Event poster (PDF, 326 KB)
Breakthrough Politics for Global Warming
Presentation and book signing with Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
PES 3001 (Plant and Environmental Sciences Building)
University of California, Davis
The question begged by this event is “will the room be large enough?” The John Muir Institute of the Environment expects an over-capacity crowd to hear two popular authors at UC Davis on February 27. The UC graduates, Michael Shellenberger, a former student of cultural anthropology, and Ted Nordhaus, who studied history, have inspired many comments on the popular environmental blog Gristmill. Joe Romm of the Center for American Progress in Washington and David Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council, are just two of the bloggers Shellenberger and Nordhaus challenge, writing that they were “wrong in their claim that we have all the technology we need (to reduce global warming) and that we just need to scale it up.”
Their reputation as environmental “bad boys” began in 2004 when they released an essay entitled “The Death of Environmentalism” at the Environmental Grantmakers Association meeting. Their conclusions were developed from interviews with over 25 environmental leaders. They wrote the essay thinking, in their words, that it would “generate discussion among grantmakers and environmental insiders. We really didn't expect it to go viral and to be read by environmentalists and liberals all over the world.” They introduced readers to what they termed “literal scerlosis,” the belief that social change happens only when people speak literally about environmental problems, without connecting them to the broader problems of economy, industrial policy or health care. The duo observed that the result of special interest environmentalism created a culture in which, “for the vast majority of Americans, the environment never makes it in their top ten list of things to worry about.” Their argument was framed around global climate change, and the authors argued for the death and rebirth of environmentalism as more than a special interest, but as a world view connected to world problems such as poverty, trade, overpopulation, money’s influence in politics, and the political power of the radical right.
Subsequently, Shellenberger and Nordhaus published a book on the redefinition of environmental questions: Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. They founded the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank “committed to creating a new progressive politics, one that is large, aspirational, and asset-based.” Their belief is that effective politics must speak to core needs and values, not issues and interests, and they situate themselves at the intersection of politics, policy, philosophy, and the social sciences. Their New York Times reviewer quipped, "To win, Nordhaus and Shellenberger persuasively argue, environmentalists must stop congratulating themselves for their own willingness to confront inconvenient truths and must focus on building a politics of shared hope rather than relying on a politics of fear." That observation at least, seems less controversial now that we are in the midst of the campaign season.
This event is free and open to the public.