Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

Environment cartoon – floods caused by climate change

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global warming flooding cartoon

Flooding caused by global warming

Drawn in 1991.
A comment on postponing taking action about global warming, using the saying “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it”. Unfortunately, due to flooding, the bridge can’t be crossed.

From my collection of cartoons about global warming, climate change, floods, anthropogenic weather
Cartoon reference number: env076b

Museum and art gallery merchandising cartoon – fridge magnets of exhibits

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museum merchandising cartoon - fridge magnets of artworks

Cartoon about art gallery and museum mechandising and funding.
Which works of art would look good on fridge magnets?

Cartoon showing artworks being considered for use in merchandising

Cartoon showing a meeting of staff responsible for acquiring artworks in an art gallery considering which works of art to buy, including evaluating the commercial, marketing and merchandising potential of the works of art under consideration.
The cartoon’s caption reads:
“It may indeed be a pivotially significant example of early 18th century Flemish art, but as head of merchandising I have to ask ‘What would it look like on a fridge magnet?’”
It is a cartoon about the commercialisation and commodification of artworks such as paintings and of museum artefacts. The cartoon illustrates the problem of funding art galleries and museums, and the increased reliance on museum gift shops and cafes.
Cartoon reference number: a152
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Marine pollution cartoon – twenty-first century hermit crab

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Hermit crab using a tin can as a shell - cartoon

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

  One of the ideas behind this cartoon is that pollution of the seas and oceans will cause depletion of life such as marine snails, making it necessary for hermit crabs to adapt to using discarded rubbish as protection.
The cartoon could also be interpreted as showing wildlife adapting 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: env094b

High Speed Rail cartoon – HS2

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HS2 inquiry cartoon

HS2 cartoon

A comment on the proposed high speed rail service, HS2.
Inquiry into HS2 show different financial implications and differing conclusions about financial viability

The cartoon shows a government minister responsible for rail transport and trains looking at an inquiry report and thinking “My reputation’s on the line”
Cartoon reference number: a628

Population illustration

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over population graphic

Global overpopulation cartoon
Population crisis or the overpopulation tsunami

An illustration about the crisis of overpopulation that is threatening the ecology of the planet

The world’s population is rising at an unsustainable rate, putting pressure on the earth’s resources and threatening its biosystem due to habitat loss
Ref a611
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Environmental cartoon – packaging

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Environment cartoon

Environment cartoons
Non-biodegradable packaging

A cartoon about environment-friendly materials.
A discarded polystyrene container talking to animals, saying that it likes nature so much that it’s decided to stay around for a long time.

An illustration about biodegradable packaging materials, litter, recycling, waste, consumerism, bio-decomposition, environmental impact
Cartoon reference number: env069b
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Environment Cartoons

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Environmental cartoon

Click the image to see more cartoons

Environment cartoons

I’ve been drawing cartoons about environmental issues since my student days.
I think my first one was a cartoon about the use of ambergris (extracted from sperm whales) in cosmetics. That was back in about 1970.
I’m still at it today.
Now I’ve started to combine drawing cartoons about the environment with a bit of practical work on the subject, managing my plot of land in west Cornwall for the benefit of wildlife.
Click on the cartoon to see the rest of my environment cartoons.

Environment cartoon – earth as a balloon

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Environment cartoon - the earth as a balloon jettisoning consumer products

Environment cartoon – earth as a balloon

An illustration showing the earth as a passenger balloon, with people throwing consumer goods over the side in order to keep afloat.
The idea is that the human race needs to jettison its dependence on consumer goods.

The concept behind the illustration is a little similar to the ‘spaceship earth’ metaphor
Cartoon reference number: a550
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Sundial cartoon. A sundial is a solar powered clock

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sundial cartoon

Sundial cartoon. A sundial is a solar powered clock

In the cartoon a person is looking at a sundial and is saying “It’s incredible that all those years ago they’d developed solar-powered clocks.”
The cartoon illustrated how in the modern world we assume everything has to be powered by a relatively modern form of power, such as electricity in the form of batteries or mains electricity. In the past everything was powered by “sustainable” or “natural” resources, such as solar power, the wind or water.

A cartoon about the history of clocks, horology
Cartoon reference number: a544

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Easter Island statue – a cartoon about hubris and the degradation of the natural world

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easter island statue hubris cartoon

Easter Island statue – a cartoon about hubris

A cartoon showing Easter Islanders erecting a statue

There is a theory that the community on Easter Island went into decline when the Easter Islanders, the Rapa Nui, cut down all of the trees on the island while putting all of their efforts into erecting their famous statues, or moai.
With no trees left, life became unsustainable.

The cartoon can be seen as an argument for rewilding, the system by which degraded ecosystems can be returned to functioning systems by the reintroduction (either deliberately or by benign neglect) of native species.
An illustration about the hubris of power. It brings to mind Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Original cartoon drawn: 2012

Cartoon reference number: a537
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Environment cartoons – a man eating the earth

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man eating the earth cartoon

One of my environment cartoons – showing a man devouring the earth

The cartoon shows the earth in space as a globe, being eaten by the gigantic man

The image is an illustration of the way that the human race is destroying the planet by over consumption and over population. Over population is implied by the giant size of a single human who is devouring the earth’s resources.
Cartoon reference number: a513
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Tree of knowledge cartoon

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Tree of knowledge cartoon

Tree of knowledge cartoon

The tree of knowledge discovers where paper comes from.

Tree of knowledge discovers a disturbing truth.
This cartoon may be used as an environmental cartoon about the use of wood for the production of paper products.
It may also be used as an illustration concerning the human condition – about the way that people, through their own intelligence, have become aware of the ultimate fate of all of us, death. (a fate that other species of animal are possibly blissfully unaware in any deep way).
The cartoon is also about the way that human intelligence as well as bringing about awareness has brought us to the situation in which we are destroying the environment.
A cartoon about paper manufacturing, philosophical insight and the curse of self awareness

Cartoon reference number: a479

A cartoon about self help books – how to stop over-consuming

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Fat man - stop consuming - cartoon

A cartoon about self-help books and over consumption

A cartoon of an overweight person trying to reach a self help manual about how to stop over consuming.
He can’t reach the book because he is too fat

This cartoon is about excessive consumption of all types – it depicts an obese person (an over consumer of food) to represent all types of over consumption. The point is that the obese person can’t reach the book because of his obesity.
The cartoon deals with the topics of consumerism, the consumer society, and addictive behaviour, amongst others

Cartoon reference number: a477

Consumer society cartoon

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baby walker cartoon

Consumerism cartoon

A cartoon about child development and shopping.
This joke was inspired by seeing children’s toys such as brightly coloured radios with words printed on them such as “My First Radio”

A humorous idea about nature or nurture, social attitudes, capitalism and social conditioning.
The expression “Born to shop” comes to mind

Cartoon reference number: a473

Butterfly friendly insecticide cartoon

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butterfly friendly pesticide cartoon

A cartoon about selective pesticide – butterfly and ladybird friendly insecticide

A joke about insecticide that kills only ugly insects

The cartoon has deeper meanings about how we judge things by appearance, by prejudice or by attractiveness.
It’s also about gardening and the aesthetic values that are deployed in the garden (such as in the selection of plants and flowers, not just in the selection of pests). However it’s also about the wider phenomenon of judging everything, including people, by appearance

Cartoon reference number: a472

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Animal trap and animal intelligence – cartoon

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Clever animal trap cartoon

A hunter trapping animals cartoon

Showing a hunter and a trap or snare set to capture a wild animal.

The trap which is baited with food, and a monkey is approaching it with a hook and line to get the food without setting off the trap.
However, the trap is a sham or decoy trap, and the monkey is trapped in another, real trap

A cartoon about hunting, hunters, trapping, trappers, animal intelligence, intelligent apes, snares, clever animals

Cartoon reference number: a470

Why animals become extinct – cartoon

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reason why animals became extinct - cartoon

An extinction cartoon – the reasons why creatures become extinct

A cartoon showing a reconstruction of an extinct animal, with scientists asking why the creature became extinct.
The creature had many features that would have made it very useful to prehistoric man – huge ivory tusks, luxurious fur and tender flesh. Obviously it was hunted to extinction by early hunters

A cartoon dealing with endangered species, palaeontology, fossils and hunter gatherers

Cartoon reference number: a469

Endangered species cartoon – the fur trade

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fur coat and fur trade cartoon

An environmental cartoon about the fur trade and fur coats

A cartoon of an affluent fashionable woman buying a fur coat. The shop sign above the coat reads “Rare furs”
The shop assistant is saying “And getting rarer by the day, madam!”

The message of the cartoon is that some people are totally intellectually divorced or disconnected from the environmental and ecological impact of their actions, with economic and other factors such as social status taking precedence over environmental factors.
In this case the woman and the man are only interested in the status of the fur coat as a fashion item and as a status symbol – to the point that they are actually pleased that they are contributing to the endangered species status of the animal that provided the fur for the coat, as the rarer the animal the more valuable the coat becomes – an economic argument (of very dubious merit) rather than an ecological one

Cartoon reference number: a468
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Environmental cartoon of the earth in an hourglass

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hourglass earth cartoon

The Earth in an hourglass – environmental cartoon
The end of the world is nigh!

In the cartoon the earth is pouring through the hourglass, showing that time is running out for the world as a result of environmental pressures.
The metaphor of the hourglass is particularly relevant to the exploitation of the earth’s natural resources (such as minerals and fossil fuels that are mined), as it is these minerals that are slipping through the hourglass in the image

A cartoon about climate change, global warming and mineral resource depletion.
The original version of this cartoon was drawn in 1991 for my book When Humans Roamed the Earth, published by Earthscan/WWF, and is also in my book The Beast That Ate The Earth.

See an alternative version of this cartoon

Cartoon reference: a467b
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