Response to Squarzoni’s Climate Changed

Upon reading the first few pages of Squarzoni’s graphic novel Climate Changed, I was intrigued by the introduction which had much detail and information regarding the Alaskan Wilderness Society and the rapid pace in which climate change is affecting the Artic and many places like it. This introduction brought to mind the very first day of class in which we all discussed what first came to mind when the topic of global warming is introduced, like many of our classmates one of the first key points in the introduction touched on the fact that the rapid pace in which polar caps and sea ice is declining has in fact had a detrimental effect on polar bears. These polar bears are now swimming long distances and sometimes drowning in search of food and shelter, but the effects of global warming is in fact affecting much more than just the wilderness population it is also making an impact on indigenous Alaskan hunters who are traveling further from their homes and must put themselves at great risk in search of food. That people who have grown accustomed to a way of living over hundreds of years now have to change their way of living, their traditions and perhaps even their culture all because of the actions of other individuals and their consumerist culture is a point that really had me wondering, at what point does everyone say enough is enough? At what point do we begin to care about someone else beside ourselves?

In the book Squarzoni also touches on the Kyoto protocol in which countries attempted to come together to work on an international environmental treaty in an attempt to reduce the emission of green house gases by setting quotas on the amount of CO2 that could be dumped into the atmosphere. What stood out to me was that the U.S. one of the most powerful, influential and notoriously one of the leading nations in CO2 emission did not adopt the protocol. This I believe without a doubt certainly contributed to the failure of the protocol. Certainly now is the time to push and pressure our world leaders into action, now that through the advancement of technology, communication and information they can no longer deny what has been blatantly occurring, global warming.