- This is a seemingly sobering book, but it left a nasty taste in my mouth. It attempts to bring facts and statistics to bear on very common yet 'erroneous' beliefs about environmental and energy issues. Yet it has the flavour of traditional denialist rants - selective quotes, ad hominem attacks on experts, cheap abuse of activists and politicians like AOC and Greta Thunberg, and grass roots movements like Extinction Rebellion. They are criticised for a complete lack of perspective. ‘...the religious fanaticism of apocalyptic environmentalism’.
- Shellenberger's overriding theme and the basis of his entire critique is his total support for nuclear power. It has 'zero carbon emissions'. He's also pro natural gas and fracking.
- He attempts to exposes the 'abject hypocrisy' of co-called clean energy advocates like billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, who benefit enormously from their fossil fuel investments replacing nuclear energy and spiking emissions.
- He attacks the way current global energy and anti-infrastructure policies are condemning third world countries to continuing poverty: in their view ‘industrialisation was harmful, as was economic development’. In the 1970s the UN’s ‘sustainable development’ model preferred development monies went to charity and not things like infrastructure.
- He contends that the IPCC’s ‘Summary for Policymakers’, press releases, and authors’ statements betray ideological motivations and do not represent the substance of the detailed reports.
- ‘Environmentalism is the dominant secular religion of the educated, upper-middle-class elite...Its sister religion is vegetarianism...There is more reason for optimism than pessimism’.
- This demolition of Shellenberger's book by Dr Peter H. Gleick is absolutely spot on:
No comments:
Post a Comment