76 AMERICANWAY
OCTOBER 1 2007
the environment to include people. “We
believe that the environmentalmovement’s
foundational concepts, itsmethod for fram-
ing legislative proposals, and its very insti-
tutions are outmoded,” they wrote in the
white paper. “Today, environmentalism is
just another special interest.”
That paper created an uproar in the
environmental-movement community and
landed them on the front page of the
New
YorkTimes
and on the cover of the
Econo-
mist
.
Now the duo is back, with a book called
Break Through: From the Death of Envi-
ronmentalism to the Politics of Possibility
,
whichoffersa roadmap that showshow the
greenmovementneeds to reposition itsval-
uesandmove forwardwithnewpartners to
combat globalwarming.
“The idea is that thepolitics of limits did
okay dealing with acid rain and smog, but
if we’re going to deal with global warm-
ing instead of just limiting pollution, we
need to create a new politics that is about
unleashing human power and potential,”
Shellenberger says. “That’s consistent with
innovationand investmentandanewbreed
of capitalism.”
That means no
longer putting the
environment
at
the center of pro-
gressive
politics,
Shellenberger says.
Why? Because en-
vironmentalism
ranks well below
other values in sur-
vey after survey.
They know this be-
cause in their day
jobs with Ameri-
can Environics, a
research and strat-
egy firm that uses
cutting-edge social-
values science to
advise philanthro-
pists, social-change
strategists, and po-
litical candidates,
they do extensive
surveys.
“Global
warming is still
at
[
the
]
bottom of
people’s list of pri-
orities,” he says. “At the top are things like
jobs, global economic competitiveness, and
energy independence.”
Shellenberger and Nordhaus say the
publicwill getbehindabig idea that frames
the issue correctly. The problem with the
environmentalists’ approaches to global
warming, they say, is that they’re all aimed
atmakingdirtyenergyexpensiveasaway to
make clean energymore competitive.What
we need, they contend, is a government-
supported big investment inmaking clean
energy cheap; this would guarantee the
market and have global economic prosper-
ityas the sellingpoint.
“What do we do best as Americans?”
Shellenberger asks. “We invent stuff, and
we reinvent ourselves.We need to reinvent
ourselvesagain,andweneed todo itaround
economic competitiveness and energy in-
dependence because those are muchmore
central andhigher concerns for theAmeri-
canpeople
[
than the environment is
]
.”
Inotherwords,environmentalistsneedto
thinkmorebroadly andbring inbusinesses
and unions and show them why battling
global warming is in their economic inter-
est. To this end, Shellenberger and Nord-
haushelpeddraft legislation thatwas intro-
duced last year by Senator Barack Obama
andRepresentative Jay Inslee. Obama and
Inslee proposedHealthCare forHybrids, a
bill that offers Detroit relief from some of
thehighhealth-carecosts itpays forretirees
in exchange for a commitment to invest at
least half of those savings into the develop-
ment andmanufacture of fuel-efficient ve-
hicles. It puts environmentalists, automak-
ers, andunions— groups that are often on
opposing sides—on the same team.
“Youhave todefine the scopeof concerns
more broadly than just air and water and
animals,” Shellenberger says. “You have to
define it to include peasant farmers in the
Amazon and Chinese factory workers and
American auto companies. They’re all part
of the ecology.”
JIMROGERS
ENERGYMAVERICK
In2004,JamesE.Rogers, then thechiefex-
ecutive officer of Cinergy Corporation, told
investors, customers, and other stakehold-
ersabouthisseven-year-oldgranddaughter,
Emma, who had surprised himwhen she’d
said shewanted toprotect endangered spe-
cieswhen shegrewup.
Her concern for the future of the planet
is the same concern that is at the heart of
the global-warmingdebate, he noted in the
company’s annual report, adding that his
readersmight expectCinergy toduck the is-
sue, as the company burns 25 to30million
tons of coal annually, a practice linked to
globalwarming. But for the report, Cinergy
had interviewed23stakeholders, lookingfor
a commongroundonglobalwarming.That
dialogue, hewrote, “starts firstwith abelief
that we must steward this planet, not just
for ourselvesbut for futuregenerations.”
Coming from a CEO in an industry in
which, at that time, many were still ques-
tioning the realityof globalwarming, itwas
an extraordinary report. AndRogers hasn’t
stopped in the years since then.Now, as the
CEO of Duke Energy, Rogers has played
a key role in launching the U.S. Climate
Action Partnership, an alliance between
corporate executives and environmental
groups that has proposed a federal cap and
tradeprogramaimedat cuttinggreenhouse
gases by 10 to 30 percent over the next 15
yearsandby60 to80percentby themiddle
of time.
}
Carpoolingwith someone just twodays aweekwill reduce your CO
2
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}
Americans throw
