Should maybe be a four star, but 1. I didn't like the disjointed style this was done in. 2. I'm not really sure if I should add a point for the several aspects in which his predictions have come true, because now that they ARE true, there's less impact (in other words, it's become dated) ( )

I've heard so much about this book -- it's been on my to-read list for what seems like forever. However, it read much more like A Clockwork Orange (which I detest) rather than When Late the Sweet Bird Sang (which I love). Disappointment. Nothing against the book, really -- just not for me. ( )

The Sheep Look Up (1972)
by John Brunner ISBN 1 - 932100 - 05 - 9

“You're not a health food addict, are you?”.....”Thought not. You might have got off lighter if you had been. You see, what happens is, you pick up some subclinical infection - I don't mean only social diseases, but anything from a whitlow to a sore throat - and at the same time you're getting traces of antibiotic in your diet: what's left in the chicken particularly, but also pork and even steak that you've been eating. And there's just enough of the stuff to select for the resistant strains among the millions of organisms in your body, and when we come along and try to tackle them they thumb their noses at us. Are you with me?” p.97

“You and your ancestors treated the world like a fucking great toilet bowl. You shat in it and boasted about the mess you'd made. And now it's full and overflowing, and you're fat and happy and black kids are going crazy to keep you rich.” p.112

“Hey, man with a big muscles!
Yes, you!
Steam - powered, gas - powered, electrically - powered,
Youyou with the big concrete and cement footprints!
Globe - girdler, continent - Tamer, putting the planet through hoops,
You I hail!
Packer and preserver of food in incorruptible cans,
Blocker - out of winter - blast with bricks and mortar,
Wheeled, shod, tracked with rails of shining iron, Multiplier of goods and chattels, chewer - up of forests,
Furrow - maker across the unpopulous plains,
Flier higher than Eagles, swimmer swifter than sharks,
Trafficker in the world's wealth, miracle - worker,
I salute you, I sing your praises…

Song of the States Unborn, 1924
p.140

“In Europe, as you know, they've killed the Mediterranean, just as we killed the Great Lakes. They're in a fair way to killing the Baltic, with help from the Russians who have already killed the Caspian. Well, this living organism we call Mother Earth can't stand that treatment for a long -- her bowels tormented, her arteries clogged, her lungs choked... But what's happened inevitablly as a result? Such a social upheaval that all thoughts of spreading this -- this cancer of ours have had to be forgotten! Yes, there's hope! When starving refugees are besieging frontiers, armies can't be spared to propagate the cancer any further. They have to be called home -- like ours!” p.355

“The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
but swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread.
Milton: ‘Lycidas’”
p.367

From the Afterword, by James John Bell:
“‘The Bush administration is working quickly to rollback many key environmental protections, including the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act,’ says Cara Pike, Vice President of Communication for Earthjustice, the world's largest environmental law firm. 'Environmentalists thought the Reagan administration was bad, and it was, however, the current situation poses a threat to what has been accomplished by the environmental community over the last 30 years.'
Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative is a smokescreen for allowing logging interests to infiltrate the last of our old - growth forests in the name of fire prevention. Bush's plan actually suspends environmental laws and citizen appeals in order to speed Forest thinning in protected ancient Forests and increase Timber sales throughout the Pacific Northwest.” p.371

Do you want to know how drugs get in chicken eggs?

“‘Biopharming’ is an experimental application of genetic engineering in which crops, like corn and soybeans, are engineered to produce high concentrations of drugs -- pharmaceutical proteins and chemicals -- that they do not produce naturally. Animal 'pharms’ use cloning, and genetic engineering to harvest drugs, and even human organs, from animals. Biotech companies today breed genetically modified chickens, for instance, that produce insulin, and other new drugs, based on human proteins, manufactured inside the whites of their eggs.
Environmentalists and scientists, including the US National Academy of Sciences, have repeatedly warned biotech companies that growing drug - producing crops in open Fields would inevitably contaminate our food supply. Drug - crops grown on pharms across the u.s. today include corn that produces compounds such as untested AIDS and hepatitis B vaccines, a blood - clotting agent, and other compounds not meant for human consumption. A robot in Monsanto's lab tests additional candidates for genetic modification at a rate of 500 per day.” p.374

“Genetically engineered ingredients, such as Monsanto's BT corn and RoundUp Ready soy, are already in 60-70% of the food on American grocery store shelves, such as cereal, soup, tortilla chips, infant formula and soda. Amazingly, none of the genetically engineered foods on the market have been adequately tested for effects on human health or the environment, or labeled by the FDA, EPA, or USDA. Labeling is required in Europe, Russia, Japan, and Australia and has led to low acceptance (already planting a biotech crops has been banned in some of these countries). As a result, we have become the subjects of a large-scale experiment on our health and our environment by the Biotech industry and the giant corporations that use their products.” p.375

“Take it for granted that the government will disregard long - term dangers -- such as those affecting the environment-- in order to cling to power; that the citizenry will do the same because thinking is too much like hard work; and when the handful of Cassandras are proved right, they will be held to blame and very likely stoned or shot.” p.380
( )

La contaminación atmosférica ha llegado a tales extremos que ponerse una máscara de gas para salir a la calle es ahora lo más corriente del mundo. Las tasas de mortandad infantil siguen subiendo, y todo el mundo parece estar aquejado de algún tipo de enfermedad. El agua es tóxica y sólo los pobres beben del grifo. Las acciones del gobierno son inútiles, cuando las emprende, y las grandes corporaciones se disputan los beneficios de las ventas de purificadores de agua, máscaras de gas y alimentos «biológicos».El ecologista Austin Train vive a la carrera. Los trainitas, activistas medioambientales y terroristas ocasionales, quieren que encabece su movimiento. El gobierno lo quiere entre rejas o, a ser posible, ejecutado. Los medios de comunicación quieren espectáculo. Todo el mundo tiene algún plan para Train, pero él ya ha trazado los suyos. Y pronto dejará de correr...

This was not a book that one likes. I think it was important to read, I'm glad I did, I possibly wish I hadn't read it at the same time as a Superbug story in Asimov and [b:Silent Spring|27333|Silent Spring|Rachel Carson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1436594630s/27333.jpg|880193] by Rachel Carson because WOW that was a scary depressing juxtaposition. ( )