The Sheep Look Up: cult 1970 novel predicted today’s climate crisis
The Sheep Look Up: cult 1970s sci-fi novel predicted today’s climate crisis Extreme flooding in Germany caused roads and railways to be cut off. Bear productions/Shutterstock Dan Taylor , The Open University Smog-ridden cities. Endless war. Water so polluted it cannot be drunk. Crop failure. Acid rain. A pandemic of antibiotic-resistant diseases. Declining life expectancy and human fertility. Endangered bees, collapsing agriculture. Mass extinctions have finished off most birds and fish. Only the wealthiest can afford quality organic food, while the poor subsist on lab-produced junk (with added tranquilisers). A celebrity president peddles misinformation in tweet-like slogans. A disillusioned academic tries in vain to bring about change, while his followers block roads and resort to terrorism. This is not a bad dream version of recent climate change headlines. This is the dark vision in the 50-year-old dystopian novel, The Sheep Look Up