In recent years, there has always been news about climate change and how someone could make simple changes in their lifestyle to make positive changes. Some common simple changes that are usually stated would be changing your eating habits, carpooling, and spending more time outside than inside. While this is usually a boring topic to some, two people created a graphic novel that talked about the environmental policies that the United States currently had. As the World Burns: 50 Simple things you can do to stay in denial is a satiric graphic novel about the U.S. environmental policies. This graphic novel could be put into a category of social activism as the whole talked about how the government and the people see differently on environmental topics like climate change.
Source: McMillan, Stephanie. Seven Stories. As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. 2007.
On the cover of the graphic novel, there are two girls, one who is yellow with a bright-colored dress, and another who is purple and wears dark colors. The difference between the two girls is actually significant to the plot of the graphic novel. The character development between the two shows two types of opinions in the states such as being optimistic like the yellow girl or being pessimistic like the purple girl. The girl in the yellow would tell the purple information like "use less hot water" and "avoid products with a lot of packing" (Jensen 2007, 9-10). While the yellow girl has an optimistic attitude towards being able to change to help the environment, the purple girl has more of a pessimistic attitude towards what the yellow girl was saying as she would say "that's if every person in the United States dies every one of these things" (Jenson 2007, 16). This difference in attitude continues throughout the graphic novel until the middle.
Source: McMillan, Stephanie. Seven Stories. As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. 2007.
Another thing to note about the satire of the graphic novel is how the U.S. government sold the earth to robots for gold. When the robots were first introduced to the storyline, I thought that it was stupid but I continued to read the graphic novel to see where it went to. The use of the robots was to show what the U.S. thought about in terms of which would be more "beneficial" in taking the bars of gold than making any changes in the environmental policies. There is even a page where there is a short ugly guy who has a tie with money signs on it saying "If this planet dies, we'll just build space colonies. No problem!" (Jensen 2007, 107). This depiction of the man as short, ugly and wearing a suit with money sign tie represents the greed that is in the government as they are willing to take more of a bribe than to save the environment(probably not in today society, but when this graphic novel was published).
Source: McMillan, Stephanie. Seven Stories. As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. 2007.
One reference that uses animals as a representation of actions is when the rabbit went into the animal testing facility and released all of the animals in there and blew up the building. This representation of action against the facility is similar to those who fight for animal rights today as they were fighting to end animal testing. Jensen and McMillan used this imagery of a rabbit releasing all of the animals as well as destroying the building to show what protesters were fighting for. Protesters for the environment were fighting for both the environment as well as animal rights shown through the example of the rabbit actions.
Source: McMillan, Stephanie. Seven Stories. As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. 2007.
Overall, As the World Burns: 50 Simple things you can do to stay in denial is a graphic novel that shows both optimistic and pessimistic attitudes towards actions that can be taken in environmental changes. Although this was a fictional story that had robots and a terrorist bunny, this graphic novel is still relevant in today's society as many are fighting for both animal rights and for changes in the environment such as the conversation between the two girls were talking about in the beginning.
Work Cited
Jensen, D., & McMillan, S. (2007). As the world burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. New York: Seven Stories Press.
Source: McMillan, Stephanie. Seven Stories. As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. 2007.
On the cover of the graphic novel, there are two girls, one who is yellow with a bright-colored dress, and another who is purple and wears dark colors. The difference between the two girls is actually significant to the plot of the graphic novel. The character development between the two shows two types of opinions in the states such as being optimistic like the yellow girl or being pessimistic like the purple girl. The girl in the yellow would tell the purple information like "use less hot water" and "avoid products with a lot of packing" (Jensen 2007, 9-10). While the yellow girl has an optimistic attitude towards being able to change to help the environment, the purple girl has more of a pessimistic attitude towards what the yellow girl was saying as she would say "that's if every person in the United States dies every one of these things" (Jenson 2007, 16). This difference in attitude continues throughout the graphic novel until the middle.
Source: McMillan, Stephanie. Seven Stories. As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. 2007.
Another thing to note about the satire of the graphic novel is how the U.S. government sold the earth to robots for gold. When the robots were first introduced to the storyline, I thought that it was stupid but I continued to read the graphic novel to see where it went to. The use of the robots was to show what the U.S. thought about in terms of which would be more "beneficial" in taking the bars of gold than making any changes in the environmental policies. There is even a page where there is a short ugly guy who has a tie with money signs on it saying "If this planet dies, we'll just build space colonies. No problem!" (Jensen 2007, 107). This depiction of the man as short, ugly and wearing a suit with money sign tie represents the greed that is in the government as they are willing to take more of a bribe than to save the environment(probably not in today society, but when this graphic novel was published).
Source: McMillan, Stephanie. Seven Stories. As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. 2007.
One reference that uses animals as a representation of actions is when the rabbit went into the animal testing facility and released all of the animals in there and blew up the building. This representation of action against the facility is similar to those who fight for animal rights today as they were fighting to end animal testing. Jensen and McMillan used this imagery of a rabbit releasing all of the animals as well as destroying the building to show what protesters were fighting for. Protesters for the environment were fighting for both the environment as well as animal rights shown through the example of the rabbit actions.
Source: McMillan, Stephanie. Seven Stories. As the World Burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. 2007.
Overall, As the World Burns: 50 Simple things you can do to stay in denial is a graphic novel that shows both optimistic and pessimistic attitudes towards actions that can be taken in environmental changes. Although this was a fictional story that had robots and a terrorist bunny, this graphic novel is still relevant in today's society as many are fighting for both animal rights and for changes in the environment such as the conversation between the two girls were talking about in the beginning.
Work Cited
Jensen, D., & McMillan, S. (2007). As the world burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial. New York: Seven Stories Press.
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