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A review by alastairherd
Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger
4.0
Reading this book felt a bit like leaving Plato's proverbial cave. So much climate science is so one-sided to the point of being ridiculous, there has been constant doom-mongering about climate issues for decades now (https://apnews.com/article/bd45c372caf118ec99964ea547880cd0) but little of it seems to be backed up by realistic data. There is also almost no mention of realistic solutions when these issues are raised.
In comes Shellenbergers book. The first section of the book is devoted to pointing out the huge progress that has already been made with regards to emissions and pollution. Two interesting things for me are where he points out how moves from coal to natural gas have vastly reduced emissions from where they would have been, but more importantly have left local air quality comparatively higher for those near plants. Secondly, he also points out that plastic levels in oceans and reveals how they are far lower than we have been lead to believe (though still concerning) and presents multiple options for how we can help to deal with that (which involve things more effective than a ban on straws...).
Throughout the book Shellenberger brings in people that he has met while traveling the world. People from some of the poorest countries in the world. The people who are supposed to be most effected by climate change. He discovers the hardships they are going through and helps to shed light on why so many species are under pressure and some facing extinction. Surprise, it's actually not got much to do with big corporations. He also tackles the prevalent (and disgusting) views of Malthus in many eco circles. The solution to poverty is not letting people die, but to develop more. The solution to ecological issues is not to ban other countries from developing but to develop them faster!
A large section of the book is devoted to extolling nuclear powers virtues. I for one was already a big fan of nuclear and didn't understand why on earth we were using less of it. Shellenbergers explanations of about the lobbying from Big Oil in partnership with the Eco-Lobby makes a lot of sense of the situation. While he is perhaps a bit too optimistic about the abilities of nuclear, and doesn't mention the genuine challenges that come with them (such as uranium extraction and processing), that is certainly better than the level of ignorance many "eco-activists" have on the topic.
In conjunction with his section on nuclear he also has a section on the problems with renewables. While I think he sometimes goes a bit too far in disparaging them, most of the problems that he mentions are things that I had already thought myself (the instability, the contamination from components, the short life-spans, etc). One I hadn't realised was that they actually ended up making energy less affordable than it was a decade ago (50% more expensive than it was in 2007 in Germany), mainly due to the instability from them. Ironically, I think a future solution might be a nuclear-renewables hybrid, but I doubt that would go down very well with many groups.
Despite being imperfect this book is much needed. It provides a hopeful look at the future, with plenty of solutions, and gives us reason to not pit the lifting of billions out of poverty against helping the environment. Rather, he helps us view them as going hand in hand.
I would recommend this book to anyone interesting in the environment, even if just for an alternative point of view. And especially those suffering from "climate anxiety", as much of that might be found to be misplaced.
In comes Shellenbergers book. The first section of the book is devoted to pointing out the huge progress that has already been made with regards to emissions and pollution. Two interesting things for me are where he points out how moves from coal to natural gas have vastly reduced emissions from where they would have been, but more importantly have left local air quality comparatively higher for those near plants. Secondly, he also points out that plastic levels in oceans and reveals how they are far lower than we have been lead to believe (though still concerning) and presents multiple options for how we can help to deal with that (which involve things more effective than a ban on straws...).
Throughout the book Shellenberger brings in people that he has met while traveling the world. People from some of the poorest countries in the world. The people who are supposed to be most effected by climate change. He discovers the hardships they are going through and helps to shed light on why so many species are under pressure and some facing extinction. Surprise, it's actually not got much to do with big corporations. He also tackles the prevalent (and disgusting) views of Malthus in many eco circles. The solution to poverty is not letting people die, but to develop more. The solution to ecological issues is not to ban other countries from developing but to develop them faster!
A large section of the book is devoted to extolling nuclear powers virtues. I for one was already a big fan of nuclear and didn't understand why on earth we were using less of it. Shellenbergers explanations of about the lobbying from Big Oil in partnership with the Eco-Lobby makes a lot of sense of the situation. While he is perhaps a bit too optimistic about the abilities of nuclear, and doesn't mention the genuine challenges that come with them (such as uranium extraction and processing), that is certainly better than the level of ignorance many "eco-activists" have on the topic.
In conjunction with his section on nuclear he also has a section on the problems with renewables. While I think he sometimes goes a bit too far in disparaging them, most of the problems that he mentions are things that I had already thought myself (the instability, the contamination from components, the short life-spans, etc). One I hadn't realised was that they actually ended up making energy less affordable than it was a decade ago (50% more expensive than it was in 2007 in Germany), mainly due to the instability from them. Ironically, I think a future solution might be a nuclear-renewables hybrid, but I doubt that would go down very well with many groups.
Despite being imperfect this book is much needed. It provides a hopeful look at the future, with plenty of solutions, and gives us reason to not pit the lifting of billions out of poverty against helping the environment. Rather, he helps us view them as going hand in hand.
I would recommend this book to anyone interesting in the environment, even if just for an alternative point of view. And especially those suffering from "climate anxiety", as much of that might be found to be misplaced.