In October, 2007, Houghton Mifflin published Nordhaus and Shellenberger's Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility
Break Through
Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, first published in October 2007, is a book written by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, both long-time environmental strategists...
(Houghton Mifflin, 2007). Break Through is an argument for a positive, "post-environmental" politics that abandons the environmentalist focus on nature protection for a new focus on creating a new economy.
After the failure of climate legislation in the U.S. Senate for the third time in June 2008, Time Magazine named Nordhaus and Shellenberger one of its 32 Heroes of the Environment (2008)
Heroes of the Environment (2008)
Heroes of the Environment is a list published in Time magazine. After the inaugural list of 2007, the next list was published in September 2008...
calling Break Through "prescient" for its prediction that climate policy should focus not on making fossil fuels expensive through regulation but rather on making clean energy cheap, an argument the authors reiterated in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.
Consulting and PR work
In 1996 Shellenberger co-founded Communication Works, a progressive public relationsPublic relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm. By 2001, now "California's largest public interest communications firm", it merged with Fenton Communications
Fenton Communications
Fenton is a public interest communications firm based in the United States. Founded by David Fenton in 1982, the firm’s client list includes organizations associated with a diverse array of social issues. -Overview:...
, "the country's largest progressive PR and advertising agency". Communication Works worked on a wide range of campaigns, from challenging Nike over its labor practices in Asia, to saving the Headwaters Redwood
Redwood
-Trees:Conifers* Family Cupressaceae *** Sequoia sempervirens - coast redwood**** Albino redwood*** Sequoiadendron giganteum - giant sequoia*** Metasequoia glyptostroboides - dawn redwood* Family Pinaceae...
forest.
In 2002 Shellenberger co-founded the public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm Lumina Strategies. Its clients included Global Exchange
Global Exchange
Global Exchange is an advocacy group and non-governmental organization , based in San Francisco, California, United States. The group's mission is to promote human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice around the world.-History:...
, Americans United for Affirmative Action, the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, and the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
. In 2004 Lumina was contracted by the Venezuela Information Office
Venezuela Information Office
The Venezuela Information Office was a Washington, DC-based lobbying agency with the goal of improving the perception of Venezuela in the United States; its stated mission was "to prevent US intervention in Venezuela"...
to lobby for the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n government and improve Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
's image in the United States.
In 2005 Shellenberger and Nordhaus co-founded American Environics, whose clients include AARP
AARP
AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is the United States-based non-governmental organization and interest group, founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, PhD, a retired educator from California, and based in Washington, D.C. According to its mission statement, it is "a...
, Earthjustice
Earthjustice
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm based in the United States that specializes in cases protecting natural resources, safeguarding public health, and promoting clean energy...
, the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation
Nathan Cummings Foundation
The Nathan Cummings Foundation was endowed by Nathan Cummings , founder of Consolidated Foods, now called Sara Lee Corporation...
. He and Nordhaus also co-founded the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank that works on energy and climate change, health care, social inequality, and human rights.
See also
- Break ThroughBreak ThroughBreak Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, first published in October 2007, is a book written by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, both long-time environmental strategists...
(book) Published 2007 - Bright Green EnvironmentalismBright green environmentalismBright green environmentalism is an ideology based on the belief that the convergence of technological change and social innovation provides the most successful path to sustainable development.-Origin and evolution of bright green thinking:...
External links
- Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility book web site
- Interview at Grist.org
- "Two Heretics Anger Their Bretheran," Wired magazine
- Video (and audio) of conversation with Shellenberger and John HorganJohn Horgan (American journalist)John Horgan is an American science journalist best known for his 1996 book The End of Science. He has written for many publications, including Scientific American, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, and IEEE Spectrum...
on Bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers...