Remembering the Sheep of Climate Change

Editor’s Note:  The following review of The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner, was reviewed  by Alan Weiss, edited by Rabbi Judy Weiss,  both members of Citizens Climate Lobby, Boston chapter.  The review grew out of a letter exchange that the rabbi had with San Diego Jewish World following publication of an article by Dan Bloom, calling for a new Nevil Shute (author of “On the Beach”) to warn about climate danger.

By Alan Weiss

BROOKLINE, Massachusetts — Imagine a futuristic America. Her air, water and land are being poisoned by her own waste products, creating a changing climate, and ongoing droughts. Large corporations, powerful in a way that is only a slight exaggeration of today, largely ignore environmental devastation, and continue their single-minded search for short-term profits. Meanwhile, the political system is corrupt, incompetent, and indifferent to the suffering of its citizens. Researchers make computer-based climate models to search for a way for humanity to survive. Will the sheep look up from their self-destructive path?

John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up (1972), an early cli-fi novel, proceeds in a gripping, episodic, spiral fashion. The reader enters the storyline without a word of introduction, meeting a wide array of characters, ad jingles, news clips and action scenes which can be initially disorienting. For some, this jolting, midstream entry into Brunner’s novel may reproduce the type of shock a current day American feels when first encountering climate change reports.

Quickly, the reader adjusts to Brunner’s breakneck speed, and is swept along as his characters struggle for survival in a hostile world. The novel’s central figure, Austin Train, lives in hiding. Why? His followers, calling themselves Trainites, try to “fight the system” by living off the land, and protesting against polluters. The Trainite motto “Stop! You’re killing me!” refers to the fact our daily pollution, which we take for granted, hurts us all. Meanwhile, readers await an explanation for Train’s concealment.

Over the novel’s year, Americans become increasingly ill. Crops fail from pest infestations, and containers of chemical weapons, dumped in the ocean or buried underground, mysteriously break causing large-scale poisoning. Toward the end of the year, increasing civil unrest motivates Austin Train to come out of hiding and explain to people the origins of these disasters, and how to proceed. Yet the President won’t tolerate Austin’s activism, and fearing a revolt, he has Austin arrested. Even when Austin has his day in court, the President prevents communications from the courtroom, so Austin’s message isn’t delivered.

Spoiler alert: America implodes in a mass orgy of self destruction, which is the only action that can salvage the planet for the remainder of mankind.

Brunner saw an America that was so leaderless that it polluted itself to death. The problems faced by the people in his book could be traced to a political system that thought only in the short term, and sold itself out to corporate interests at the expense of the health of its citizens.

How much has changed since The Sheep Look Up? The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act have been bulwarks against the worst kinds of pollution Brunner saw. The Great Lakes are cleaner than they were in his era, the air across most of the country is cleaner, and acid rain has diminished greatly. His vision seems too pessimistic.

But Brunner didn’t know that greenhouse gases can be more dangerous, and harder to remove, than the more obvious poisons of his time. Today’s climate scientists see a slow-motion disaster as greenhouse gas emissions mount, primarily carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels. CO₂ lingers in the atmosphere for centuries after production. Recent studies (IPCC draft report 2013) predict drought and a decline in overall food production of 2% per decade. These  climate change ills are very close to the environmental dystopia that Brunner described. His cautionary tale has a horrid end. Will the sheep in Washington look up before it is too late?

Unlike Brunner’s populace, we have reason to hope. Solar and wind electricity production is exploding. Already, in 12 states, solar electricity is as cheap or cheaper than electricity from coal, oil and natural gas.

If we want to avoid Brunner’s dystopic future, we can. But it is up to America’s leaders to lead the world with climate change legislation. Will they? Can a fictional tale from the 1970’s open our eyes better than current news reports?

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Alan  and Rabbi Judy Weiss may be reached via alan@apdoo.org

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