Breakthrough Institute

Breakthrough Institute
Formationcirca 2003[1][2]
FounderMichael Shellenberger
Ted Nordhaus
PurposeEnvironmental research
HeadquartersBerkeley, CA
Location
Key people
Ted Nordhaus (Founder, executive director), Alex Trembath (Deputy director), Kathryn Salam (Executive editor)
Websitethebreakthrough.org

The Breakthrough Institute is an environmental research center located in Berkeley, California. Founded in 2007 by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus,[5] The institute is aligned with ecomodernist philosophy.[6][7] The Institute advocates for an embrace of modernization and technological development (including nuclear power and carbon capture) in order to address environmental challenges. Proposing urbanization, agricultural intensification, nuclear power, aquaculture, and desalination as processes with a potential to reduce human demands on the environment, allowing more room for non-human species.[8][9][10][11]

Since its inception, environmental scientists and academics have criticized Breakthrough's environmental positions.[12][13][14][15][16] Popular press reception of Breakthrough's environmental ideas and policy has been mixed.[17][18][19][20][21][22][15][23][24][25]

  1. ^ Barringer, Felicity (February 6, 2005). "Paper Sets Off a Debate on Environmentalism's Future". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  2. ^ "Michael Shellenberger". The Breakthrough Institute.
  3. ^ "The Breakthrough Institute". GuideStar.
  4. ^ "The Breakthrough Institute". Open990.
  5. ^ "About". The Breakthrough Institute. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  6. ^ Porter, Eduardo (April 15, 2015). "A Call to Look Past Sustainable Development". New York Times.
  7. ^ Kloor, Keith (December 12, 2012). "The Great Schism in the Environmental Movement". Slate.
  8. ^ "Orion Magazine - Evolve". Orionmagazine.org. Archived from the original on January 7, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  9. ^ Samuelsohn, Daren (July 26, 2011). "Report: Treat climate change like 'Fight Club'". Politico.
  10. ^ Friedman, Lisa (July 26, 2011). "'Climate pragmatists' call for an end to Kyoto process". ClimateWire.
  11. ^ Walsh, Bryan (July 26, 2011). "Fighting Climate Change by Not Focusing on Climate Change". Time – via content.time.com.
  12. ^ Ziser, Michael; Sze, Julie (2007). "Climate Change, Environmental Aesthetics, and Global Environmental Justice Cultural Studies". Discourse. 29 (2/3): 384–410. doi:10.1353/dis.2007.a266843. JSTOR 41389785. S2CID 143411081.
  13. ^ Demos, TJ (2017). Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today. MIT Press. pp. 46–49. ISBN 9783956792106.
  14. ^ Caradonna, Jeremy L.; Norgaard, Richard B.; Borowy, Iris (2015). "A Degrowth Response to an Ecomodernist Manifesto". Resilience.
  15. ^ a b "The Breakthrough Institute's Inconvenient History with Al Gore". ethics.harvard.edu. April 14, 2014.
  16. ^ Mann, Michael E.; Tom Toles (2016). The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy. Columbia University Press.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ "Is the "Ecomodernist Manifesto" the Future of Environmentalism?". The New Yorker. June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  21. ^ Porter, Eduardo (April 14, 2015). / 'A Call to Look Past Sustainable Development." The New York Times.
  22. ^ Holthaus, Eric (20 April 2015). "Manifesto Calls for an End to "People Are Bad" Environmentalism." Slate.
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference :10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Roberts, David (June 14, 2013). "Some thoughts on "Pandora's Promise" and the nuclear debate". Grist. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  25. ^ Roberts, David (April 27, 2011). "Why I've avoided commenting on Nisbet's 'Climate Shift' report". Grist. Retrieved October 25, 2022.