Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus lectureApril 19, 2011 at 7:30–8:30 p.m.

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, influential voices in the debate about energy and climate policy, will speak at Gustavus on April 19. Shellenberger and Nordhaus are the president and chairman, respectively, of The Breakthrough Institute, a policy think tank advocating an innovation-centered approach to climate and energy issues.

The duo shook up the environmental world with their 2004 essay, The Death of Environmentalism, in which they argued that the mainstream environmental movement was, and would continue to be, ineffective in the face of global environmental challenges including climate change. They later expanded on their argument for an alternative approach based on technical innovation in the book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. More recently, Shellenberger and Nordhous continued that theme in a November 2010 Wall Street Journal opinion piece arguing that we should combat climate change through clean energy innovation. That clean energy innovation argument was featured prominently in President Obama's January 2011 State of the Union address.

Shellenberger and Nordhaus's visit to Gustavus is cosponsored by the Evironmental Studies Program, the Department of Economics and Management, the Johnson Center for Environmental Innovation and the Gustavus Lecture Series.