As the first Conservation Biologist in the history of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Brian Czech brought to headquarters an unusual expertise: deep knowledge about the conflict between economic growth and biodiversity conservation.
Czech’s insights were welcomed—until they threatened the win-win rhetoric that “there is no conflict between growing the economy and protecting the environment.” Before long, Czech received his first gag order, prohibiting him from talking about the growth-conservation conundrum. Economic growth became the “800-pound gorilla” on the conservation policy table.
Gag-Ordered No More is a fascinating account of one man’s efforts to speak truth to power, advance the principles of ecological economics, and lead the U.S. government to embrace limits to growth.
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What Readers are Saying
“Czech, a conservation biologist, details the incompetence, dishonesty, and corruption he witnessed at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during his employment there.
“In 1999, when the author began working at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he did so with a surfeit of enthusiasm. He believed it was the ‘the most important conservation organization in the world’ and that it set an example for the rest of the world to emulate. Czech wanted the agency to raise awareness about the ‘800-Pound Gorilla’ (his sobriquet for economic growth), which he saw as the single greatest challenge to conservation. According to the author, unchecked economic growth is patently incompatible with ecological conservation, a position he articulates with impressive lucidity and power: ‘It’s a fact of ecological macroeconomics that the human economy grows at the competitive exclusion of non-human species… It’s a closely related fact…that there is a conflict between economic growth and ecological integrity.’
“However, per the author, even though most of his superiors agreed, they not only thwarted his efforts but suppressed his speech, imposing onerous gag orders upon him followed by reprimands and suspensions. In Czech’s telling, a ‘bureaucratically inbred chain of command’ (the author’s prose is a rollicking delight) made certain he was ‘harassed, hamstrung, and humiliated’ until he finally resigned. The author not only documents what he considers to be the ineptitude of the agency at large but also explains, in accessible language, why breakneck economic growth is such a threat to the environment, and how a ‘steady state economy’ could alleviate a considerable measure of the stress the natural environment suffers under. His…articulation of the tension between economic growth and ecological integrity is provocative, and his critique of his former employer is unsettling and edifying.
“A rare and winning combination of policy analysis and expose.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“Rather than being gagged by political appointees and hamstrung by bureaucrats, Brian Czech should have been treated as a hero for raising awareness of the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection. One thing is for sure: Czech’s civil service legacy will be more durable than that of his suppressors.”
–Doug La Follette, five-time Wisconsin Secretary of State
“Brian Czech is perhaps the world’s most tireless and effective advocate for a steady state economy. This did not serve him well in his career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where any talk of the conflict between growth and conservation was squashed. Written in a folksy, easy-to-read style that also manages to convey justified outrage over our continued destruction of the planet, Gag-Ordered No More offers insightful analysis of the existential ecological crises we face. We can only hope that the FWS follows Czech’s advice for reform, but we can be certain that—gag-ordered no more–Czech will be an even more powerful voice for economic sanity and a steady state economy.”
–Joshua Farley, past president, International Society for Ecological Economics
“In a world where seemingly anyone can say anything, Brian Czech’s experience of being systematically gagged by the U.S. government is stunning. With characteristic candor and spirit, Czech vividly describes the unthinkable lengths a federal agency went, over decades and through multiple administrations, to prevent him from speaking about the conflict between economic growth and ecological integrity. This was not just a case of speaking truth to power, but of speaking truth period. Shocking in its eye-popping details of the inner workings of a federal agency, the story of Czech’s determined struggle to speak openly and honestly about the perils of relentless economic growth as a public policy goal is deeply informative, uplifting, and perhaps a dare for each of us to do the same.”
–Vera Cole, past president, Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association