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Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism Paperback – December 31, 2013

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 221 ratings

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There was a time when humanity looked in the mirror and saw something precious, worth protecting and fighting for—indeed, worth liberating. But now we are beset on all sides by propaganda promoting a radically different viewpoint. According to this idea, human beings are a cancer upon the Earth, a species whose aspirations and appetites are endangering the natural order. This is the core of antihumanism.

Merchants of Despair traces the pedigree of this ideology and exposes its deadly consequences in startling and horrifying detail. The book names the chief prophets and promoters of antihumanism over the last two centuries, from Thomas Malthus through Paul Ehrlich and Al Gore. It exposes the worst crimes perpetrated by the antihumanist movement, including eugenics campaigns in the United States and genocidal anti-development and population-control programs around the world.

Combining riveting tales from history with powerful policy arguments,
Merchants of Despair provides scientific refutations to antihumanism’s major pseudo-scientific claims, including its modern tirades against nuclear power, pesticides, population growth, biotech foods, resource depletion, industrial development, and, most recently, fear-mongering about global warming. Merchants of Despair exposes this dangerous agenda and makes the definitive scientific and moral case against it.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

The book is replete with scientific studies and facts, though it is Zubrin's view on the people and history behind antihumanist movements that is the most disturbing. Whether pointing out that the first Green Party was founded under the leadership of August Haussleiter, a former Nazi SS officer; that Fujimori's genocide in Peru was funded by international aid; or that Qian Xinzhong was given the first United Nations Population Award (together with Indira Gandhi) after forcing thousands of Chinese women to abort their children, Zubrin paints a dark and disturbing picture of antihumanism that's worth everyone's time to read. --Publishers Weekly

Robert Zubrin's masterful study makes for riveting reading.
Merchants of Despair is a cautionary tale of what happens when powerful, unprincipled elites are not only alienated from the mass of their fellow men, but come to see them as a barrier to imagined social, evolutionary, or environmental progress. --Steven W. Mosher, President, Population Research Institute

Merchants of Despair is an extraordinary and important book. This fascinating volume carefully traces developments of the Malthusian hypothesis right up to the present: through eugenics to population control and genocide; through the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth and extreme environmentalism to climate change and the myth of global warming apocalypse. Robert Zubrin has my nomination for a Pulitzer Prize. --S. Fred Singer, Chairman, Science and Environmental Policy Project, Author of Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years

About the Author

Robert Zubrin is the author of numerous books, including Energy Victory and The Case for Mars, a bestseller on space exploration and the human future. He is the president of Pioneer Astronautics, a fellow of the Center for Security Policy, the founder of the Mars Society, and a contributing editor to The New Atlantis. He has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and nine U.S. patents granted or pending. He lives in Golden, Colorado.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Encounter Books; Reprint edition (December 31, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 328 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159403737X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594037375
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.06 x 0.75 x 6.06 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 221 ratings

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Robert Zubrin
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Dr. Robert Zubrin is the author of The Case for Nukes: How to Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future, and The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must. He is an internationally renowned nuclear and aerospace engineer with four decades of technical experience. Formerly a Senior Engineer at Lockheed Martin, since 1996 he has been President of Pioneer Astronautics, an aerospace research and development company. In that capacity he has led over 70 highly successful technology development projects for NASA, the US military, the Department of Energy, and private clients. He holds Master of Science degrees in Nuclear Engineering and Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a doctorate in Nuclear Engineering, all from the University of Washington. He is the author of 14 books, over 200 technical and non-technical papers in areas relating to aerospace and energy engineering, and is the inventor of over 20 US patents, with several more pending. In 1998 he founded the non-profit Mars Society, and personally led it in building a simulated human Mars exploration station in the Canadian Arctic, some 900 miles from the North Pole. He remains president of the Mars Society today. Prior to his work in aerospace, Dr. Zubrin worked in areas of radiation protection, nuclear power plant safety, thermonuclear fusion research, and as a secondary school science and math teacher. He lives in Golden, Colorado with his wife Hope Zubrin, a retired Middle School science teacher. They have three daughters, Sarah, Rachel, and Oakley, all now out of the house, and a loyal Sheltie named Strelka and Siberian cat Luna, who remain at home.

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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Customers say

Customers find the book provides well-researched and documented information for all levels of education and expertise. They describe it as an excellent, essential read that makes a good companion to Zubrin's book. The writing style is described as fluid and interesting throughout. Readers appreciate the philosophical roots of environmentalism and non-political review of the energy business with an emphasis on the oil market.

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47 customers mention "Information quality"47 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's well-researched and well-documented information. They find it a great source of information for general readers with a wealth of facts and references. The book is thought-provoking and fascinating, providing connections between the dawn of history and modern times.

"...The book is a great source of information for the general reader of all levels of education and expertise...." Read more

"...It is a scientifically based fictional account that makes a good companion to Zubrin's book...." Read more

"...But it did happen. A thought-provoking book. Worth a read." Read more

"...On the whole then, this is an solid book. It details the history of the antihumanist movement and explains in great detail how today's left has..." Read more

32 customers mention "Readability"32 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and engaging. They say it's an essential read that makes a good companion to Zubrin's book and Peter Diamandis's. The account is credible and disturbing, with well-researched details and a large bibliography at the back. Readers appreciate the charts, footnotes, and bibliographic references.

"...And the book is very well written and very informative. The book is a must read." Read more

"...It is a scientifically based fictional account that makes a good companion to Zubrin's book...." Read more

"...But it did happen. A thought-provoking book. Worth a read." Read more

"...analysis that so often appears in political discourse, and deserves to be read closely." Read more

10 customers mention "Writing style"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-written and engaging. They say the author is fluid and interesting throughout, making it easy to read. The writing style is clear and cogent, with relevant facts and charts.

"...And the book is very well written and very informative. The book is a must read." Read more

"...It is, in all, not a very pretty picture, and this is a very well written and argued book. So why does it only get four stars?..." Read more

"...recent addition of "The Case for Mars" and was hooked by how powerful of a writer he was...." Read more

"...His writing style is articulate, cogent and extremely well researched, with a large bibliography in the back 20% of the book, from which you may..." Read more

4 customers mention "Environmentalists"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book informative about the philosophical roots of environmentalism. They appreciate the non-political review of the energy business, with an emphasis on the oil market.

"This book gives a good overview of the new world religion of environmentalism that is rampant through the world, especially the West...." Read more

"A non political review of the energy business with enphasis on the oil market. Discusses many misconceptions about oil and myths of it's origins...." Read more

"The Philosophical Roots of Environmentalism..." Read more

"ECO-FASCISTS AND HIPPIES WHO HATE HUMANITY..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2012
    Dr. Zubrin has written a very interesting and informative book about what he calls antihumanism. Anttumanism is the idea that that "humans are a cancer upon the Earth, a horde of vermin whose unconstrained aspirations and appetites are endangering the natural order". Dr. Zubrin describes the basic philosophy of antihumanism and how it has morphed from one political tendency and movement to another over the last several centuries. Dr. Zubrin begins his history of anithumanism was Thomas Malthus an his doctrine that population growth always outruns natural resources. Dr. Zubrin notes that Malthus considered humans like static bacteria in a petri dish who never modify their environment. Dr. Zubrin notes that humans, particularly free humans, are creators and innovators who for many thousands of years have changed their environment for the better. Thus Dr. Zubrins begins his critique of antihumanism by illustrating the arguments of the critics of Thomas Malthus.

    Dr. Zubrin moves on his book to describes the horrific effect the antihumanists have on human existence. He narrates how Malthusian influenced led to sever famines in Ireland and India. He demonstrates how Nazi starvation and extermination policies derived from the antihumanism of biologist Ernst Haeckle and his acolytes. He notes how some of Charles Darwin's antihumanist ideas helped racism, super nationalism, and imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Darwinism also led the post World War I eugenics movement which involuntarily sterilized many people.

    Dr. Zubrin writin about the period after World War II turns his attention to extreme population control undertaken by the United Sates and other countries that caused much human suffering. He details the environmental movement and its assault against human life, human labor and human living conditions. He details Rachel Carson's pernicious anti DDT campaign which resulting in millions of deaths and disablements in Developing countries. He demonstrates how antihumanism gave birth to the malevolent campaigns against nuclear energy and global warming. Thus the antihumanist stands in opposition to the energy sources that are of the most benefit to humanity. In his focus section he provides very understandable focus sections on some of the basic science of nuclear energy and global warming.

    And Dr. Zubrin's book is very readable. The book is a great source of information for the general reader of all levels of education and expertise.

    However I do have a few quibbles with Dr. Zubrin's book. In one instance he states that the German population of World War II knew about the extermination of the Jewish population and other Nazi atrocities. This view is not correct. The Nazis did not advertise their death camps but hid the information. According Madeleine Albright Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 the Jews themselves did not know about their intended murder before they reached the death camps until very late in the World War II period. Note the Nazis carried out their atrocities under the cover of war.

    I also feel that Dr. Zubrin left out some of the better arguments against the global warming hoax. Carbon dioxide only reflects certain infrared frequencies of heat energy, most are already reflected by water vapor which is ten times more prevalent in the atmosphere. And carbon dioxide heat reflection has the filter effect. Each extra unit of carbon dioxide has less, much less, effect on the reflection of energy emitted from the earth than the unit placed in the atmosphere before it. And carbon dioxide does not stay in the atmosphere forever. The half life of a carbon dioxide molecule in the atmosphere is under twenty years according to many scientific studies. These facts are very strong negations of the anthropogenic global warming theory.

    Yet Dr. Zubrin's book on anthumanism is invaluable. It is one of the first general histories of the anti people, anti technology, anti human progress antihumanism. And the book is very well written and very informative. The book is a must read.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2012
    Robert Zubrin has produced a carefully documented analysis of the people who, from positions of power, have developed the art of using fear as a means for controlling whole populations and maximizing their power over the direction of government policies. The result has been, instead of a utopian Garden of Eden as promised, the destruction of hundreds of millions of human lives and the throttling of progress in disease control and human economic improvement.

    Armed with mathematical models and supported by politicians, popular authors and a gullible media network, these "nattering nabobs of negativism" (to borrow a phrase from Spiro Agnew) convinced themselves in the 1970s that overpopulation would soon overwhelm the world's natural resources and lead to mass deprivation and starvation. Today, they claim that Climate Change will cause the Earth to overheat, leading to a crisis of epic proportions. As a result of these beliefs, they view death and destruction of populations as a positive good, since it will reduce the number of mouths to feed and reduce our ultimate "carbon footprint."

    [I realize that this sounds extreme, but Zubrin produces documented evidence showing that such positions have actually been supported by presumably expert scientific leaders over the past few decades.]

    Zubrin shows how persons with limited scientific credentials have taken over positions of leadership in the administrations of US presidents as well as in the halls of the United Nations. A classic example is John Holdren who, as a neo-Malthusian "science advisor" with no real scientific experience, has exercised considerable power in the United States as well as worldwide via the United Nations. Holdren coauthored with Paul Erlich The Population Explosion in the early 1970s that predicted massive worldwide starvation before the turn of the Twentieth Century.

    Rachel Carson's Silent Spring had been credited with almost single handedly putting an end to the global effort to eradicate malaria using DDT, which had been demonstrated to be a very safe insecticide that could eliminate the scourge of a disease that has ravaged Africa for generations. The Environmental Protection Administration banned further use of the chemical, despite a clear bill of health from the National Academy of Science in 1970. Nations that continued using DDT to fight malaria were instructed that they would no longer be eligible for foreign aid unless they discontinued the practice.

    As a result, over 100 million Africans alone have died from malaria in the ensuing years. Although DDT had been demonstrated to produce tumors in rats when exposed to massive quantities, for humans to develop such cancerous growths would have required drinking large quantities of the pesticide. This error by the EPA has yet to be rectified.

    If you have not already done so, please consider reading Michael Crichton's State of Fear for more on how powerful special interests try to manipulate public opinion to support measures that are not in the public interest. It is a scientifically based fictional account that makes a good companion to Zubrin's book.

    Lord Acton stated that "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Read Zubrin's book for one of the best analyses of Acton's dictum ever written.
    91 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Bruce D Link
    5.0 out of 5 stars These horrors are still with us
    Reviewed in Canada on July 9, 2024
    Zibrin adds some information to my perennial question of why Greens reject the most green power source, and why climate warming activists reject zero-carbon power sources.

    It also seems that the arguments leading to the ban on DDT were quickly known to be false, the ban leading to many million unnecessary deaths.

    This book should be read by anyone who cares for human flourishing.
  • Gutel
    5.0 out of 5 stars L’écologie radicale est-elle criminelle?
    Reviewed in France on January 16, 2018
    Livre passionnant révèlant des faits que pour ma part j’ignorais complètement: ce sont pourtant des millions de personnes qui en ont été les victimes, il me semble dans une indifférence quasi totale. Toute personne s’interrogeant sur l’écologie devrait lire ce livre certes à charge mais très documenté, très complet, et dont la fibre humaniste me paraît des plus sincères.
  • Guillermo Ribeiro
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ecxellent eye opening book
    Reviewed in Spain on September 24, 2016
    tremendously eye opening and disturbing, this book is an excellent and very accurate way to see the underlaying objectives in many "enviromentalist" movements
  • ableRex358
    5.0 out of 5 stars It is Like Looking at the Deadly Plans Being Formulated on the Desk of the Evil Overlords Drawing Board in the Villains Lair
    Reviewed in Germany on July 25, 2016
    I like the well thought out quick to business style of writing of this book. The references provide sources for further study. At some times the weight of the information limited the reading speed I could use. Not that the science was hard to get but the moral wrongs this book reveals so clearly make you want to take a deep breath before the next chapter. I really like the big philosophical picture this book provides, it truly helps predict future news by providing the patterns to look out for.

    I would recommend this book especially to all readers who are puzzled why nuclear energy is not loved more by the so called environmentalists. At the moment I do not have much critique of this book, maybe more references to some items would have been nice. At the moment I consider this book my all time favourite non-fiction book.
  • Stuart John Woods
    5.0 out of 5 stars Infinite Possibilities Or Orwellian Dystopia?
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2015
    In this book, Robert Zubrin spells out the crossroads that humanity is presently faced with.

    Growing up in the UK, as a 1980s child, and later as a 1990s teenager, I was frequently exposed to the alarmist message, given by schoolteachers and other well meaning elders, that time was running out for humanity to deal with "pollution". During my years in primary school, the message was one of industrial resource depletion, destruction of the rainforests, and the imminent depletion of atmospheric oxygen. Later, at secondary school, I was taught by my geography teacher about the perils of intensive farming, and the folly of cheap electricity from nuclear power.

    In both cases, the message was clear: Unless something was done within the next ten years to rectify the situation, I wouldn't live to be an adult.

    The human race would run out of oil, out of industrial feedstock, out of food, or out of air. World War Three would be fought over whatever scraps remained. If we somehow survived all of these perils, we would all be "dead from pollution" by now. I even watched children's TV programs about it.

    As an adult, I find myself living in a world where I'm conspicuously not dead. I live in a world where the global human population has already risen far higher than the Earth was supposedly able to sustain. Oil and industrial resources are in such oversupply that the industries that produce them are in financial trouble

    When I was very young, I saw the Ethiopia famine played out live on BBC Children's Newsround and Blue Peter, where we saw images of children, just like us, dying in a humanitarian disaster. Many of us, young as we were, wondered whether we could do something to prevent this. After all, if we had food, could we not spare some for the Ethiopians?

    It was declared at this time that nothing could be done to prevent this, because the Ethiopians "breed like rabbits" and had brought this disaster upon themselves. While many young people at the time asked questions about how to end global poverty and hunger, we were told that this was a naïve dream, which would be impossible to achieve in practice.

    My parents had made a point of sitting me in front of BBC2 Star Trek repeats as a young child. As I became an adolescent, I was confronted with the exploits of Jean-Luc Picard and his extremely smart and resourceful crew. The stories of Star Trek The Next Generation told of a brave future, where technological advances and human maturity allowed us to overcome the scourges of poverty, famine, disease and war. In this plausible future; humanity has grown up as a species and has solved the problems that my generation desperately wanted to solve (but, we had been told, were unsolvable). Technologies needed to make such a future a reality seemed within reach. If only my generation could somehow ride the wave of the computer revolution that was gaining momentum at the time...

    Such thoughts remained confined to the realm of the hopeful imagination, until I became aware of Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct plan. As heretical as it may sound, Robert Zubrin has found a way for humanity to break away from the Earth and become a multi-planet and eventually interstellar species, without invoking the usual "sci-fi tricks" and insane costs that such plans usually require.

    In Merchants of Despair, Robert Zubrin debunks the myths of Manthusian Orwellian despotism. If you want to understand Zubrin's plans for human expansion into space, then I recommend reading Zubrins books: "The Case For Mars", "How To Live On Mars" and "Entering Space".