“‘You and your ancestors treated the world like a fucking great toilet bowl.'” p112
“‘The rich countries have ruined what they own, so they’re out to steal from the people who have a little left. They want the copper, the zinc, the tin, the oil. And of course there’s the timber, which is getting scarce.'” p137
“‘… one of the latest deep-trawling fish factories designed to bring up squid from the relatively safe bottom water. Surface fish nowadays were either so rare as to be prohibitively expensive, like cod and herring, or hopelessly high in dangerous substances such as organic mercury. …'” p142
“‘ You can’t tell me that when they dumped [those barrels, now bursting] they didn’t know people would want to fish the ocean, bathe in it, build houses fronting on the beach! You can’t tell me the bastards didn’t know what they were doing—they just relied on not being around when the trouble started!'” p165
“‘ … they shit in the water until it’s dangerous to drink, then make a fucking fofrtune out of selling us gadgets to purify it again. Why can’t they be made to strain out their own shit?'” p187
“…growing daily angrier about the dirt that drifted to them on the wind, spoiling crops, causing chest diseases, and soiling laundry hung out to dry.” p195
“and every day senators and congressmen … pleaded that if such-and-such a firm, which had been run into the ground by its incompetent directors, wasn’t helped, the unemployment index would rise another point.” p197
“… Austin Train’s famous source-books that had taken one, two, even three years apiece to compile, soberly documenting the course of organochlorides in the biosphere, factory-smoke on the wind, pinning down … places where dangerous substances had been dumped … … [B]ut of the the total of 1130 other books cited in the various bibliographies, 16 were withdrawn or restricted. … One book in particular he remembered, a text on accidents with nuclear weapons, which was duly brought to him by a smilig librarian. But when he opened the front cover he found a hole had been carefully cut from first page to last.” p206
“‘The most awful warnings are staring us in the face—the stagnant Mediterranean above all, dead like the Great Lakes—yet we’re so proud of being the richest, the most powerful, the whatever, that we won’t fact facts. We won’t admit that we’re short of water, we’re short of timer, we’re short of—'” p207 (1972, remember)
“‘Who’s going to be sane in this country when you know every breath you draw, every glass you fill with water, every swim you take in the river, every meal you eat, is killing you? And you know why, and you know who’s doing it to you, and you can’t get back at the mothers.'” p217
“‘For example, there’s an ingrained distrust in our society of highly intelligent, highly trained, highly competent persons. One need only look at the last presidential election for proof of that. The public obviously wanted a figurehead, who’d look good and make comforting noises—'” p278 (1972!)
“‘Stop, you’re killing me!'” p273
“‘Yes, for most people nowadays television is their only contact with the world beyond teir daily work.'” p287
“‘Still, men who refuse to train in defense of their country—’ / ‘No, that’s not what an army trains men to do.'” p287
“‘It’s natural for a man to defend what’s dear to him: his own life, his home, his family. But in order to make him fight on behalf of his rulers, the rich and powerful who are too cunning to fight their own battles—in short, to defend not himself but people whom he’s never met and moreover would not care to be in the same room with him—you have to condition him into loving violence not for the benefits it bestows on him but for its own sake.'” p287
“‘It’s easier to wreck a man than to repair him. … take a look at the crime figures among veterans.'” p287
“‘Doctor, you watch your tongue!’ / ‘… all I’m saying is that my job would be a sight easier if they told us the whole truth. I’m working in the dark half the time …’ / ‘Well, doc, when it’s a case of thousands … all of a sudden …’ / ‘All of a sudden!’ ” p333
Right. Anyone with their head NOT up their ass has seen this coming. for eyars. decades, actually.
“‘When did you last bask in the sun, friends? When did you last dare drink from a creek? When did you last risk picking fruit and eating it straight from the tree? What were your doctor’s bills last year? Which of you live in cities where you don’t wear a filtermask? Which of you spent this year’s vacation in the mountains because the sea is fringed with garbage? Which of you right now is not suffering from a nagging minor complaint—bowel upset, headache, catarrh, … ” p354
