Climate Changed: A Personal Journey Though the Science is a graphic novel published last year, written by Philippe Squarzoni over the course of six years. In an interview with Sara Bernard for Grist in 2014, he says he couldn’t not do the book: “It’s climate change that chose me. I didn’t choose anything.”
I haven’t read it yet, so can’t offer my own review, but portions of the interview hit home for me. His statement that “climate change chose me” especially rings true; I feel the same way. With every year that passes, and the situation gets worse, I feel even more strongly that I can’t NOT study climate change. It is the mother of all problems. It’s incredibly complex, it’s the science of the entire earth system, it’s morality and ethics and human rights; in other words, it touches everything in our lives in one way or another. How can one not be fascinated by it?
In the interview, which is from last year, Philippe says he is terrified by the lack of political discourse on the topic of climate change. We’ve seen that change quite substantially this year: with the UN COP21 talks coming up in December in Paris (a meeting for every country in the world to agree on pledges to reduce CO2 emissions and help fund a transition to a renewable energy-based economy), climate change has indeed taken a larger role in political discourse, and the Pope helped raise the issue too. Unfortunately, here in the USA, we have a political party that still disregards the problem almost entirely. We are the only developed country (now that Tony Abbott and Stephen Harper are gone) who have such a large political class that deny the problem (or, the solutions to it).
I look forward to reading the book, and will write a review when I do, but until then, read the fascinating interview with Philippe Squarzoni on Grist. And if you’re interested in the book, you can get it from the Bainbridge Library – but there’s quite the wait list (and I’m on it!). And you can check out more images from the book on Amazon.
Climate change is an enormous problem; it supplants all the others. Everyone has heard about it, but we really don’t know what it means.
The problem with global warming is that you simply can’t be afraid all your life.
The book says that it’s possible to change things. It’s possible to reduce our energy consumption and it’s possible to minimize the effects of global warming. If people start running — because the warming has started and it’s going to last a long time — we can probably avoid the worst scenarios, the gravest consequences. That is the message of hope. Where the book gets a little pessimistic is: Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen. And I hope I’m wrong! I hope we’re going to do it. It’s possible. It’s possible.
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