Review of Eco-Tyranny: How the Left’s Green Agenda Will Dismantle America, by Brian Sussman (WND Books, 2012), 315 pages, ISBN- 978-1936488506
The United States has more energy resources than Saudi Arabia, but for some strange reason we are not allowed to access these resources. As a result, we are an energy-rich nation behaving like an energy-poor nation. Rising energy prices should be benefiting the U.S. economy thanks to our natural resource abundance, but instead rising energy prices stifle our economy. This is entirely the result of poor political decisions, and it borders on the surreal.
Brian Sussman asks in his new book, Eco-Tyranny: How the Left’s Green Agenda Will Dismantle America, “Why do so many leaders embrace irrational energy policies? Why do they pursue crippling regulatory and redistribution policies, based on unproven and discredited theory, and why is the powerful environmental movement so maniacally anti-energy and anti-capitalist and therefore anti-freedom?” Sussman answers all these questions clearly and succinctly.
As many have suspected, the whole global warming charade has much less to do with saving the planet than with profoundly changing America for the worse. Sussman, an award-winning meteorologist and popular talk-show host, documents how leftist radicals are absolutely determined to reduce America to a shadow of her former greatness and power. Sussman is among a very few authors who have had the courage to tell the story as it is, tracing the environmental activists’ roots to Marx and Lenin.
Marxist Origins
It is very likely Sussman’s first book, Climategate, was the straw that broke the back of the Pelosi-Reid effort to ram cap-and-trade legislation down Congress’ throat in 2009. Eco-Tyranny may similarly be the book that wakes up the public to the true socialist/communist tyranny that Marx, Engels, and Lenin planned with the use of radical environmentalism.
Sussman has a personal involvement with those men, as his grandfather came to the United States from Russia to escape communism and seek the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness promised under the Declaration of Independence. He tells this story in the foreword to Eco-Tyranny, which is a shame because forewords are so rarely read.
It is also here that he introduces President Obama’s efforts to render an unprecedented amount of energy-rich federal lands off-limits to energy production. Obama’s plan, as Sussman explains, directly contradicts our Founders’ intent that our federal government not assume the role of a major landowner. Although Americans are used to revering our national parks, Sussman makes a strong case that we would be far better served by system of state parks.
Sussman shows that Marxism is a far greater threat to human health and welfare than pollution. Yet Marxists seize upon pollution, both real and imagined, as an effective weapon for gaining power in their unrelenting war on freedom.
Is there pollution? Sure, Sussman acknowledges. Can it be cleaned up? Absolutely, and Americans have already done a remarkable job of it. But alarmist claims of a global eco-emergency fueled by the use of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emissions are at heart a bid for power by nations and activist groups that hate economic freedom and strive for a Marxist utopia.
Although this is indeed a book about environmentalism gone wild, it is also a story of history that is rarely taught to public schoolchildren. Marxists since the middle of the 19th century have argued America’s Founding Fathers were reckless and evil in their advocacy for personal freedom.
‘Dogmatic, Ideological Radicals’
Few people have had the courage to publicly say what Sussman says here: “Environmentalist activists are dogmatic, ideological radicals hell-bent on transforming society into a colossal, highly regulated, redistributive commune void of inalienable rights. Their lack of integrity enables them to look you straight in the eye and lie about facts, while they spin out tailor made cherry picked research supposedly proving their many fictitious claims regarding the state of a global ecosystem. The primary goal of their green agenda is not a pristine environment, it’s about gaining absolute control over your life.”
Along the way, Sussman exposes environmentalist heroes Rachel Carson and Paul Ehrlich for the socialism that drove their activist agendas. He does much of it through the eyes of a dear, departed friend of mine, J. Gordon Edwards, the world’s leading expert on DDT and birds.
There is so much more history in this book that will captivate readers. Sussman chronicles the full story of United Nations involvement in ecological tyranny, governmental scaremongering, and the promotion of a green religion. He relates how Maurice Strong, under the guidance of the infamous Armand Hammer, managed the Rio summit of 1991 which laid the groundwork for the Kyoto protocol. He explains how Agenda 21 remains an active plan of the Obama administration to create green socialism.
On the positive side, Sussman offers an excellent assessment of our nation’s vast petroleum and natural gas reserves and our nuclear power potential, though the latter will likely not be met as a result of the Fukishima debacle which in reality proved the safety of nuclear power.
Finally, Sussman offers a 12-point plan for taking the country back from radical environmentalists. I will refrain from listing Sussman’s persuasive plan so you will be more likely to buy the book yourself. You will certainly be doing yourself a favor by buying this book!
Jay Lehr, Ph.D. ([email protected]) is science director of The Heartland Institute.
Jay Lehr was an internationally renowned speaker, scientist, Senior Policy Advisor with the International Climate Science Coalition and Senior Science Analyst at CFACT.
