Amazon.com: Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Men Who Are Destroying Life on Earth―And What It Means for Our Children: 9781510721753: Russell, Dick, Kennedy Jr., Robert F., Talbot, David: Books (original) (raw)

Review

Praise for Horsemen of the Apocalypse

“When in the near future the climate implodes and misery envelops the planet,

you will know the criminals against humanity who were most directly and personally responsible from [Horsemen of the Apocalypse].”
—Ross Gelbspan, author The Heat Is On and Boiling Point

“

Dick Russell and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. have brilliantly laid bare the horsemen of the apocalypse and their cronies who are now steering the American ship of state and are bent on committing hara-kiri on the agreements, agencies, and regulations that are a bulwark against their own country’s and the world’s plunge into disaster.”
—Homero Aridjis, Mexican poet, novelist, ambassador, and environmental activist; president emeritus of PEN International

"As the impacts of climate change grow increasingly visible in our daily lives, so must our understanding of the forces that are conspiring to stop actions to mitigate those impacts. This book lays bare how those forces, borne largely of self interest, are trying to make sure the US continues to add to global carbon pollution, the primary factor in climate change. With the new Trump administration trying to roll back president Obama's actions,

this is a timely and essential read for everyone concerned. "
—Margo Oge, author of Driving the Future: Combating Climate Change with Cleaner, Smarter Cars

“

This may be the most important book yet on the climate crisis . . . and by the way, it’s fun to read. Dick Russell’s keen research and sharp writing unpacks the complex sordid tale of fossil fuel corporations and their henchmen, from the Koch brothers to Exxon to Peabody coal, who have systematically held us back from solving climate change, using denial, deception, and ruthless power.”
—Kert Davies, director, Climate Investigations Center

“In

Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Dick Russell lays out the lies and cover-ups of some of the men—including ExxonMobil’s Rex Tillerson and the Koch brothers—who have been hell-bent on amassing fortunes by exploiting fossil fuels, even while knowing that this exploitation would likely destroy civilization.”
—David Ray Griffin, author of Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis?

“

Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a mind-opening exposé of the roots and branches of fossil fuel zealots, their campaigns of misinformation, and the rebellion of their descendants. It shows how the misuse of wealth and power can undermine democracy, threaten the health of the planet, and neglect our moral responsibility to future generations.”
—Sheldon Krimsky, PhD, Lenore Stern Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences, adjunct professor of public health and community medicine, Tufts University, and author of Stem Cell Dialogues: A Philosophical & Scientific Inquiry into Medical Frontiers

”

A must read for anyone concerned with climate and energy issues.”
—Leonardo DiCaprio, Academy Award winning actor and environmental activist

"Despite the intensity of the opening chapters,

Russell's book is surprisingly inspiring. He covers the shifting mind-set of the up and coming generation—our future leaders. [...] As the world moves closer and closer to climate disaster, it's more important than ever for the public to be informed about the individuals trying to monkeywrench environmental policy and the money behind their campaigns."
—The Huffington Post

About the Author

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is one of the nation's leading environmental activists. He is the president of Waterkeeper Alliance, the world's largest clean water advocacy group. Mr. Kennedy is a partner with the national law firm of Morgan & Morgan, where he specializes in environmental litigation. He is a multiple New York Times bestselling author and has published hundreds of articles on politics, history, science, and the environment. Time magazine named him one of the "Heroes for the Planet." Kennedy lives in Los Angeles, California, and New York, New York.Dick Russell is an acclaimed environmental writer with a special expertise on the crisis that is confronting the world's oceans and fisheries. He is the author of Striper Wars: An American Fish Story and Eye of the Whale. He writes a regular column on Trump and the environment at dickrussellblog.wordpress.com. Mr. Russell divides his time between Boston, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles, California.David Talbot is the New York Times bestselling author of Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years and The Devil's Chessboard. He is the founder and former editor and chief of Salon and has written for the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Time. Mr. Talbot lives in San Francisco, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Russians are coming . . . again. It seems that al-Qaeda, ISIS, North Koreans, Mexican “bad hombres,” and various other bogeymen were insufficient to the task of terrifying Americans. So now the US war machine―that vast complex of weapons manufacturers, Wall Street speculators, saber-rattling Washington politicians, armchair generals, and the media industry that thrives on boom and bang (or the “beautiful pictures of our fearsome armaments” in the unforgettable words of MSNBC’s Brian Williams)―has revived the tried and true Red Scare. Day after day, night after night, the US citizenry is bombarded with scare stories about the evil machinations of Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin henchmen. How they stole our democracy and are scheming to conquer the entire NATO alliance. How they are building a military machine and nuclear arsenal that threaten to eclipse our own. How they are subverting the global free press with its low-ratings Russia Today network and army of hackers and trolls. How they are blocking peace in the Middle East with their machinations in Syria. This massive anti-Russian propaganda campaign is one of the biggest fake news operations in US history. And we’ve had some colossal ones, dating back to the days of the Spanish American War, when newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst instructed artist Frederic Remington to help him fabricate a clash of forces that did not exist: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Ever since World War I, war has been America’s lucrative “racket,” in the mordant observation of Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, the most decorated marine of his day. The country’s economic engine runs on blood and oil. Without the constant specter of a foreign enemy, there is no American prosperity. President Donald Trump couldn’t find the money to rebuild our collapsing infrastructure, but he could burn through $93 million to hurl fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield to send a message that he was no Putin puppet. Trump promised to ease growing East-West tensions by finding common ground with Moscow. But the US national security state―and its numerous media assets―soon convinced him of the folly of peace. Putin is doomed to become the baddest hombre in the Trump shooting gallery. I have no desire to live or work in Putin’s Russia. Independent journalists and dissident leaders are constantly at risk there. But while the Kremlin casts a shadow over Russia’s own freedom and democracy, its ability to project power and influence abroad is wildly overstated by the US war lobby. Russia’s economy has shrunk so much that its GDP is roughly that of Spain. The US military budget is bigger than that of the next seven countries combined, while Russia spends less than Saudi Arabia on defense. Russia’s intervention in the sovereign affairs of other nations pales in comparison to the massive intrusions of the US security juggernaut. Over the past century, the US military and the CIA have overthrown democratically elected governments in Guatemala, Iran, Congo, Chile, and Indonesia; assassinated, jailed, or exiled leaders in these and other countries; subverted governments and elections in even allied countries like France and Italy; and hacked the phones of friendly leaders in Germany and Brazil. When US covert operations prove unable to impose our will on foreign affairs, Washington puts boots on the ground, invading and occupying nations from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Accusations of Russian interference from a country that routinely big-foots the rest of the world surely rank as some of the biggest displays of chutzpah in history. Despite its diminished stature in recent years, Russia (along with China) is the only country capable of even marginally standing in the way of Washington’s vast imperial ventures. Therefore, it must be turned into a pariah state by the dependable media servants of the US security complex. It’s the so-called liberal media―including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC―that is taking the lead in demonizing Russia, just as it did during the first Cold War when CIA spymasters like Allen Dulles wined and dined the Washington press corps and fed them their headlines and talking points. The deep state crowed when Trump abandoned his flirtation with Putin. “This was inevitable,” opined Philip H. Gordon, a former NSC apparatchik now embedded at the Council on Foreign Relations, a national security bastion since the days of Dulles. “Trump’s early let’s-be-friends initiative was incompatible with our interests, and you knew it would end in tears.” Whose interests was Gordon referring to? Certainly not the interests of the American people, who are sick and tired of endless war and foreign intrigue and yearn for a leader who will truly put their well-beings first. Unlike our war-obsessed media, human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik does understand that peace and diplomacy are in the best interests of the American and Russian peoples. His book is an urgently needed counterassault against the propaganda forces that are trying to push us over a precipice that is too terrifying to even contemplate. It’s time for all of us to speak truth to power before it’s too late. ―David Talbot, April 2017