Cartoon Guide to the Environment »

Larry Gonick has been creating comics that explain history, science, and other big subjects for more than thirty years. He has been a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT and is staff cartoonist for Muse magazine.

Do you think that the Ozone Hole is a grunge rock club? Or that the Food Web is an on-line restaurant guide? Or that the Green Revolution happened in Greenland? Then you need The Cartoon Guide to the Environment to put you on the road to environmental literacy. The Cartoon Guide to the Environment covers the main topics of environmental science: chemical cycles, life communities, food webs, agriculture, human population growth, sources of energy and raw materials, waste disposal and recycling, cities, pollution, deforestation, ozone depletion, and global warming—and puts them in the context of ecology, with discussions of population dynamics, thermodynamics, and the behavior of complex systems.

School Library Journal

YAUsing the ecological collapse of Easter Island as an example of a failing environment, the authors present the historical, scientific, and ethical backgrounds to the environmental challenges faced currently, and in the near future, by all humanity. Nothing less than the fate of life on Earth lies in the balance, which makes for an engrossing plot, made more poignant by the scientific research and data that back it up. Black-and-white cartoons clearly explain, define, and graphically display terms, events, and situations. They also impart both an awareness of the destructive behavior of humankind and its consequences while imparting a sense of hope for the future. The foreword, the brief notations dispersed throughout the drawings, and the bibliography provide information about sources used in formulating the book. Gonick's humor helps to lighten the dark realization of what is happening to the Earth. Teens will be drawn to the format, the short chapters, and the drama of the our planet's fate, a potentially frightening scenario that should motivate more research about the environment.Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA