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As The World Burns Questions and Response

As The World Burns Questions and Response

Calliope's picture

I agree with the post, Reactions about As the World Burns, this book makes me feel hopeless. No matter what solutions are proposed, it seems like we will never be able to fix the damage done to the environment. I also love how the young girl persists even when the other characters think she is crazy. This book is made to make people think about issues that are often intentionally forgotten and I really enjoy it, especially the fantastical elements with the animals. 

I wanted to connect this book, As the World Burns, to the article, Greening the Ghetto. I noticed in As the World Burns, there is a group of three environmental activists. They raise money and get famous people to sign their petitions but it becomes all about the money and the planning rather than implementing solutions and actually taking steps toward action. Just like that, in the article Greening the Ghetto, Jones got $215,000 from the Nathan Cummings foundation and "at the end of the day, we had some great photographs, a couple of pamphlets, and not one job... it was a complete and utter failure" (6, Greening the Ghetto). And then, Jones went back to the organization and asked for another $215,000 and he got it. "Then we wasted it all again ... because we still didn't know what we were doing" (6, Greening the Ghetto). I would like to discuss how this happens with organizations all the time and how to make change without wasting money with no impact. Jones continues to speak about how he began to make change and it didn't seem like he needed $530,000 anyways so I would like to discuss the money that is used by and for environmental activists and what really happens with that money. 

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When I first started reading As the World Burns, I, just like the author of "As the World Burns Questions and Response," felt hopeless. It seemed like absolutely nothing could work. None of our so-called simple solutions would ever be viable. However, when reading the end battle scene and viewing the images, I felt a new sense of possibility and hope. Just the fact that the humans and the animals eventually came together to defeat what was killing the earth filled me with a new sense of hope. 

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