Material Girl in a Material World

On page 177, we see that humans have become too large of a force. The newspaper, or is it a magazine, clipping is eerie. It portrays a human-made plane circulating a dwarfed earth. But it does reflect our view on the relationship between us and our planet.

Page 181 is apocalyptic. A family – a man, children, a woman with a baby – cling onto each other as they try to escape a massive flood. A heavy sense of foreboding surrounds them. It is terrifying.

The illustration on page 187 is both amusing and scary. A man in an SUV reaches to pull a bottle from a supermarket shelf. The SUV is in the supermarket. This hammers in the idea of increased economic objectives.

Page 189 travels around the world portraying children. Materialistic objects such as coke bottles surround them. How much and what type of objects are based upon their nation. They are being raised with these things – it will be harder for them to give up these things – they are used to it, thus, their use will increase.

Flights emit an insane amount of greenhouse gases. People traveled from all over the world to get to the Climate March. They used planes to get there. So, they added to greenhouse gases just to protest them. I find this ironically sad.

Squarzoni is starting to realize that he will have to give up his luxurious lifestyle to cut back on his greenhouse emission. He will have to live on the level of a malnourished person. He admits that this will never happen. I am starting to dislike him.

The illustration on page 197 – with the cars tracking on the planet – is sad. This shows the mark humans have on the world. We are scaring it. We are ruining it.

The illustration of the wave on page 202 is so photographic. This makes it even more terrifying. It reminds me of a Biblical scene, Noah’s arc.

The problem of climate change is too easy to ignore. We close our eyes to the problem because acknowledging it would mean giving up too much of the lifestyle we love. How much do you cut yourself away from the world? Does it even make a difference? Is it worth it?

Page 214 shows Squarzoni thinking about this. He is so conflicted. It seems as if there is a feisty tennis match transpiring in his head.

Squarzoni decided to deprive himself of the trip. He is unhappy but he feels like he made the responsible decision? Did he?

On page 222, we zoom away from the Earth. We are seeing things objectively, altering our viewpoint. I think we are starting to.