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Michael Shellenberger (b. June 16, 1971) is an author and political strategist.

Break Through

In October 2004, Shellenberger and his colleague Ted Nordhaus, both long-time environmental strategists, authored a controversial essay, "The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World." The essay argues that environmentalism is conceptually and institutionally incapable of dealing with climate change and should "die" so that a new politics can be born. The essay was widely discussed among liberals and greens in Salon.org, Grist.org , and The New York Times. In October, 2007, Houghton Mifflin published Nordhaus and Shellenberger's Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility(Houghton Mifflin, 2007). Break Through is an argument for a positive, "post-environmental" politics that abandons the environmentalist focus on nature protection for a new focus on creating a new economy.

After the failure of climate legislation in the U.S. Senate for the third time in June 2008, Time Magazine named Nordhaus and Shellenberger one of its 32 Heroes of the Environment (2008) calling Break Through "prescient" for its prediction that climate policy should focus not on making fossil fuels expensive through regulation but rather on making clean energy cheap, an argument the authors reiterated in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.

Consulting and PR work

In 1996 Shellenberger co-founded Communication Works, a progressive public relations firm. By 2001, now "California's largest public interest communications firm", it merged with Fenton Communications, "the country's largest progressive PR and advertising agency". Communication Works worked on a wide range of campaigns, from challenging Nike over its labor practices in Asia, to saving the Headwaters Redwood forest.

In 2002 Shellenberger co-founded the public relations firm Lumina Strategies. Its clients included Global Exchange, Americans United for Affirmative Action, the Ford Foundation, and the Sierra Club. In 2004 Lumina was contracted by the Venezuela Information Office to lobby for the Venezuelan government and improve Hugo Chavez's image in the United States.

In 2005 Shellenberger and Nordhaus co-founded American Environics, whose clients include AARP, Earthjustice, the Ford Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. He and Nordhaus also co-founded the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank that works on energy and climate change, health care, social inequality, and human rights.

See also

• Break Through (book) Published 2007
• Bright Green Environmentalism

References

1. http://www.thebreakthrough.org/writing.shtml
2. http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2005/01/14/death_of_environmentalism/
3. http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/01/13/doe-intro/
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/national/06enviro.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
5. http://www.thebreakthrough.org/
6. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1841778_1841779_1841804,00.html
7. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-shellenberger30-2008sep30,0,5840948.story
8. San Francisco Chronicle, 5 August 1997 Progressive PR: Communication Works joins the ranks of politically correct spin doctors
9. ^ Grist.org, 13 Jan 2005, The Death of Environmentalism
10. "New firm founded". PR Week. 2002-09-02. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
11. Miller, John J. (2004-12-27). "Friends of Hugo: Venezuela's Castroite boss has all the usual U.S. supporters". National Review. Retrieved 2009-02-09. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
12. Collier, Robert (2004-08-21). "Venezuelan politics suit Bay Area activists' talents". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-02-09. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
13. "Schellenberger's filing to US DoJ Foreign Agent Registration Unit" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-02-07.
14. Franke-Ruta, Garance (2006-01-18). "Remapping the Culture Debate". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
15. http://www.thebreakthrough.org/index.shtml

External links

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• "The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World." essay
• Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility book web site
• American Environics
• "Dead Movement Walking," Salon.org
• Debate over Death of Environmentalism, Grist.org
• "Pair Stir Debate Over Eco-Politics,New York Times
• "We're All Environmentalists Now," American Prospect
• "Two Heretics Anger Their Bretheran," Wired magazine
• "Challenges to Both Left and Right on Global Warming," New York Times
• Review of Break Through in The Wall Street Journal
• Video (and audio) of conversation with Shellenberger and John Horgan on Bloggingheads.tv
• Book Review Perspectives on Break Through from Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy

• Articles with topics of unclear notability from March 2009
• Misplaced Pages articles needing copy edit from February 2009
• 1971 births
• Living people
• American political writers
• Contributors to Bloggingheads.tv