AstroNuts Mission Two: The Water Planet
By Jon Scieszka
Illustrated by Steven Weinberg
“Even though the Water Planet did not turn out to be a good Goldilocks Planet, it did turn out to be a good lesson on how to take care of a planet” (ch 29)
The AstroNuts (AlphaWolf, SmartHawk, LaserShark, and StinkBug) are back for their second mission to find a Goldilocks Planet as they explore the clam-inhabited Water Planet. Upon arrival, the team is welcomed by President P.T. Clam and other members of the Clam Senate, who present the AstroNuts with a proposition to trade Earth for the Water Planet. The clams would go to Earth and filter its polluted water while humans would move to the Water Planet and enjoy its supposedly luxurious amenities. Although AlphaWolf finds the deal tempting, the other AstroNuts are skeptical since they have been unable to conduct any research to verify President Clam’s claims. With LaserShark’s new friend Susan B. Clamthony, the leader of the Clam Resistance, the AstroNuts secretly explore the Water Planet. They discover that it is extremely polluted, has no land or food available to humans, and is controlled by a tiny political elite, whose greed has demolished the planet’s ecosystems. The AstroNuts help Clam Resistance overthrow the destructive elite and start the ecological restoration of the Water Planet. They return to their secret base in Thomas Jefferson’s nose at Mount Rushmore to be sent on yet another mission in Book 3 of the series.
The Water Planet offers excellent entry points to discuss three aspects of climate change: how narrow elite’s short-termist financial interests drive the demolition of ecosystems (ecocidal market economy); how members of this ultra-rich power group are invested to lie, prevaricate, distort or plain suppress climate science (climate change denial, deflection); and how climate science and citizen resistance (climate activism) are crucial to stop ecocide and bring about a system-wide transformation (system change, ecological civilization).
The first two themes are explored in the plot line that focuses on the way the Water Planet’s government and business leaders have contributed to the planet’s decline. President P.T. Clam and the Clam Senate “wrecked the planet for their own money and power.” Waste from their factories contaminated both the air and water, leading to ocean acidification, species extinction, microplastic pollution, and rising sea levels that submerged the little land the planet had. As the AstroNuts are led through the planet’s Fishburger farms (industrial aquaculture), coral graveyards (coral bleaching), and garbage patches (the Great Pacific Garbage Patch), they learn why Clam Senate keeps up with these activities . “Money. President P.T. Clam and the Clam Senate are wrecking everything so they can buy more fancy castles and more fancy new shoes every day. They do not care about their fellow clams or their planet. In fact, all of their businesses have harmed the planet.” To represent the parallel with real-life humans who have used their financial power at the cost of Earth’s ecosystems, the Clam Senate members have names that reference people like the Clam brothers David and Charles, Clamson Rockefeller, Clam McConnell, and Cornelius Clamderbilt.
The second theme, how powerful individuals whose business and political ambitions destroy the planet rely on lies to keep the public unaware (climate denial), is explored in the plotline when President Clam tries to bribe AstroNuts into taking all his claims at face value. The novel uses AlphaWolf as an example of somebody who falls for Clam President’s deceitful claims. Illustrating climate skepticism and climate denial, AlphaWolf refuses to believe the Resistance despite hard evidence of how the Clam leaders are destroying the planet. He instead wants to believe the Clam Senate because they promise to provide him with cool stuff. AlphaWolf’s story shows how people are willing to ignore the truth of climate change based on personal reasons, and how—even when they recognize their mistake—people like AlphaWolf are scared to admit they were wrong. As Earth-narrator comments: “Have you ever noticed that humans have an amazing ability to think they are most right—exactly when they are most wrong?” (146).
The third theme, of climate and ecological criminals trying to falsify climate science and suppressing the truth, comes to the fore when President Clam shows AstroNuts a series of made-up charts (ch 9-11) and then a pseudo-scientific report (ch 14) to stop AstroNuts from doing their own scientific research. At this point the Earth narrator intervenes: “Just because information is shown in a graph or chart, doesn’t mean it’s accurate … or even true … science.” Then Earth shows AstroNuts and the reader how the scientific method works (climate science), illustrating it with the example of evidence for global warming and climate change on Earth. The need to rely on scientific evidence is also stressed in descriptions of Clam Resistance and the call for collective climate activism. The Clam Resistance, led by Susan B., is shown as fighting against the government to achieve climate justice for the rest of the clam citizens. They say, “Clams have wrecked the Water Planet for everyone. Now clams must restore its balance.” Similar to the Clam Senate, the names of the Clam Resistance members are references to real-life activists such as Clam Guevara or Clamjourner Truth. This is meant to show readers people can make a difference when they stand up for what they believe, which provides encouragement for those who are fighting for the Earth. The book ends on a hopeful note, showing the Clam society uniting “ to take charge and clean up our planet.”
©2023 ClimateLit (Alexandra Delacruz with later edits by Kai Resler).
More:
- See the AstroNuts Series Page for more reviews
- AstroNuts official website with a Book 2 teacher’s guide
Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2020
Audience: Ages 8-13
ISBN: 978-1452171203
Pages: 228
Lexile Score: 630L
Format: Comics and Graphic Novels
Topics: Activism, Capitalism, Climate Action, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Climate Science, Climate Skepticism, Collective Climate Action, Coral Bleaching, Deflection, Earth's Aliveness, Ecocidal Market Economy, Ecocide, Extinction, Global Warming, Goldilocks Planet, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Human Impact, Industrial Aquaculture, Industry, Marine Pollution, Mother Earth, Ocean Acidification, Oceans, Plastic Pollution, Pollution, Sea Level Rise, Short-termism, System Change, Ultra-rich
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