Cecilia Bouska

Dr. Huey

You and Your Environment

4 January 2010

As The World Burns 50 Ways to Stay in Denial

This book, As The World Burns 50 Ways to Stay in Denial, covers not only many of the

important reasons our world is getting worse but also many things each person can do to further

prevent progression in the wrong direction. The book covers many important topics, but it is not

a book for someone who knows nothing about global warming (which would be ridiculous

because it is such a huge crisis and in the news all the time.), or for someone who did not know

of the severity of our situation because they would not take it that seriously. I like all the

different stories that intertwined in the end and all the different topics it did brush; ways to stay

in denial, ways to help, and reasons we are in this situation.

I like how this book starts off with facts about how each person can reduce CO2

emissions and ultimately help to reverse the direction of global warming. I also like how it shows

one thing that many people do to keep global warming occurring—pretending everything is fine.

While trees are being cut around the man with the fox, he sits ‘peacefully’ ignoring the

destruction. I think that while the book is funny it also is very true. I like how the aliens state that

humans are too easy, if you give them money, they will let you destroy the earth. I used to

always think of what would happen if we came across something that had useful waste to us and

visa versa, so I thought that was very interesting. While the aliens purpose was straight forward,

it took me a few seconds to figure out the congress men’s purpose and stance. At first, the

congress men are really upset about the earth being destroyed, so I was a little surprised. Then I

realized they were upset because they felt the companies should be the ones to destroy the earth.

I suppose I have never thought too much about it, but when it comes down to it, the CO2

emissions are from companies and electricity. Each home is powered by electricity from some

company that makes the electricity from fossil fuels and omitting CO2. I also think that some

companies and industries would do anything for money without realizing the harm. I don’t think

they’d blatantly sell the earth, but I think they are already naïvely ruining various parts of the

earth. I also think things are getting easier and easier to label as safe or organic, and as a result,

the industries are mass producing cheap, unhealthy products.

I like how the girls are the ones cleaning up, and it also holds very true to events today. I

have heard the phrase ‘this generation is the one that is going to have to step up and save the

world’ or people have turned to me and said ‘funny how we are depending on the current

generation to clean up this mess’ and it drives me up the wall because we are not the ones who

created the problem. It is the past generations working in these mass-producing yet mass-

polluting companies. So I like how in the end of the book, everything points to the industries

whether they are testing on animals, stealing the water, or selling—essentially consuming—the

land.

Earlier in the book, it was confusing what the point of the bunny was and although I still

feel like I am missing something. Near the end, I figured out that the bunny was and wanted

activist and highlighted a point that humans can be very paranoid. They wanted to catch every

one eyed bunny to make sure they caught the bunny who collapsed the dam. Though I liked the

bunny, I did not particularly like was the shrink because he was over the top and annoying. I

know that some people think activists are overboard and at one time crazy, but I think the shrink

was beyond naïve or uniformed but just stupid.

Another part of the book I liked were all the different solutions to global warming or just

ways to help stop global warming. There were ridiculous solutions, easily doable solutions, and

then the president who thought he was being green when he burned the letters. I did not like the

three people’s solution in the conference room where they get people to sign a petition to save

some of the fish, trees, mountains, and creatures. I think that people today think if we save some

of everything we will be okay, but in reality we need a surplus of everything—fish for food and a

stable food chain, trees for oxygen, creatures for a stable habitat and food, and mountains are a

habitat for many of those creatures. Then, after making the mistake of being bribed by gold, the

president gets bribed a second time by gold. Everyone seems to realize the harm that is being

done except for the people who could truly change the forecast of global warming. I mean, each

individual person could help prevent it, yet the people with the power and money to make a

difference seem blind. If the company owners or congressman reduced carbon dioxide emissions

then that would drastically help the situation. I now see that the one-eyed bunny drives the

movement, and the bunny rescues all the animals from the animal testing place. Maybe I am

looking into this a little bit too much, but I think I finally figured out what the bunny is supposed

to represent: He is a small, insignificant creature who would not seem like the one to push the

movement, and people who typically stand up for what they believe and try to make a difference

are typically smaller people who can not make a big difference by themselves. I like how in the

end everyone teams up together to solve the problems.

Overall I think that it was a good book and very interesting. I think that it brought up

some very good points and like the title says, ’50 ways to stay in denial’ it shows many things

people do to pretend nothing is wrong. However, it also show how each person can contribute

and help prevent global warming from further occurring. I think that this book did not talk much

about how much of a problem it is, but it focused on what you can do to help, reasons we are in

this dilemma, and ways to stay in denial.

Work Cited

Jensen and McMillan, Derrick and Stephanie. AS the World Buns 50 Ways to Stay in Denial.

New York: Seven Stories Press, 2007. Print.