# The Disaster Lobby By Melvin J. Grayson \& Thomas R. Shepard, Jr. **URL:** **By** Roy A. Childs, Jr. **Published:** January 1, 1974 --- “I cannot be more blunt, or more enthusiastic: The Disaster Lobby is a classic, a heroic achievement, magnificent on every level.” If I were to name the single most important book on current affairs that I have read within the last two years, _The Disaster Lobby_ would be that book, and there would be no close competitors. Written by the former Vice President and the former Publisher of _Look Magazine_, it is an in-depth journalistic study of the decade stretching from the early 1960’s to the early 1970’s, which the authors call “The Age of Unreason,” and the movement that Ayn Rand has called “the Anti-Industrial Revolution.” It is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise polluted intellectual atmosphere. _The Disaster Lobby_ dates the beginning of “The Age of Unreason” from 1961 with the publication of “the book that killed”: Rachel Carson’s _Silent Spring_, an unscientific attack on pesticides (particularly DDT) and in defense of the rights of weeds and mosquitos over the rights of man. With the development of DDT and its first widespread use after World War II, DDT saved—during the first eight years of its use—at least five million lives and prevented over 100 million illnesses. For DDT, the penicillin of pesticides, was the principal chemical used to control “the insect vectors of yellow fever, typhus... bubonic plague, cholera, sleeping sickness and dysentery”—without harming humans or domestic animals. On the island of Ceylon, for example, the use of DDT had brought malaria under control for the first time in history. By 1961, there were only 110 cases of malaria reported here, and—for the first time in history—no malaria deaths. Then _Silent Spring_ was published, and the press and left-wing intellectuals joined forces under its banner to wage an hysterical campaign against the use of DDT and other life-saving pesticides. Ceylon was only one case where the campaign was successful. “Then, in 1968, seven years later, there were two and a half million cases of malaria in Ceylon, and more than 10,000 malaria deaths." Yetno one raised an outcry. No one defended the victims of this outrage. But "the Age of Unreason" had only begun. _The Disaster Lobby_ chronicles its "progress" during the decade which was to follow. The battle flag had been raised: business, technology, science and man himself were declared to be the enemies of "nature." The people who once littered the streets on "earth day" had invaded the halls of congress and critically important government agencies, attempting to seize control of business and technology and to shackle our economic system with controls destined to arrest progress. The Alaska pipeline was blocked for years, lies about air and water pollution were spread, industrialists were slandered and advertising was censored. And, in a stunning display of hypocrisy, academics such as John Kenneth Galbraith attempted to have a quota system forced on all areas of American life—except academia. And, as if that were not enough, we now have the energy crisis upon us, a crisis caused by the state and its intellectual henchmen, and have been offered a coercively-imposed "austerity program" to solve the problems which these same people have helped to cause. The Disaster Lobby pinpoints evasions such as these by the dozens. Did you know about the deaths which resulted from the banning of the use of hexachloraphine in hospitals? About the "population explosion" which doesn't exist? About the fraudulent campaigns against saccharin and cyclamates? About the distortions of facts used to stop industries from producing more oil—or to develop nuclear power and other sources of energy? About the vicious campaign to remove phosphates from laundry detergents—phosphates which are in fact fertilizers, not pollutants—in favor of chemical cleaning agents which are dangerous to human beings? That the quality of the air over major cities—including New York and Los Angeles—has been getting measurably better over the last few decades? You will learn these facts and more in this book. _The Disaster Lobby_ is more than a startling revelation of suppressed facts; it is a journalistic masterpiece, the kind of rational "muckraking" which doesn't make headlines. It deserves a vast audience; it desperately needs readers and defenders. It is the kind of work which Libertarians and Objectivists hunger for—concrete confirmation of their theories. I cannot be more blunt, or more enthusiastic: _The Disaster Lobby_ is a classic, a heroic achievement, magnificent on every level. Buy it and see for yourself. _Reviewed by R.A. CHILDS, JR. / Ecology (294 pages) / BFL Price $7.95_