The text analyzes and compares the presence of the Anthropocene discourse in picture books from the northern hemisphere, both published in 2007, I skogen (In the wood) by Swedish author Eva Lindström and Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming by Canadian Jean Davis Okimoto. The books depict the tripartite relation between man-animal-nature as interdependent, but differently. While the Canadian book has an overt mission to enlighten the public about the effects of climate change for the artic region, in the Swedish book there is no overt message, but can be spotted and understood from an ecocritical perspective.

According to Anthropocene discourse nature is no longer a passive and static context for human actions (Crutzen 2000) and human control is an illusion (Carson 2002) [1962]. With Darwin man is defined as one species among many and after the rise of Ecology man is regarded as a species subsumed into an ecosystem. Ecologist Tormod Valaand Burkey advocates therefore for a new ethics where economy and man´s practices and values must adapt to a larger ecological context (2013).

The picture book analysis focuses on the combined pictorial and verbal narrative depiction of climate change and its threat to biodiversity. The focus is on how the representation of man as a species is depicted as well as its relation to other species of fauna and flora. The analysis will concentrate on attitudes, actions and ethical values expressed by protagonists when dealing with climate change in relation to an ecological ethics where human rights are closely knit with animal rights and biodiversity.