John Leben

Amy and the Tortoise - How Animals Saved the Planet

John Leben

Audrey Leben Haynes

Amy, a twelve year old girl, lives under a glass dome and sometimes has to wear a gas mask when the elephants let her go outside. Her outside friend is Gus, a grumpy 100 year old tortoise. Amy narrates Gus's story of environmental disaster when humanity almost destroyed the planet. Technocrats called Bald-Headed Suiters created habitats for people to live in a worsening environment beset by storms, floods and unbreathable air. But the Suiters cared little about the planet or the animals that populated it. Their solutions were short-sighted, only focused on the survival of humanity. After the forests burned in the fires of global warming, the suiters built villages under giant glass domes where people could breath manufactured air. But then a funny thing happened.