Artwork & Content Copyright 2009 Jean Burman
Cartoon Pen & Watercolour 8″ x 12″
“KRudd” cartoon appears in Heat 4 of the New Matilda Cartooning Competition
A word about the cartoon
You don’t always get what you want… but you do generally get what you need. Whether you actually like it or not is irrelevant… and of little consequence to anybody. Except of course to the poor buggar who’s getting what he needs instead of what he wants on a regular basis.
When that person is you… then all bets are off. You just have to stick to the plan… and keep your fingers crossed that when the dust settles you’ll come out the other end of it alright. All you can do in the meantime is stick your chest out… put your nose to the grindstone… and carry on regardless. (Although granted it is kind of hard to stick your chest out with your nose to the grindstone and keep walking all at the same time – grin)
But if you can manage all that… there’s one thing you can count on and that’s for sure. I’ll be right there beside you to help flatten the next person who tells you “what doesn’t kill you makes you strong”
Okay? (grin)
So here’s to bigger better brighter days everyone. We need ‘em. We earned ‘em. And we’re going to get ‘em!
Eventually… (((chuckles)))
Meanwhile… I have been busy preparing cartoons for the New Matilda Awards currently being staged at www.newmatilda.com The first cartoon (above) was sent in this week and with a bit of luck will appear sometime soon. The competition is for political cartooning and the awards run in a series of weekly heats (judged by public vote)… right up until June when a final winner will be selected from the winners of each heat by the nominated judging panel.
Have a Happy Easter everyone… I hope the Easter bunny brings you chocolate! Now there’s something we definitely all want but probably don’t necessarily need.
And NO… Universe… you didn’t hear that from me! 
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Good luck, Jean! I love the cartoon, which requires more than a cursory look. There’s a lot going on in it! And a very Happy Easter to you to!
And on a side note, there was a troubling article in the Los Angeles Times yesterday (4/9/09) about Australia’s fragile and threatened ecology. I think you might be able to find it on line.
Thanks John I’m pleased you liked the cartoon
You know… there is so much hysteria in the media about climate change and it’s potential impact that it is difficult if not impossible for those of us without a background in science to grasp the full extent of the problem let alone sort the truth from the many and varied (sometimes spurious) reports that we are constantly being bombarded with in the media.
Articles like this one certainly don’t help.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-climate-change-australia9-2009apr09,0,65585.story?page=3
They feed into the hysteria machine and fan the flames of popular opinion leading to an ill informed political correctness which effectively silences all reasonable and sensible debate (she stops to draw breath – grin)
John I am sure you will be relieved to know that this article fits the bill perfectly. There are way too many misleading statements and blatant mistruths to deal with here… but there were a few glaring errors I simply couldn’t let slip by:
1. The Murray Darling debacle is not a consequence of climate change. It is a consequence of naturally occurring drought and the mismanagement of water on the part of Government and the agricultural sector.
2. There is no malaria in Australia and hasn’t been since the beginning of last century.
3. Crocodiles take people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their numbers and the number of attacks have increased (slightly)… not due to climate change… but due to the removal of culling programs to control their numbers.
3. Whilst around 200 people tragically died in the recent devastating bush fires in Victoria … 200 more did not die from heat stroke in the lead up to them.
4. Dairy farmers committing suicide? Selling water rather than milk? I would suggest that this has more to do with the poor milk price (and people’s unwillingness to pay farmers what they are worth) rather than climate change.
5. No Australian city recycles toilet water for general consumption.
6. There are no more cyclones or floods or natural disasters here than there have been throughout recorded history. And rain… wherever it falls and in whatever quantity could never be described as a curse and is not done so by the residents of far northern Australia. It’s expected and they welcome it. Monsoonal rain is an entirely natural phenomenon and a regularly occurring consequence of the weather patterns in any tropical region of the world.
7. There are no “inland” tropical forests in Australia.
In short it’s a beat-up. And beat-ups always rankle. I hope someone challenges it and they are forced to retract. (yep and pigs might fly – grin)
There is no denying that Australia faces massive man-made environmental challenges… as does the rest of the world… but placing the blame under the one-size-fits-all banner of climate change is (in my view) just way too convenient.
The climate change bandwagon is a high stakes industry with plenty to gain for vested interests. I’ve always thought it rather suspicious that around the same time every year… about the time that Government grants are being handed out… a whole host of all-new and overwhelming “potential” environmental disasters materialise as if from nowhere. Methinks I smell a rat… and it isn’t a marsupial one either. LOL
Just me… weren’t you glad you brought it up? (((chuckles)))
Actually, yes, Jean, I am glad. And I thank you for the time and energy you took to clarify. You might want to look into Diamond Jared’s book “Collapse.” He has what seems to me a very thorough and fair assessment of the environmental challenges facing Australia today.
Personally, I think it’s impossible to discuss climate change (what I call “global harming”) without acknowledging the affects of human infestation of the planet.
When I was in 5th grade in a one room 8-grade school in Northern Illinois we studied the carbon cycle and were taught that the burning of fossil fuels would eventually lead to warmer temperatures. This was in 1940-41. The dire predictions come from shaky computer models. One VERY likely result is a rise in sea levels as the land based glaciers.melt. The sea icecaps can melt without affecting the sea levels. A one meter rise in sea levels means deep problems for places like Florida and Bangladesh. By the way a friend of mine developed a theory that a melting on the Arctic icecap will produce more snow in the Arctic which will trigger the building of land based glaciers and a new ice age.It is only a semi-facetious comment on the model based hysteria.
John and Roger… thank you both for commenting
Roger… model-based hysteria describes it well! (grin)
I guess the issue here is not so much whether or not or by how much the earth’s climate is changing… (that debate is rowdy enough already) but rather how vested interests are taking the information that is coming to hand and using it to push their own particular barrow. To point to a country such as Australia (as this article does) and attempt to “join the dots” of misinformation to manipulate the truth is unconscionable.
Certainly there are huge challenges for our planet due to it’s burgeoning population growth and past failures to consider the environment… but the cover-all banner of climate change is a misnomer.
To my way of thinking the voice of truth and reason comes from Professor Bob Carter of James Cook University in Queensland whose commonsensical moderate and balanced viewpoint… I am ever hopeful… may eventually be heard over the din of “extreme views” being peddled out in the climate change marketplace by a rowdy minority of vested interests from both sides. Professor Carter continues the push to provide critical and dispassionate analysis based upon scientific principles, demonstrated facts and a knowledge of the scientific literature. My fervent hope is that he… and scientists like him… will eventually be heard.
Hi Jean! Great cartoon!
I see that the world has always been changing. Ice ages have come and gone, droughts have done the same. Civilisations have prospered and disappeared, many species of flora and fauna have been wiped out and then replaced by a “better model”. I think that what we need to do is accept the changes that shall have to be made (just as every other living thing has done and will continue to do), to survive. There is merit in considering how so many other civilisations continued to flourish after catastrophic events (volcanoes erupting, earthquakes splitting apart continents and water levels covering once productive areas). I see that we should be looking at our contribution for sure (waste and greed get a big tick there!), but overall, its a matter of thinking twice before we succumb to further waste and greed.. That we “need” to appreciate what we have had and do have. With so many threats that we are aware of (is it a good thing to know so many possible outcomes???) we need to live in “today” and love those who are near and dear…whatever happens!
Hey Jools! Glad you liked the cartoon
Your observation that civilisations (and indeed species) have survived through adaption to change is a good one. We need to remember that. We all need to exercise good stewardship of our planet… but I sometimes wonder that we can really effect change against nature? Climate is dependent on a great many varying and naturally occurring circumstances as well… and human impact is certainly difficult to measure. In the end… it may well prove that nothing can or will stop the inevitable. Climate has been changing since time immemorial.
All that serious stuff aside… hope the easter bunny brought you lots of chocolate!? (grin)
Hey Jean…no I didn’t get any chocolate, but I gave out my share! Had some visitors from Toowoomba, was so nice to see them. It had been 10 years, we laughed alot and sat up really late! So good to “catch up!”
“I sometimes wonder that we can really effect change against nature?”
All good thoughts, Jean, and Jools. But I think we sometimes forget that we are in fact creations of nature ourselves, to an immense degree just playing out what nature has in store for us. Yes indeed, we can alter our behavior, but I fear that our exploding population, with its survival needs combined with our less attractive instincts for greed and violence, is putting a far greater burden on the planet than it can sustain. All an individual can do is live the way he or she believes is right, and hope that a seismic shift will take place in the human psyche.
John…I think it will have to be something massive to be able to “shake” the old attitudes to the foundations!
Too true John… too true…
And you are right of course too Jools…
Strange how human nature is so very often anti-nature…
Thats what spins me out Jean!! I have stated many times that I think the planet has been on the course that it is ( a natural cycle of extreme weather and land transformation) and there is nought we can actually do about that. BUT…(and that is a very big BUT!), we are adding to our problems by not looking after what we do have. By not emulating many other living things, not conserving, not preserving and not deserving!!! I do get quite heated about the pollution levels in our waterways and on our land masses. I also do not understand the mentality of other races mutilating and deeming cruelty to animals in the pursuit of “beauty and sexual stimulation”, ego and plain greed! We cannot take what we want, when we want. We cannot “dip” into the pool of natural resources without thought or care and then cry “what about me???”. We have to put back in what we take out. We have to be responsible for our own mess and clean it up. I see so many people are now crusading for so many different causes..”save this and save that”…it almost seems to be a fashion (cringe!). I do think that all of these causes are commendable, but really…if we do not stop our way of thinking (disposable versus sustainable) where are we going to keep these animals everyone wants to save? Our oceans, forests, rivers and grasslands are dying because of our pollution.
The thing with climate change is that the problem has been labelled wrong. If it were pollution and waste we were addressing… there could be no debate. And I agree Jools… these are the very things that we need to address into the future if we are to have a future.
Co2 is a colourless odourless gas essential for photosynthesis and fundamental to life on earth. It is not a pollutant nor “pollution”. Addressing the apparent threat of climate change by reducing the level of Co2 in the atmosphere does not address the problem of pollution (atmospheric or otherwise). Whether it’s reduction achieves the desired aim of preventing an aberration in the world’s climate is another matter.
Beats me why the majority of scientists who sit squarely in the middle of this issue don’t get their heads together and speak up loudly (and now) before whole nations are run into further economic strife by the questionable introduction of environmental legislation that could ruin us all.