Michael Shellenberger - Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

APOCALYPSE NEVER . Copyright 2020 by Michael Shellenberger. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Cover design by Andrea Guinn
Cover photograph Peter Orr Photography/Getty Image

Digital Edition JUNE 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-300170-1

Version 05212020

Print ISBN: 978-0-06-300169-5

FOR JOAQUIN AND KESTREL

Contents

In early October 2019, a television journalist from Sky News in Britain interviewed two climate activists. Their group, Extinction Rebellion, was about to begin two weeks of civil disobedience in London and other cities around the world to protest lack of action on climate change.

A scientist and a professor had created Extinction Rebellion in spring 2018 and recruited environmentalists from across Britain to get arrested for the cause. In the fall of that year, more than six thousand Extinction Rebellion activists blocked the five main bridges that cross the River Thames, which flows through London, preventing people from getting to work or home.

The organizations main spokesperson made alarming claims on national television. Billions of people are going to die. Life on Earth is dying. And, Governments arent addressing it.

By 2019, Extinction Rebellion had attracted the support of leading celebrities, including actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Stephen Fry, pop stars Ellie Goulding and Thom Yorke, 2019 Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, Live Aid producer Bob Geldof, and Spice Girl Mel B.

While Extinction Rebellion may not have been representative of all environmentalists, nearly half of Britons surveyed told pollsters they supported the group.

And the British were not alone. In September 2019, a survey of thirty thousand people around the world found that 48 percent believed climate change would make humanity extinct.

But by the fall of that same year, public support for Extinction Rebellion, including the sympathy of journalists, rapidly declined after the organization shut down streets and public transit throughout London. What about families? the Sky News host asked the Extinction Rebellion spokespersons. I remember back in July, someone saying that he missed being at his fathers bedside when he died in Bristol.

And thats really, really unfortunate, said Extinction Rebellions Sarah Lunnon, putting her right hand over her heart, and totally heartbreaking.

It was easy to see why Extinction Rebellion leaders chose Lunnon as their spokesperson. When I watched her apologize for the inconvenience, I didnt doubt she meant it.

And when you think about it, it makes you feel absolutely dreadful, Lunnon told Sky News. She then pivoted to the topic at hand. The pain and anguish that man suffered from being unable to say goodbye to his father is the pain and anguish we are suffering right now as we look at the future of our children, because its very, very grave.

Three days before the Sky News interview, Extinction Rebellion had driven an old fire truck in front of the British Treasury in London and unfurled a banner that read Stop Funding Climate Death.

The Extinction Rebellion activists then opened up a fire hose and sprayed fake blood, which they had made from beet juice, onto the building. But they immediately lost control of the hose and ended up drenching the sidewalks and at least one bystander.

Eleven days after the Sky News interview, Lunnon appeared on This Morning, one of Britains most popular morning TV news shows.

By then, nearly two thousand Extinction Rebellion activists had been arrested; a few hours earlier, violence had erupted on the platform of a Tube station after Extinction Rebellion activists climbed on the roof of a train, forcing the conductor to hold the train in the station and evacuate the passengers.

Why the Tube? asked one of the irritated hosts of This Morning. Why the cleanest way to travel across the capital? The Tube is powered by electricity, which in Britain emits less than half the carbon now than it did in 2000.

In the video, we see two Extinction Rebellion protesters climb on top of one of the train cars and unfurl a banner with white letters against a black background that read Business as Usual = DEATH.

One of the points of this particular action, said Lunnon, is to identify the fragility of the systems that were currently working with. The fragility of our transport systems

But we all know that on a daily basis, interrupted the host. If theres a power cut we know its fragile. We know that. You dont need to prove that to us. What youve done is stop ordinary people going to work. Some of them are workers whose families will depend on an hourly rate by the money they make.

Video from the Tube protest showed hundreds of angry people on the platform, who had emptied out of the train cars, yelling at the Extinction Rebellion activists who stood defiantly on top of the train. The commuters shouted at the two young men to get down. Im just trying to get to work, one of the commuters said. Im just trying to feed my family.

Things quickly descended into chaos. Some in the crowd threw cups of coffee and something made of glass, perhaps a bottle, which shattered. A woman started crying. People tried to find shelter from the chaos. It was quite scary and there were some people who were quite frightened, recounted a reporter who was at the scene.

A This Morning host said that 95 percent of people surveyed now said Extinction Rebellion was a hindrance to its cause. What was Extinction Rebellion thinking?

In the video of the Tube protest, we see a commuter try to climb on top of the roof of the train to grab the Extinction Rebellion activist. The Extinction Rebellion activist responds by kicking the man in the face and chest. The man then grabs the Extinction Rebellion protesters legs and pulls him onto the ground. We see an angry mob of commuters start kicking him.

Back in the studio, Lunnon emphasized that the video showed the kind of disruption climate change would bring. And not just transport, she said. Its also power and its also food. Its going to be empty supermarkets. Its going to be power systems turned off. And its going to be the transport system disrupted.

Angry commuters at the Tube station descended into violence. In another video of the incident, we see a man knocking a man filming video of Extinction Rebellion action onto the floor and kicking him. Later, outside the Tube station, a man in a red jacket was punching the face of a woman, a man told a TV reporter, who was calling on him to stop his violence.

Toward the end of This Morning, the cohosts did something odd: they appeared to agree with Extinction Rebellions Sarah Lunnon about climate change.

We are all hugely concerned and want to support you, said one of them. Without question there is an enormous crisis, said the other.

Wait, what? I couldnt understand what they were saying. If the television hosts agreed that climate change was an enormous crisis, one in which billions of people are going to die, how could they possibly be upset about commuters being late for work?

The Sky News host responded similarly. Im not trying to say that its not deeply concerning, said the host. The environment. But his very specific pain about not seeing his father. He might not think thats comparable.