HOBOKEN, N.J. — Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, whose critiques of the environmental movement have provoked widespread reconsideration of its methods and goals, have won the 2008 Green Book Award from Stevens Institute of Technology’s Center for Science Writings.
Nordhaus and Shellenberger won for their 2007 book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. An expansion of their widely discussed 2004 essay, “The Death of Environmentalism,” Break Through faults environmentalists for implying that global warming and other problems can only be addressed by limiting human progress. Instead, Nordhaus and Shellenberger argue, green activists should recognize the potential of economic development and technological innovation to help us overcome ecological crises. Nordhaus and Shellenberger co-direct the Breakthrough Institute, a thinktank based in Oakland, Calif., and are partners in American Environics, a consulting firm.
John Horgan, Director of the Center for Science Writings, will present Nordhaus and Shellenberger with the Green Book Award at Stevens on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, at 4 p.m., in the Lawrence T. Babbio Center. Following the award ceremony, Nordhaus and Shellenberger will discuss their views of environmentalism in a conversation with Andrew C. Revkin, the environmental correspondent of the New York Times. This event is free and open to the public.
Break Through has garnered praise from across the political spectrum. The Wall Street Journal contends that the book “will surely do more for the environment than any U.N. report or Nobel Prize.” WIRED magazine describes it as “the best thing to happen to environmentalism since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.” The environmental author Bill McKibben calls Break Through “unremittingly interesting, sharp and wide-ranging.”
The Center for Science Writings created the Green Book Award in 2006 to draw attention to books that raise awareness of environmental issues. The award includes a prize of $5000, which is underwritten by Turner Corps., the largest construction firm in the world and a leader in green engineering. Judges include the staff of the CSW in consultation with “Friends of the CSW,” a group of leading science journalists (including Revkin). Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson received the first Green Book Award last May for his book, The Creation.
For more information, contact John Horgan at jhorgan@stevens.edu, 201-216-5057 or visit the Center’s website at www.stevens.edu/csw.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value. Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,040 undergraduate and 3,085 graduate students, and a worldwide online enrollment of 2,250, with about 400 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.
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