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Michael Shellenberger
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Michael Shellenberger
Michael D. Shellenberger (born June 16, 1971) is an American professor, author, and journalist whose views are seen as controversial by some academics.
Shellenberger authored Apocalypse Never (2020), about the environment, and San Fransicko (2021), about homelessness. Both books sparked significant debates and were both praised and critiqued by academics and journalists.
Shellenberger has been active in critiquing the environmental movement, offering alternative views on climate threats and policies. He contends that while global warming is a concern, it is "not the end of the world", and advocates for the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), industrial agriculture, fracking, and nuclear power as tools for environmental protection. Shellenberger ran for governor of California in 2018 and 2022, but was unsuccessful in both campaigns.
As of 2026[update] Shellenberger is on the faculty of the University of Austin in the area of "Politics, Censorship and Free Speech."
Shellenberger was born and raised in Colorado to Mennonite parents. He is a 1989 graduate of Greeley Central High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Peace and Global Studies program at Earlham College in 1993. Subsequently, he earned a Master of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996.
He is proficient in Portuguese.
After graduation, Shellenberger moved to San Francisco to work on left-wing causes. He worked with Global Exchange on a Nike boycott. He created a nonprofit public relations firm, Communication Works, that worked on many progressive causes, and Lumina Strategies. Shellenberger in 2003 founded the Breakthrough Institute. While at Breakthrough, Shellenberger wrote a number of articles with subjects ranging from positive treatment of nuclear energy and shale gas, to critiques of the planetary boundaries hypothesis. He worked to burnish the reputations of prominent clients including Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Shellenberger then founded Environmental Progress, which is behind several public campaigns to keep nuclear power plants in operation. Shellenberger has also been called by conservative lawmakers to testify before the U.S. Congress about climate change and in favor of nuclear energy. In December 2022, Shellenberger was one of the authors who released sections of annotated internal Twitter Files authorized by new owner Elon Musk. As of December 2022, he is a writer for The Free Press.
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Michael Shellenberger
Michael D. Shellenberger (born June 16, 1971) is an American professor, author, and journalist whose views are seen as controversial by some academics.
Shellenberger authored Apocalypse Never (2020), about the environment, and San Fransicko (2021), about homelessness. Both books sparked significant debates and were both praised and critiqued by academics and journalists.
Shellenberger has been active in critiquing the environmental movement, offering alternative views on climate threats and policies. He contends that while global warming is a concern, it is "not the end of the world", and advocates for the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), industrial agriculture, fracking, and nuclear power as tools for environmental protection. Shellenberger ran for governor of California in 2018 and 2022, but was unsuccessful in both campaigns.
As of 2026[update] Shellenberger is on the faculty of the University of Austin in the area of "Politics, Censorship and Free Speech."
Shellenberger was born and raised in Colorado to Mennonite parents. He is a 1989 graduate of Greeley Central High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Peace and Global Studies program at Earlham College in 1993. Subsequently, he earned a Master of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996.
He is proficient in Portuguese.
After graduation, Shellenberger moved to San Francisco to work on left-wing causes. He worked with Global Exchange on a Nike boycott. He created a nonprofit public relations firm, Communication Works, that worked on many progressive causes, and Lumina Strategies. Shellenberger in 2003 founded the Breakthrough Institute. While at Breakthrough, Shellenberger wrote a number of articles with subjects ranging from positive treatment of nuclear energy and shale gas, to critiques of the planetary boundaries hypothesis. He worked to burnish the reputations of prominent clients including Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Shellenberger then founded Environmental Progress, which is behind several public campaigns to keep nuclear power plants in operation. Shellenberger has also been called by conservative lawmakers to testify before the U.S. Congress about climate change and in favor of nuclear energy. In December 2022, Shellenberger was one of the authors who released sections of annotated internal Twitter Files authorized by new owner Elon Musk. As of December 2022, he is a writer for The Free Press.
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