Chronicles of Asu: Making Climate Change a more Tangible Experience

Miller, Seidita, Hughes, Moritz

Earth: Perfect in Desires

Philippe Squarzoni writes with an air of urgency in Climate Changed. His want for a ‘change of direction’ within our human society is extremely strong to the point that it weighs him down severely. We remember moments in our lives where we care for something deeply, and when it goes wrong, we experience it within our body as ‘heavy’, as if our heart itself tries to hold up a barbell. We feel slow, where it becomes tough to deal properly with the failings of our passions while they lay out of our control. Our group shares empathy for Squarzoni as himself, not the author of this graphic novel, but for his ‘heaviness’ of what has come of his passion. When we recall him in the book, we notice a small amount of times that he is able to even crack a smile. The experience of pulling up information and learning more about climate change surely has an effect on himself and we see it through the book within his personal experiences.

In this post, we dive into Squarzoni’s ‘personal panels’ as shown to us in Climate Changed in order link them with the story he tells: how climate change is slowly- but rather quickly- slipping out of our control. His ‘personal panels’ parallels his own life to facts of this book in order to make climate change as a whole a more tangible concept for the readers, who also happen to be citizens of the Earth and its changing environment. We chose three concepts to touch on. Squarzoni deals with the battle of wanting to take a plane trip to Laos and after deciding not to go, we see a while later that he flies to New York City. From this, we see the ‘indulgent behavior’ of ourselves that has gotten us into this environmental mess. It is Camile, Philippe’s wife and best friend, that brings to our attention that we all see the same image of Earth, as taken by the famous Apollo mission. This suggests that we shape our desires on the basis of what we want to experience. Finally, when Squarzoni returns to his childhood home, where ‘ignorance is bliss’, he shows us the changes to his house that make him upset. How will we feel if our ‘house’, Earth, gets changed to an environment that we don’t feel comfortable with? We may not get much of a say, suggests Philippe.

The reason why all this awareness that has been generated over the past decades have not made much of an impact is because of the lies people tell themselves in order to avoid being added to the equation for reducing human output. Many people believe that the lifestyle required to reduce personal emissions is unattainable and extreme. Others believe that they shouldn’t give up their luxuries or comforts because they, individually cannot make an impact. People are under the impression that their contribution to the cause will not make a difference and that other people will carrying the weight. We believe that just because there is awareness, impactful action is in motion and we do not need to lower our standards of living in order to contribute to it.

Squarzoni realized the importance in humanizing the challenging decisions that surround the idea of being more ecologically sound and makes these decisions more tangible in his novel. He demonstrates the very real hypocrisy occurring in the world by referencing his own life. By taking himself, an informed enthusiast, and showing his own hypocrisy, he makes our common hypocrisy more tangible and noticeable. Between his decision to not fly to Laos and the act of flying to New York two years later, Squarzoni shows the thought process of “I want to make a difference” to “why should I change my ways when no one else is?” He changes his views to fit his desires, as he successfully symbolizes through his wife’s story of the image of the Earth (168-171). We use the image that already fits our desires, much like how we select the philosophy that aligns with our intended actions.

It is important to see these everyday hypocrisies aligned with the ecological climatic and how it correlates to the behavior in Squarzoni’s detailed fact sections that follow the anecdotal contributions. They allow the uninformed reader to sort of track their own hypocrisies in their head as they read on about the author’s. In terms of fulfilling his purpose in creating a more informed and motivated public, these relatable sections function to accomplish that goal.

It is human nature to indulge in our desires. We perceive the world, our environment, and our circumstances in ways that leave us with the glass half-full. It is not that we’re being optimistic, but rather we are being ignorant for the sake of perpetuating our ‘indulgent behavior.’ The environmental predicament that we and Squarzoni have found ourselves in continues to be alive and well because people engage in environmentally destructive behavior solely so that convenience, accessibility, luxury, and living standard prevail. It is easy to ask, ‘who wouldn’t?’ Even Squarzoni finds himself a victim of essentially gliding downstream with the current as the shore erodes away. His, graphic novel, Climate Changed, provides us with a plethora of examples of how perception of reality is skewed. Squarzoni weave’s his personal experiences into this concept of environmental destruction. He states, “Our lifestyle in the developed world is like one of those christmas stories. In an enchanted, happy world without limits… Where the abundance is inexhaustible… Where the future is wide open… And our desires have no consequences… We tell ourselves tales…. That distract us, relax us, and make our minds malleable. Why, no, there’s no reason to question our consumption habits. Oh, yes, it’s possible to preserve the environment and also to reap the benefits of material goods” (Squarzoni). At this point, Squarzoni provides a panel with an image of himself as a young boy, with his sister, comparing the visual appearance of their stuffed animal dolphin to an actual fish lying besides it. He states, “When we put them next to each other, the two concepts are incompatible.” This statement refers to the environmental limitations compared to environmental ‘gifts’ for human usage in reality. As well, this statement runs parallel, using his childhood example, to demonstrate how everything is not always as it seems. But in fact, “A false representation of reality. But it fits our desires. So we stick to it.” Essentially, we perceive an image that suits our desires. This supports how one’s perception truly is their reality. But, in this case, if we are blind to what’s actually going on in our environment, how can we act responsibly? How can we make informed decisions? How can we change, slow, or reverse the downward spiral we our on? We can’t. Ignorance will not be bliss! Squarzoni offers us little hope if humans continue to formulate our desires on the basis of what we want to experience.

The realization that the things you hold dearest to you are fading is just too surreal.This is quite evident for Philippe Squarzoni. He uses eye opening facts to explain the severity of our societies destructive nature but he incorporates these problems through his everyday life. One key reference that he alludes to is a ‘tipping point’. An increase in temperature could be rather devastating. Imagine you have a plate and it keeps moving a few inches forward several times. Eventually, this plate would reach a certain point that would cause it to fall off the table. This is the ‘tipping point’. However, as you see it reach the end of the table you would be inclined to stop it. That is where the planet and the plate differ.  We have no idea of what this threshold looks like or if we have even passed this point already. What makes things worst is as we pass certain thresholds, “one of the processes determining climate could ‘snap’” (Squarzoni). We need to reduce our carbon footprint to achieve sustainability.

Philippe Squarzoni confides in only his wife, Camile, who seems to be his biggest supporter. She exudes consistent patience and actually seems to be a very good fit for him: rather quiet, gentle, like him. We imagine that her pain is shared when Philippe becomes more and more distraught in the process of writing this novel. Climate Changed is a perspective-changing read, its heaviness in detail and statistics brings to life the issue of climate change as a more tangible experience for world citizens to understand. It only a matter of time until we hit the ‘tipping point’ that sends us in the right direction toward sustainability. Perhaps we already have.