Listen free for 30 days

  • Apocalypse Never

  • Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
  • Written by: Michael Shellenberger
  • Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
  • Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (341 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Apocalypse Never cover art

Apocalypse Never

Written by: Michael Shellenberger
Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $40.01

Buy Now for $40.01

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

Climate change is real, but it’s not the end of the world. It is not even our most serious environmental problem.

Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions.

But in 2019, as some claimed "billions of people are going to die", contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that, as a lifelong environmental activist, leading energy expert, and father of a teenage daughter, he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.

Despite decades of news media attention, many remain ignorant of basic facts. Carbon emissions peaked and have been declining in most developed nations for over a decade. Deaths from extreme weather, even in poor nations, declined 80 percent over the last four decades. And the risk of Earth warming to very high temperatures is increasingly unlikely thanks to slowing population growth and abundant natural gas.

Curiously, the people who are the most alarmist about the problems also tend to oppose the obvious solutions.

What’s really behind the rise of apocalyptic environmentalism? There are powerful financial interests. There are desires for status and power. But most of all, there is a desire among supposedly secular people for transcendence. This spiritual impulse can be natural and healthy. But in preaching fear without love, and guilt without redemption, the new religion is failing to satisfy our deepest psychological and existential needs.

©2020 Michael Shellenberger (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Apocalypse Never

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    287
  • 4 Stars
    44
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    217
  • 4 Stars
    51
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    237
  • 4 Stars
    34
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Level Headed thinking

It was refreshing to hear. Environmentalism based on reality not alarmism. This i agree with.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Climate and Environmental Sanity

Easily one of the most important books I've listened to in the past three years. This is a well researched, well thought out response to the climate and ecological hysteria that dominates today's media and punditry. The answers to many of the world most challenging problems are staring us straight in the face, and Mr. Schellenberger delivers those answers with insight and efficiency. Anyone who considers themselves a moderate and reasonable should read this book. It is the most sensible pathway forward for anyone who cares about making our respective communities, countries and the world a better place.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Required Reading

If you have any questions regarding connections between special interest groups and climate change, this book will answer them. Michael Shellenberger exposes the truth behind the propaganda that everyone should be aware of.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A book you should read, no re:. climate alarmism

A balanced and scientific exploration of the harms of climate alarmism on the planet and it's people.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolute Must Read

This book is the most honest and thorough examination of the modern environmental movement that I am aware of. Michael Schellenberger subjects all of the movement's talking points to the most penetrating and painstakingly researched analysis imaginable, exposing, one by one, the fallacious reasoning, the factual inaccuracies, the hypocrisy and outright lies that they are founded upon. But, as excellent as his analysis of the particulars of modern environmentalism is, where Schellenberger really shines is in his analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of the movement. From its roots in Malthusian philosophy, Schellenberger, rightly, identifies the religious nature of modern environmentalism, calling into open question its claim to be based in scientific analysis rather than faith or speculation.

If you want to know where the modern environmental movement came from, where it is, and where it wants to take us, Apocalypse Never is an absolute must read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A compelling rational approach to climate change

A recommended read for those looking for a rational unemotional science based assessment of climate change. The narrator was a bit to somber for me but overall a well written book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Lots of confirmation bias, few real answers

I heard about this book on a podcast and decided to listen to it to try to get a balanced view on climate issues from someone whose credentials indicate real knowledge on the matter. I believe climate change is real, human caused and of critical importance, but I also believe that many activist organizations are purposefully alarmist because that's what drives engagement and funding to their cause. Plus, the modern media is now largely about sensationalism, rather than objective journalism. I'm always skeptical when new reports come out that talk about how the science was apparently wrong and things are always worse than we thought, without raising any question as to how they got it wrong in the first place.

That said, this book doesn't offer much in the way of answers or compelling counterpoints. Written by a self-proclaimed "ecomodernist" whose main bag is PR, Schellenberger's answer to nearly all of our problems is "more economic growth." He tries to make the point that if we just allowed the companies that have largely caused our environmental problems more access to do what they want, that somehow it will lead to more environmental sustainability. At one point unironically calling BP (of Deep Water Horizon fame) a "responsible oil company", he advocates for things like drilling for oil in African wildlife reservations because it will bring jobs and economic prosperity to the local economy, disregarding the legion of history that shows how these oil companies tend to exploit that local populace, hoarding most of the spoils for themselves until the taps run dry and then bouncing out, leaving impovrished governments to clean up the mess they made because "responsibility" isn't condisive to profitability. He never talks about how these companies have given us no reason to trust them, nor does he touch on the concept that maybe there should be such a thing as enough and that endless, exponential economic growth is literally impossible and how the mindset is what got us to where we are now. He doesn't advocate a better way, he advocates for more of the same.

He often criticizes other environment groups for either not using proper science or ignoring existing science, but the book is strewn with uncited claims of his own, frequently couched in weasel phrases like "experts say" and "studies say". You don't get to take pot shots at other people's lack of reliable sourcing, then not provide any of your own.

He does spend a lot of time touting nuclear energy, which is a point I do agree with. Heavily regulated and scrutinized nuclear plants, based on the latest innovations of the technology are the way to get us off dirty energy and I believe he makes a compelling case for it, though as I said, only having the industry constantly watched over like a hawk will ensure that the negative corporate influences listed above won't cause us further disaster.

Most of the back third of the book is spent trashing environmental organizations (which all compete with his own Breakthrough Institute, just a coincidence I'm sure) and how many of them supposedly take funding from fossil fuel billionaires in order to actually push further use of fossil fuels. Having read up on some of the organizations he targets, I do believe their stance on nuclear is myopic and not based in reality, but it's a massive stretch to say that the fossil fuel industry is pulling their strings, especially when he spends other sections of the book touting more fossil fuel expansion by some of the demonstrably least responsible companies on Earth.

I think it's important to hear non-extremist counterpoints to most things, even those widely accepted as wrong. Humans have been wrong in large numbers before. However, I didn't get at all what I'd hoped out of Apocalypse Never. I wanted solid, scientific, well cited arguments that I could use to counter the alarmists. Instead, it offers a bunch of weak arguments, all wrapped in a pro-business narrative that borders on propaganda at times. There are things to learn from this book, but don't go into it thinking Shellenberger is a remotely neutral actor.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Required reading

If you have an idea, thought, or opinion on what climate change is and what it means, this is a must read. The most level headed ideas come shining through in this book. Progress is inevitable, let’s work on better ideas on how to get where we are headed regardless. Trying to stop it just creates more suffrage.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Makes you optimistic!

You start to realized the layers of corruption sewing fear and selling harmful solutions are what really stands in front of both a healthy environment, and a more equitable world. The message is great and the end of the book provides hope that people are listening!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Finally Common Sense

This book should be read by as many people as possible. It is a rational portrayal of the debate on climate change.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful