Prominent Environmentalist Censored By Forbes, Called 'White Supremacist' For Writing Sense About Climate Change
By Alex Berezow, PhD — July 28, 2020
A whopping 62% of Americans are afraid
to share some of their political views because somebody might be offended. As
we all know now, if you offend somebody, you can lose your job and have your
life destroyed. Michael Shellenberger, a prominent environmentalist who
believes that climate alarmism is misguided, is feeling the fury of the mob.
Several years ago, I received an
invitation to attend a conference hosted by the Breakthrough Institute, an
organization that promotes technological solutions to problems like climate
change.
I'm glad I went, not just because they
paid for my trip to a luxurious resort by the Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito.
For the first time ever, I met environmentalists that I actually agreed with.
The group has a generally optimistic view of our life on this planet, and while
it believes climate change is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, it
also believes that we can fix it using technology. Hence, they refer to
themselves as ecomodernists, and I proudly apply that label to myself.
Most importantly, Breakthrough views
environmental issues through a humanitarian lens; that is, the group believes
that a prosperous planet first and foremost needs prosperous people.
Encouragingly, the conference was attended by some of the brightest minds from
across the ideological spectrum, and I was grateful to be invited several years
in a row.
One of the founders of the Breakthrough
Institute is Michael Shellenberger, an intellectual heavyweight who has been an
environmental activist for 30 years and will serve as a reviewer on the UN's
next major climate report. He just wrote a new book called Apocalypse
Never that debunks several myths about climate change. An article posted
on the website of his new organization, Environmental Progress, provides a good
summary. It also apologizes for climate fearmongering, and it provides a list
of facts that contradict the prominent media narrative, which we reprint here:
- Humans
are not causing a “sixth mass extinction”
- The
Amazon is not “the lungs of the world”
- Climate
change is not making natural disasters worse
- Fires
have declined 25% around the world since 2003
- The
amount of land we use for meat — humankind’s biggest use of land — has
declined by an area nearly as large as Alaska
- The
build-up of wood fuel and more houses near forests, not climate change,
explain why there are more, and more dangerous, fires in Australia and
California
- Carbon
emissions are declining in most rich nations and have been declining in
Britain, Germany, and France since the mid-1970s
- Netherlands
became rich not poor while adapting to life below sea level
- We
produce 25% more food than we need and food surpluses will continue to
rise as the world gets hotter
- Habitat
loss and the direct killing of wild animals are bigger threats to species
than climate change
- Wood
fuel is far worse for people and wildlife than fossil fuels
- Preventing
future pandemics requires more not less “industrial” agriculture
I cannot independently verify each of
those claims, but I trust that Mr. Shellenberger has made them in good faith
based on his best understanding of the evidence. Yet, anything that goes
against the "we're all going to die" narrative is automatically
controversial. It's so controversial, in fact, that one journalist called Mr.
Shellenberger a white supremacist and Forbes censored the article, where it was
originally published.
The Smearing of Michael Shellenberger
Why Forbes deleted the article is
anybody's guess. Mr. Shellenberger claims it was censorship. The Guardian
says the article violated Forbes's policy on self-promotion. (This is risible;
the entire point of having a Forbes blog is self-promotion.) Canada's National
Post couldn't get an answer from Forbes. One is forced to conclude that
Forbes received backlash and caved to the pressure.
But this pales in comparison to the
bizarre ad hominem attack to which he was subjected. Eric Holthaus, an
allegedly reputable journalist who identifies as an "ecosocialist,"
called Mr. Shellenberger a climate delayer (whatever that is) and a white
supremacist.
What does climate change have to do with
white supremacy? Well, nothing, unless you subscribe to critical race theory,
which has at its core the belief that all of society -- from the economy to our
culture -- is fundamentally racist and irredeemably broken. According to the
theory, which has its roots in Marxism, every member of society is part of an
oppression hierarchy. White males are at the top (and are the ultimate
oppressors), and everybody else exists below them (the oppressed). Are you a
poor, white male living in rural West Virginia and addicted to opioids? Too
bad. You're still an oppressor.
Based on their words and behavior,
critical race theory's adherents appear to believe that the only way to fix
societal injustice is to burn everything down and start over. Any disagreement
with this all-encompassing worldview -- which includes radical action on
climate change as a way to repent for the sins of white males since the
beginning of time -- is, by definition, racist. Such a belief obviously makes
dialogue impossible, but it's increasingly common on college campuses and in
the media.
The First Amendment Is on Life Support
I have a job that depends on exercising
my First Amendment right to free speech, which is why I get very angry over
incidents like this. While it's true that Mr. Shellenberger's right to free
speech wasn't curbed by the government -- and therefore no technical violation
of the First Amendment occurred -- the spirit of the First Amendment has been
violated. With the advent of "cancel culture," this is happening more
and more and more often.
Voltaire is dubiously credited with
saying, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your
right to say it." That sentiment, which forms the entire basis of the
First Amendment, is gone from America. A whopping 62% of Americans are afraid
to share some of their political views because somebody might be offended. As
we all know now, if you offend somebody, you can lose your job and have your
life destroyed.
No law can fix this. Only a change of
heart can.
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