Doka LCA - Environmental Humour

Satire

Quotes

Environmental Cartoons

New cartoons added 19. June 2022

Cartoon by KAL, Kevin Kallaugher, USA

Cartoons by xkcd (Randall Munroe), USA

Cartoons by Skeptical Science, USA

And now some regarding those "skeptical mavericks" and other assorted people chiming in from the top of Mount Dunning:
 

On "skeptical mavericks": Cartoon by late local hero Mike Van Audenhove (1957-2009), Switzerland

On "skeptical mavericks": Cartoon by Quino (Argentina)

On "skeptical mavericks": Cartoon by Jon Adams (USA)

On "skeptical mavericks": Cartoons by xkcd (Randall Munroe), USA

On "skeptical mavericks": By Gabor Doka, Switzerland

End of "skeptical mavericks" selection. 

Art work by Banksy, UK

Cartoon by Tom Toles, (Washington D.C., USA)

Cartoons by Zapiro, South Africa

Environmental business (1972) - Fitness is everything: "In our factory in Unterwil we are working to produce environmental damage. In the factory in Oberwil we work on mitigating environmental damage. Therfore our long-term business outlook is satisfactory."
(Umweltgeschäft - Fit sein ist alles: "In unserem Werk Unterwil arbeiten wir an der Umwelt-Verpestung, in unserem Werk Oberwil an der Umwelt-Verpestungs-Bekämpfung. Somit darf der Geschäftsgang auf lange Zeit hinaus als befriedigend bezeichnet werden.")


Growth miracle of economic super boom (1963) - "Our sweet baby Prosperity seems a bit mentally retarded, my dear fellow" - "Nevermind - no one notices such a thing nowadays."
(Das Wachstumswunder der Superkonjunktur - "In der geistigen Entwicklung scheint unsere süsse Prosperity etwas zurückgeblieben zu sein, Herr Kollega." - "Macht nichts - so etwas merkt heutzutage kein Mensch, Herr Kollega.")


A fair distribution (1965) News of technical progress: Unlike the old factory chimneys, that used to burden their neighbors with their smoke production, the new smokestacks of the planned refineries and thermal power plants guarantee a strictly non-partisan distribution of emissions across all the olfactory underdevelopped regions.
("Gerechte" Emissionsverteilung - Neues vom technischen Fortschritt Entgegen den Fabrikkaminen alten Stils, welche die Nachbarschaft durch ihre Rauch-Entwicklung belästigen, garantieren die Hochkamine der projektierten Raffinerien und thermischen Kraftwerke eine streng unparteiische Verteilung der Emissionen über die gesamten gestanklich noch unterentwickelten Gebiete.)

Cartoons by Rene Gilsi (1905 - 2002), Swiss Painter. From Swiss satirical magazine 'Nebelspalter'

Cartoons by Wiley Miller, USA

"If climate were a bank, it would have been saved"
Street slogan seen at "Occupy Paradeplatz", 16th Oct 2011, Switzerland
Attributed to Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela .

Cartoon by Joe Heller, USA

Cartoon by local hero Ruedi Widmer, (Winterthur, Switzerland)
Taken from the Swiss weekly newspaper WOZ

Cartoon by Johann Mayr (Germany)

Cartoons from the 70's by the brilliant Ron Cobb (USA & Australia)

Cartoons by the equally brilliant Quino (Argentina)

Cartoon by Scott Willis (USA)

Cartoons by local heroes Felix Schaad and Claude Jaermann (Switzerland)

Cartoons by Kirk Anderson (USA)

Cartoons by Andy Singer (USA)

Cartoon by Chris Madden (UK)

Cartoon by Fiona Katauskas (Australia)

Now some lovely ones from the "Science Idol" cartoon competition of the Union of Concerned Scientists on scientific integrity:
 

Cartoon by Justin Bilicki (New York, USA). Contest Winner 2008

Cartoon by Dr. Thomas Kodenkandath (Colorado, USA)

Cartoon by Peter Hess (Los Angeles, USA)

Not bad, David Horsey, not bad at all. David is from Seattle, USA.

Cartoon by Adam Trepczynski (DE)

Cartoon by Clive Goddard (UK)

Cartoons by Khalil Bendib (Morocco, Algeria, USA)

Cartoon by Joel Pett (2000 Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial cartooning), USA

Cartoon by Richard Jolley (UK)

All cartoons are copyright of the indicated authors and are displayed here with non-commercial, informational intentions only. If cartoonists or their agents dislike the free publicity I'm giving them here (like - unfortunately - Gary Larson), please contact me and I will take the material down.

Environmental Satire

• The Majestic Plastic Bag A mockumentary to promote a Californian ban on plastic bags. Narrated by Jeremy Irons, by Heal the Bay, USA
  


• How to deal with corrupt corporations 2012 ad to the accompanying petition for corporate justice. By Public Eye and others.
  


• The Impossible Hamster by Andrew Simms et al. - Crazy consumption and really gross domestic product. Short film on exponential growth and the importance of respecting limits.
  


• The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard - Not exactly satire, but an accessible, well-visualised and entertaining synopsis of important issues in a 20-minute online video that explores the full life cycle of what we buy and the political-economic history of over-consumption. Some of the factual information imho has to be taken with a grain of salt.


• The Meatrix - A short spoof of "The Matrix" movie about the truth behind the lies we tell ourselves about the origin of our food. Other language versions of The Meatrix


• Store Wars - Store Wars is a short spoof about a small band of organic vegetable puppets - Cuke Skywalker, Ham Solo, Chewbroccoli and wise old Obi Wan Cannoli - battling against Darth Tader and its empire of pollution and pesticides that has taken over the market with its arsenal of genetic engineering, irradiation and toxic chemicals. Can the Organic Rebels rescue Princess Lettuce or will they be seduced by the Dark Side of the Farm?


• A great visualisation from the Swiss campaign "High Tech - No Rights".
  The texts translates as: "Lowest Wage Worker" - "Lay-off at anytime" - "Productive for 20 hours a day" - "Works unprotected with toxins" - "Incredibly cheap!"
  And a comparison with reality... (by E. Burtynsky)

  

Environmental Quotes

New quotes added 30. April 2016

• Two planets meet. The first one asks: "How are you?" - The second answers: "Not so well, I've got homo sapiens."
  Attributed to Anthony Giddens, British sociologist


• "After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager'."
  William S. Burroughs, American author (1914 - 1997)


• "When you've spent half your political life dealing with humdrum issues like the environment, it's exciting to have a real crisis on your hands."
  Margaret Thatcher (first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1979 - 1990) on the Falklands war 1982.


• "Cars don't cause pollution, trees do."
  Ronald Reagan, Hollywood actor (1937 - 1964) and President of the United States (1981 - 1989)


• "Unfortunately, there is no way NO_x emissions of power plants can be reduced."
  Dr. Josef Vogl, head of the Department of Environmental Technology of the Environmental Protection Agency of Bavaria, in a congressional hearing in 1982. This was at a time when Japan had over 175 power plants with DeNOx catalyst operational, which were based on originally German patents developed in the 1960s.


• "Newton's Third Law: the only way humans have ever figured out of getting somewhere, is to leave something behind."
  Jonathan and Christopher Nolan in "Interstellar" (USA 2014)


• "90% of the roadway in Times Square was allocated to cars and only 10% to people. And yet 90% of the people who use the space were pedestrians and only 10% in cars. So we needed to change the math."
  Janet Sadik-Kahn, Commissioner Dept. of Transportation, New York City.


• "Why is Italy known to be such a nice place for people?"
  Jan Gehl, architect and urban design consultant, Denmark


• "People will work out the economics of the city. They'll work out that living in the suburbs is maybe not a good investment."
  Rob Adams, Directory of City Design, Melbourne


• "It is very cheap to be nice to people."
  Jan Gehl, architect and urban design consultant, Denmark


• "Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them."
  Bill Vaughan, US columnist and author (1915 - 1977)


• "America has not led but fled on the issue of global warming."
  John Kerry, US senator


• "We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late... The science is clear. The global warming debate is over."
  Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hollywood actor (1970 - present) and Governor of California (2003 - 2011)


• "It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little."
  Oscar Wilde, Irish author (1854 - 1900) in De Profundis


• "I think God's going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding."
  Steven Wright, American comedian


• "God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages."
  Jacques Deval, French playwright (1895 - 1972)


• "Wolves are very resourceful. All they need to survive is for people not to shoot them."
  Bob Ferris, Defenders of Wildlife vice president


• "When you look at the extinction of birds and butterflies... I mean you can see how inert nature actually is. How lazy it is in adapting to man."
  Gerhard Polt, German satirist


• "Sharks are just evil bastards. I'm quite happy if all the sharks just went, because they eat fish and us. And we need the fish."
  Eddy Izzard, British comedian


• "Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption ... We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate ... the total effect of all the advertising and promotion and selling is to create and maintain the multiplicity and intensity of wants."
  Victor Lebow, US retailing analyst and marketing consultant, in 1955


• "I write commercials. I sit here and think of ways to make people feel bad. You can't sell a product without first making people feel bad. It's a substitution game. You have to remind them that there's something missing from their lives. And when they're feeling sufficiently incomplete, you convince them that your product is the only thing that can fill the void. So instead of taking steps to deal with their lives, instead of working to root out the real reason for their misery, they run out and buy a stupid-looking pair of cargo pants."
  From the movie "Roger Dodger" (USA 2002), written by Dylan Kidd


• "Brand psychology is like placebo medicine. Products are being linked to a celebrity or a brand name and the feeling is conveyed to you that by buying those products you are magically becoming part of something greater. It's almost a religious belief that by buying the right sneakers you will belong. It's totally mad."
  Eckart von Hirschhausen, German physician and comedian, 26 March 2017


• "Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose."
  Jimmy Carter, American President, "Crisis of Confidence" Speech, 15 July 1979


• "That's a way to sedate a nation: with discount flights and meat. What used to be called 'bread and games'. Today it's meat and flights. Eating meat and holiday flights have nothing to do anymore with individual liberty. We should not have the liberty to ruin the world, starve millions of people, and keep 21 chickens per square metre. These are crimes. This must be legally regulated. Sensible things are not done voluntarily. Nobody pays taxes voluntarily for the benefit of the whole community. Hence tax liability. And that is fine. Who will limit their speed just for sake of the environment? So we have legislation for this. Just like there is no booze for kids, or you can't shoot yourself on the street, because that's not a an issue of personal freedom."
  Hagen Rether, German comedian, in 2010


• "Socialism failed because it couldn't tell the economic truth. Capitalism may fail because it couldn't tell the ecological truth."
  Lester Brown, environmental analyst and founder of the Worldwatch Institute at the Fortune Brainstorm Conference 2006


• "We want to be compliant with environmental laws. Not because we are philanthropists - we are not. But because we don't want to go bankrupt in the future because of damage compensation payments."
  Spokesperson at chemical company Ciba-Geigy Laboratories, Basel, Switzerland, December 1986


• "It took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve its prosperity; how many planets will a country like India require?"
  Mahatma Ghandi, leader of the Indian independence movement (1869 - 1948), in response to the question whether India will achieve the British standard of living after independence.


• "Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."
  Kenneth Boulding, British economist (1910 - 1993). See also 'The Impossible Hamster'


• "Economy is that strange notion suggesting that if in this year you are not doing better than last year, you're doing very poorly indeed."
  Franz Hohler, Swiss author


• "Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."
  John Maynard Keynes, British economist (1883 - 1946)


• "It doesn't have the ability to think rationally this economic model. It thinks like a drug addict: 'Where can I get my next fix?' It doesn't learn wisely. Any kind of measure of natural wisdom would be: you make a mistake, you correct it the next time around. But a drug addict feels terrible... and then says: 'I want more'. Unfortunately we have an economic model that thinks like a crack addict."
  Naomi Klein, Canadian journalist


• - "I joined the OCA, the Overconsumers Anonymous and I'm doing the 39 steps."
  - "I thought it was 12 steps."
  - "No, it's the OCA. We have more steps."
  Jennifer Saunders, British comedian in "Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie" (GB 2016)


• "Are the worlds of more advanced civilisations totally geometrized, entirely rebuilt by their inhabitants? Or would the signature of a really advanced civilisation be that they left no sign at all?"
  Carl Sagan, US astronomer and author (1934 - 1996)


• "The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."
  Ralph Nader, American attorney and presidential candidate


• "Don't get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It's just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there's an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And it's wireless!"
  William McDonough, American architect


• "People complain about bad environmental policy. A friend told me the Maldive Islands are drowning because of climate change. She says she will fly out there twice, to check them out before they are gone."
  Hagen Rether, German comedian, in 2010


• "Everyone's a libertarian until the water floods their home."
  Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter, in "King Tide And The Sunny Day Flood" (2017)


• "Since global warming Eskimos now have twenty different words for water."
  John O'Farrell, British author


• "How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean."
  Arthur C. Clarke, British author


• "My wife and I made a round-the-world trip this year. But I have to tell you honestly: We won't travel there again."
  Gerhard Polt, German satirist


• "Would you take a billion dollars, if as part of the deal the Earth were made uninhabitable a year after your death? ... well, of course not; you care about your friends, above all your children, any grandchildren. But ... what if the deal calls for the planet to be poisoned a thousand years later? We feel strong obligations to generations in the near future - should we not feel the same way about our children's great-grandchildren and generations beyond them?"
  John Cleese, British comedian and author


• "Why should I care about future generations? What have they ever done for me?"
  Groucho Marx, American comedian (1890 - 1977)

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