Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

Marine waste cartoon

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Hermit crab with tin can as a shell - cartoon

A cartoon about marine pollution showing a hermit crab using an old tin can instead of a shell

The cartoon could be interpreted as showing wildlife desperately trying to adapt to a changed ecosystem.
A cartoon about waste recycling, household waste, wildlife in danger.

See an alternative version of this cartoon here.
Cartoon reference number: env094c

Air pollution cartoon

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pollution cartoon

Atmospheric pollution cartoon.

A cartoon about air pollution, showing a person breathing using an oxygen cylinder in which the oxygen is being produced by a tree.

The cartoon is about the importance of preserving trees, other plants and basically all of the natural world, if only for our own good (as in the image). Of course the natural world is important in its own right, with or without us in it!
Original version: 1991
This version: September 2019
Cartoon reference number: env071d

Bioplastics cartoon

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bioplastic packaging cartoon - bioplastic pea pods

Bioplastics cartoon

In this cartoon the cellulose of the pea pod has been modified to form plastic packaging.
Plastics produced from plants are known as bioplastics.

Bioplastics are in some ways a good substitute for plastics produced from oil, however they may have a downside in that if they were extensively used vast amounts of agricultural land may have to be set aside for the production of plastics instead of food.
Original version drawn: 1999
Cartoon reference: env116b

Escape from the waste land cartoon – using a builders skip as a boat

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waste land builders skip boat - cartoon

Escape from the waste land cartoon

A cartoon showing a builder’s skip being used as a boat to escape from a land covered in waste – a wasteland.

The illustration is concerned with the amount of waste and rubbish generated by our consumer society.
The people in the image are escaping from the polluted land by using a builder’s skip as a boat. Such skips are in my mind associated with over consumption, as they are often to be seen outside houses that are being refitted with more modern and fashionable fittings (especially in the kitchens and bathrooms).

First version drawn: 1991
This square version: 2020

Cartoon reference number: a445b

The end is nigh cartoon

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Climate change cartoon - the end is nigh

A cartoon of a man with an “End is Nigh” placard.

A woman is saying “There was a time when I’d have dismissed him as a crank”.

The cartoon about the pessimism that is currently felt about the state of the world and about the future.
It primarily refers to climate change and global warming, but could equally refer to other malaises that are afflicting the planet.

Original version: 2010
This version drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: a709b
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Environmental cartoon – the case for sustainable transport

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environmental cartoon – sustainable transport

The environmental impact of road traffic

Roadkill cartoon
A cartoon about the impact of cars and transportation on the environment

The image shows a globe of the earth squashed flat on a road by a car, signifying the global impact of cars and transport in general on the environment – a sort of global roadkill.

Original version created: 2004
This version created: 2019

Cartoon reference number: a478b

Cartoon about plastic pollution

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plastic pollution cartoon

Plastic pollution cartoon.

The cartoon cliche of a desert island used to make a point about the pollution caused by plastic.

A person on a desert island throwing a message in a plastic bottle into the sea.
Cartoon reference number: a764b

There’s a colour version of this cartoon here.

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Plastic pollution cartoon

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plastic pollution desert island cartoon

Desert island plastic pollution cartoon.

A cartoon that uses the cartoon cliche of a desert island to make a point about the pollution caused by plastic.

The cartoon shows a person on a desert island throwing a message in a bottle into the sea.
Cartoon reference number: a764

There’s a black and white version of this cartoon here.

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Electric powered cars cartoon

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electric car cartoon

Electric cars cartoon
Sustainable energy cartoon

A cartoon showing electrically powered cars filling with fuel at a filling station. Instead of filling at petrol pumps they are filling at a small electricity pylon

Although this cartoon doesn’t make a comment on the use of electricity to power vehicles, I suspect that it won’t turn out to be as sustainable as its advocates claim.
A cartoon about the environment, ecology, transport systems, hybrid cars, oil-free economy, battery power, fossil fuel dependency, power supply, energy sources.

Drawn: 2011

Cartoon reference number: env061

You can find a colour version of this cartoon here.

Our course into the future?

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Environmental cartoon: The human race driving itself over the precipice

A cartoon about the course that the human race is possibly taking.

A possible problem with progress – cartoon

The human race ignoring the warning signs and recklessly carrying on along the same road – resulting in it driving itself over the precipice and into the abyss.
The cartoon uses a car to denote the human race, the metaphor applies to other areas of human endeavour other than transport.
Cartoon reference number: env051b

The destructive impact of tourism

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Destructive impact of tourism cartoon

A cartoon highlighting a problem with mass tourism – the destruction or degradation of the tourist destination due to the impact of the tourists themselves.

Here the tourist destination is a world heritage site – exactly the sort of place that is degraded by insensitive of excessive tourism.

Mass tourism, tourist, holidays, holiday destinations.
Original version drawn: 1990
Cartoon reference number: env123
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Cartoon about the fallacy of progress

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transport cartoon - traffic gridlock

Environment cartoon about transport systems
Philosophy cartoon about the fallacy of progress

A cartoon about progress, in which the progress (represented here by road transport) creates its own problems.
Is progress a good thing?

Cars at a standstill, gridlocked in a traffic jam symbolising progress (or the lack of it) in transport planning and the excessive use of cars as personal transport.
Also a cartoon about the philosophical question of whether progress is necessarily automatically a good thing.

Created: 2015.
Original version (with older vehicles) created: 1991

Cartoon reference number: env050b
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New Year 2020 cartoon predicts bad year ahead (Drawn before the Covid-19 pandemic was foreseen!)

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Happy New Year 2020 father time tripping

New Year 2020 cartoon – prediction of a very bad year ahead.
When I drew this, in 2019, who’d have known 2020 would be such a bad year due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The cartoon shows the old year 2019 (Father Time) pushing the baby New Year 2020 in a baby buggy. Father Time is tripping over the base of a Happy New Year sign, sending the new year rushing forwards out of control towards a cliff edge.

Cartoon drawn: December 2019
Cartoon reference number: a770

Environmental art cartoon – biodegradable art

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Environmental art cartoon – biodegradable art

An environmental art cartoon, showing a piece of contemporary artwork that is 100% biodegradable.

Because the sculpture depicted in the cartoon is biodegradable it will have a limited lifespan that will make it unappealing to art collectors (never mind art conservators).

A cartoon about the art market, art conservation, environmentalism, transient art, gallerists.

Cartoon drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art035
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Environment cartoon book

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Environmental cartoon book

The Beast That Ate the Earth
Environment cartoon book

Versions of many of the environmental cartoons on this site can be found in my book, The Beast That Ate the Earth.

I’ve been drawing cartoons on environmental matters since the early 1970s.
The book was published in 2004 and contains about a hundred cartoons in black and white.

The book is available through Amazon.
Such as at:

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

Amazon Germany

Green man illustration

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Illustration - the green man (as a tree)

The green man.

The concept of the green man stretches back to antiquity, and is usually depicted as a head covered in leaves and foliage.
In this cartoon version, the green man is depicted as a tree, where the only evidence of a human link is the man’s legs protruding below the tree’s foliage and forming the tree trunk.

Concept: 2010

Cartoon reference number: a761

A world in which there is no countryside, only city development

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Cartoon - a city scene where the only evidence of nature is on a traffic island

An urban landscape with no trees or grass except on a traffic roundabout.

A person in a passing car is saying to their children “Look kids – the countryside!”
A cartoon about sprawling urban development, green spaces, the concrete jungle, nature being squeezed out, urbanisation, urbanization, city gardens,

 Drawn: 2016
Cartoon reference number: a760

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Air pollution cartoon

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Air pollution cartoon

Air pollution cartoon

Showing a man using breathing apparatus to breathe fresh air in a polluted atmosphere. The oxygen cylinder contains a plant that is generating oxygen

Part of the idea behind the cartoon is to convey the concept that plants are the lungs of the world, liberating oxygen from carbon dioxide via photosynthesis.
A cartoon about clear air, atmospheric pollution and toxic chemicals, smoke and smog

Original version created: 1991

Cartoon reference number: env071b

Driving into a worrying future

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driving to the future - the collapse of civilisation

A car driving off the end of a road – symbolising the human race hurtling towards an uncertain future of its own making.

The car driver is following the sat-nav (GPS) unquestioningly as the car drives off the edge of the precipice (which metaphorically signifies the collapse of civilisation).

The road in this cartoon symbolises the human race’s road into the future, while the car is a metaphor for the human race itself, accompanied by its technological ‘life support system’.
The message is meant to be that if we’re not careful it will all end very badly.
This isn’t an anti-technology or anti-progress cartoon by the way – it’s just a view of how things might go if we aren’t careful.

Original version created: 2016

Ref a739
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Blindly following progress (a metaphor)

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blindly driving to the future - and over a cliff

A car driving off the end of a road and over a cliff – with the car driver still unquestioningly following the sat-nav.

The scene is a metaphor for what may happen if the human race unquestioningly and uncritically follows technological progress. Not that I think that technological progress is bad – we just need to watch where it’s going.

 Drawn: 2016
Ref a741
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A car driving into the future – and plunging off the end of the road

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driving to the future - the collapse of civilisation

A car driving into the future – and plunging off the end of the road

The car driver is following the sat-nav (GPS) unquestioningly as the car drives off the edge of the precipice (which metaphorically signifies the collapse of civilisation).

This cartoon is about the inherent danger in the advance of technology (here symbolised by cars, transport systems sat-nav) and other aspects of human progress. The further we progress, the greater the consequences of anything going wrong, especially if we put too much faith in technology and, as here, follow it uncritically.

Drawn: 2016

Ref a740
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Cartoon – climate change refugees

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Cartoon - climate change refugees

Cartoon – climate change refugees.

The cartoon shows the possible increase in mass migration that may be caused by global warming and climate change.
The cartoon compares the current (2015) crisis of mass migration to Europe caused by political instability in the middle east with the possible crisis of mass migration that may occur due to climate change.

A cartoon about mass migration, climate change refugees, impact of global warming.
Drawn: 2015
Reference number: a712

Climate change cartoon – achieving carbon emissions targets

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Climate change cartoon - the end is nigh crank

A climate change cartoon about the need to reach low carbon emissions targets.

The cartoon shows the fact that if we don’t take measures to reduce our carbon emissions we will reach a state in which the emissions will drop anyway.

A cartoon about climate change, zero carbon emissions, carbon footprints, global warming.

Drawn: 2015

Ref a711
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The End is Nigh cartoon – global warming

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Global warming cartoon - the end is nigh crank

A global warming cartoon, showing a man with an “End is Nigh” placard.

A passing woman is saying “There was a time when I’d have dismissed him as a crank”.

A cartoon about the current feeling of pessimism about the state of the world and about its future.
This refers to climate change and global warming, but could equally refer to the election of Donald Trump as president of the USA!

Original version: 2010

Ref a709
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