As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Stay in Denial

“But there was nothing about stopping the governments and corporations that are the main causes of the problems. Did you know that all by itself, Exxon/Mobil has released five percent of all carbon emissions put out by this culture? They’re the real problems, not us.”

At another point early on, The Revolutionary despondently sits alone on the page, hugging her knees to her chest and whispering to no one (maybe to you?), “We will go quietly, meekly, to the end of the world, if only you allow us to believe that buying low energy light bulbs will save us.” But, aha! in the next frame she’s back in form, upfront and angry and seriously intent on smashing The State. Mind you, this girl’s in pigtails.

The plot does indeed thicken beyond ideological debates. Dams explode, key characters wise up, pets run free, therapists push pills, innocent bunnies get locked in eco-terrorist detention centers, evildoers do evil and the wild animals get really, really mad. There’s also a parallel storyline involving an earth-destroying pact between aliens and politicians, and though this plot device leads us into the climax, overall it distracted from the story’s core.

As well, while the “no compromise” philosophy delivers paradigm-shattering excitement (as when a monkeywrenching bunny busts down the vivisectionist’s lab), at times there was the feeling that something ain’t right (as when our protagonists start to kill, kill, kill).

But still. Literature like this isn’t lip balm, meant to coat the rough edges with petroleum-based jelly just to soothe our worried souls. As the World Burns wants us to remember there was a time before lip balm, if you’ll imagine, a time when we were wild and uncivilized, when we were free.

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