When you first hear the phrase “climate change” so many things come to mind you’re basically overwhelmed. There are so many facts and opinions that come to you, you probably dread reading an essay or editorial or pretty much anything with an excessive amount of facts. So when you first think that someone thought of an expressive way to convey a meaningful message your first thought is, huh? Now when most people think of expressive they get all deep and think of something complicated. But what is the most basic form of expression we have? Words. Books. Pictures. You take and idea or a problem and make it into something people have to get involved with and know more about with out being bored to death.This graphic novel was created specifically with that in mind. With the notion of understanding that most everyday people cannot just read a bunch of facts for an extended period of time and actually have them make sense, let alone enjoy them. That’s not to say that this novel did not have a lot of information..because it did, and the author tries to present them through a personal story that makes you think you’re not just reading cold hard facts. We go from the basic understanding of climate models to the upsetting reality of the impact that climate change will have on the earth. The whole idea of having the reader be distracted from all of the facts by the pictures is negated when we take a look at a scientist explaining nuclear energy for a million individual frames. Its little things like this that can cause a person to ultimately lose interest relatively fast. When the personal touches are brought to life it brings the book back to having that “novel feel” where we see the author’s struggle with trying to help the planet himself by doing small things, such as buying one plane ticket a year. The depictions of his trips captivate and draw your attention in so that you want to know more about what you are reading. I think that when you strip away all of the repetitive scientific stuff, and just listen to the story that he’s trying to tell you can see the bigger picture. It’s crazy to think that with all the information we have about climate change there is still so much hesitation in doing anything about it. Most people are really comfortable saying that it’s “not my problem” and “one non recycled can isn’t gonna change the world any more than a recycled one” but we have to become aware. Aware of our actions and even more aware of the consequences for those actions. Everyone know any book you read will undoubtedly have much more of an impact on you when you feel like you can sympathize and relate to that person on a human level. So when the author throws facts and humanity at you you have no choice but to react. To feel something. To become aware.
