Michael Shellenberger

President

Breakthrough Institute

Michael is an author and political strategist who works on and writes about energy technology innovation, climate change, economic development, rain forest conservation, social values, national security and human rights. As president of the Breakthrough Institute, he is a leading national advocate for the U.S. to make large, public-private investments in clean energy and decarbonization technologies to achieve energy independence, restore America's economic competitiveness, and slow global warming. Michael is co-author of Break Through (Houghton Mifflin 2007) and the 2004 essay, "The Death of Environmentalism." In 2002 Michael co-founded the Apollo Alliance and the Breakthrough Institute. He and Ted Nordhaus were named Time magazine "Heroes of the Environment 2008". Michael has written for The New York Times, the New Republic, the American Prospect, Salon, Harvard Law and Policy Review, Democracy, and Glamour Magazine. Michael has worked as a strategist for efforts to invest billions in clean energy, save the world's last redwoods, and improve working conditions for Nike factory workers in China. He was raised in Greeley, Colorado, received his B.A. from Earlham in Indiana, and received a Masters Degree in cultural anthropology from the University of California.