Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

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Environmental transport illustration – three seater bicycle

July 28, 2023 by chrismadden

Environmental transport illustration
Environmental transport illustration

Environmental transport illustration.

The illustration shows a three-seater bicycle or tandem as an image of sustainable, zero-carbon transport.

A cartoon about environmentally sustainable holidays.
Drawn: July 2022
Cartoon reference number: a956

How to obtain license to use cartoon

Filed Under: Energy fuel power, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Sustainability cartoon – sustainable transport cartoon

July 23, 2020 by chrismadden

sustainability cartoon – sustainable environmental transport

The environmental impact of unsustainable 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 on the environment – a sort of global roadkill.
A cartoon about transport, sustainability, car use, traffic, the environment.

 

Original version created: 2004
This version created: 2019

Cartoon reference number: a478b

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Filed Under: Climate Change cartoons, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Electric cars cartoon

April 23, 2020 by chrismadden

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

This cartoon doesn’t actually make a comment on the usefulness of electricity to power vehicles, I suspect that electric vehicles won’t turn out to be as viable and sustainable as their advocates claim. How is all that electricity going to be generated for instance?
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.


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Filed Under: Energy fuel power, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Our course into the future?

April 22, 2020 by chrismadden

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

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Transport

The fallacy of progress cartoon

April 22, 2020 by chrismadden

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 (Some aspects of progress obviously are, but not all of them).

. 

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

Cartoon reference number: env050b

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Philosophy Cartoons, Transport

Environment cartoon book

April 30, 2019 by chrismadden

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

Filed Under: Books, Climate Change cartoons, Consumerism, Deforestation, Energy fuel power, ENVIRONMENT, Floods, Other environment cartoons, Pollution cartoons, Transport, Trees, Wildlife in danger

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

November 17, 2016 by chrismadden

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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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Transport, Trees, Wildlife in danger

Driving into a worrying future

May 1, 2016 by chrismadden

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
Cartoon reference number: a739

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Other environment cartoons, Transport

Blindly following progress (a metaphor)

May 1, 2016 by chrismadden

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
Cartoon reference number: a741

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Transport

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

May 1, 2016 by chrismadden

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
Cartoon reference number: a740

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Other environment cartoons, Transport

Sustainable energy and transport cartoon – a wind powered car

August 23, 2015 by chrismadden

Transport cartoon - a wind powered car

Sustainable energy and transport.
A wind powered car with a wind turbine on its roof.

 

A cartoon about the environment, sustainability, transport, alternative energy.
Original version created: 2010
Cartoon reference number: a704

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Filed Under: Energy fuel power, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Man’s relationship with cars

June 24, 2015 by chrismadden

car as a protective shell - cartoon

Cartoon – a car as a protective shell or carapace.

An image illustrating the psychology of motoring and the human relationship with cars
A cartoon about cars, car use, traffic, psychology.
Original version drawn: 1990
Cartoon reference number: a680

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Filed Under: Evolution, Sociology, Transport

The world being destroyed by consumerism cartoon

June 24, 2015 by chrismadden

traffic destroying environment cartoon

A cartoon showing a lorry crossing a traffic roundabout and destroying the playing arrangement on the roundabout.

The cartoon is a metaphor for the way that our consumer society and consumerism (represented by the lorryload of goods) is devastating the earth (represented by the flower planting in the form of a map of the world).

Original version created: 1991

Cartoon reference number: a454

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Filed Under: Consumerism, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Self-driving cars cartoon or driverless cars cartoon

August 8, 2014 by chrismadden

Self-driving or driverless car cartoon 

A cartoon about driverless cars.
How driverless cars may affect society

Driverless cars are also known as driver-free cars, self driving cars, autonomous cars or robot cars.

This is a futurology cartoon, predicting the future when self-driving cars are ubiquitous.
My view is that people will drive round whether they need to or not, simply because they can – a bit like the way people currently spend large amounts of their time glued to mobile phones even though they don’t necessarily have anything pressing to say. You can read an article of mine on the subject of driverless cars here.
Drawn: 2017
Cartoon reference number: a674

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Filed Under: Social issues, Transport

Environment cartoon – the impact of road traffic on the environment.

July 21, 2014 by chrismadden

environmental transport roadkill cartoon

The environmental impact of road traffic

Roadkill cartoon
A cartoon about the effect of cars and roads 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
Cartoon reference number: a478

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Transport

High Speed Rail cartoon – HS2

September 27, 2013 by chrismadden

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

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Filed Under: Politics, Transport

Environment cartoon – cycling as sustainable transport

March 1, 2013 by chrismadden

Sustainable transport cartoon - four person tandem

Environment cartoon – sustainable transport

An illustration showing a family on a tandem as an environmentally friendly method of transport

Bicycle cartoon or illustration
Cartoon reference number: a551

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Pollution cartoon – the earth choking to death on car exhaust fumes

December 5, 2012 by chrismadden

Toxic car exhaust fumes - cartoon

Atmospheric pollution cartoon

A cartoon showing the earth or globe inside a car, with a tube connecting the car’s exhaust pipe to the inside of the car. The implication of the cartoon is that the earth is committing suicide by poisoning itself on vehicle exhaust fumes.
The wider implication of the image is that the world is suffocating due to the effects of multiple toxic emissions, pollutants and contaminants that are a by-product of the modern industrial society

Cartoon reference number: a463

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Filed Under: Energy fuel power, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Wind turbine cartoon

December 5, 2012 by chrismadden

wind turbines cartoon - blot on the landscape compared to motorway?

Wind power cartoon
Are wind turbines a blot on the landscape?

A motorist on a crowded motorway complaining that wind turbines are eyesores.
A cartoon about renewable energy, electricity generation, road policy, sustainable development and sustainability.

Cartoon reference number: env052a

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Filed Under: Energy fuel power, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Roadkill cartoon. Roadside wildlife guidebook cartoon.

December 5, 2012 by chrismadden

Roadside wildlife roadkill cartoon

Roadkill cartoon
Roadside wildlife identification guidebook cartoon.

A cartoon showing a nature guide book for identifying roadside wildlife, in which the images of the wildlife are all squashed by car tyres or are bird strikes

A cartoon about wildlife destruction on roads due to impacts with vehicles.
Animals and birds as victims of vehicle impact
Cartoon reference number: a455

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Filed Under: ANIMALS, Animals (wild or pets), ENVIRONMENT, Transport, Wildlife in danger

The trouble with progress – cartoon. The end of the road

September 5, 2012 by chrismadden

progress end of road - cartoon

The trouble with progress – cartoon.
The end of the road.

A cartoon showing progress coming to an end and suddenly ‘running out of road’.

The concept behind the cartoon is that progress gives us lots of advantages (cars, roads and bridges in this illustration), but that it also puts us into a position of peril when the source of the progress suddenly disappears. This could be due to resource depletion, scarcity of materials, political instability, over-consumption, natural disaster, global warming, climate change.
So in this cartoon the road on the bridge (which is a metaphor for progress) suddenly comes to an end, and the car (which is another metaphor for progress) plunges off the end, taking its passengers with it.

This isn’t an anti-progress, back to nature cartoon. I’m a great believer in progress. It’s just that it has to be approached carefully, and we aren’t doing that.

Cartoon reference number: a375

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Other environment cartoons, Transport

Environment cartoon. Illustration – cycling to save the world

December 24, 2011 by chrismadden

sustainable transport cartoon tandem

Environmental cartoon or illustration showing people cycling to save the energy and the world.

A positive image of people mobilising to save the planet and to reduce resources depletion by cycling.

A positive, motivational environmental cartoon about ecology, caring for the planet.
Possibly an image for earth day.
The cartoon shows people pedalling on a multi-person bicycle or four person tandem with trailers.
The balloon symbolises the world, and indicates that there can be enjoyment and satisfacion found in working towards a better more sustainable future.

Cartoon reference number: a042

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Other environment cartoons, Transport

Unintended consequences cartoon – the invention of the wheel brings with it the first road traffic accident

October 23, 2011 by chrismadden

Cartoon. The invention of the wheel - the first road traffic accident

Caveman cartoon
The invention of the wheel cartoon
Road traffic accident cartoon
Cartoon about unintended consequences

The inventor of the wheel becomes the first ever victim of a road traffic accident.
Cartoon about unforeseen consequence of progress and inventions

A cartoon about cave men, cavemen, caveman, stone age man, prehistoric man, tools, progress, innovation, transport, traffic accidents, road traffic accident statistics

Cartoon reference number: whl001
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Filed Under: Transport

Sustainable transport cartoon. Wind-powered cars being refuelled at wind turbines

October 9, 2011 by chrismadden

Environment cartoon.  Wind-powered cars being refuelled at wind turbines rather than petrol pumps.

Environmental cartoons
Sustainable transport cartoon
Wind-powered cars being refuelled at wind turbines rather than petrol pumps

Fuel and energy cartoons

A cartoon about energy consumption, green energy, wind power, electricity generation, fossil fuels, alternative fuel supplies, transport, electric cars, battery powered vehicles.
Drawn: July 2010
Cartoon reference number: car710

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Filed Under: Energy fuel power, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Transport policy cartoon. Demolishing houses to widen a road

October 9, 2011 by chrismadden

Road transport cartoon. Road widening scheme demolishing a house. The inhabitants are leaving

Transport policy cartoon
Infrastructure priorities cartoon

An illustration showing how transport and traffic policies can sometimes take priority over social issues such as housing policy.
The convenience for the motorist is seen as paramount – to the detriment of other considerations such as the environment and the social structure.

A road widening scheme demolishing a house. The inhabitants are evicted. A sign apologises to motorists for any inconvenience or delay in their journey.
A cartoon about traffic, road building, transport infrastructure, urban and rural environmental degradation, housing blight, road widening, traffic increase, cars, demolition.
Drawn: 2010
Cartoon reference number: tra710

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, Social issues, Transport

Environmental cartoons – carbon footprint cartoon

September 12, 2011 by chrismadden

Carbon footprints and carbon tyre tracks

Environment cartoon
Carbon footprint represented as carbon tyre tracks
Ecology cartoon about carbon footprints

A cartoon about, among other environmental issues, desertification, environmental degradation, sustainability

Cartoon showing the footprints of the western world represented as tyre tracks. The vehicle that’s created them has knocked over a person from the developing world, who’s carbon footprints are relatively insignificant
Cartoon reference number: env121

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Filed Under: Climate Change cartoons, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

Environmental cartoon. The impact of roads on wildlife

September 11, 2011 by chrismadden

Peter Rabbit's last adventure

Roads as a danger to wildlife.

Cartoon showing a rabbit about to try to reach a lettuce patch on the far side of a busy motorway or main road.

Cartoon reference number: env043

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Filed Under: ANIMALS, ENVIRONMENT, Transport, Wildlife in danger

Environment cartoon. The Four Truck Drivers of the Apocalypse

September 11, 2011 by chrismadden

Environmental cartoon - Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Environmental cartoon
The Four Truck Drivers of the Apocalypse
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The cartoon shows lorries carrying cargoes that are symbolic of the ills of contemporary western society (with other societies fast catching up).
One lorry carries toxic waste, another logs from logging activity that is depleting the world’s natural resources, another carries weapons, arms and armament while the last one carries the catering facilities for the others – fast food or convenience food

Based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
A cartoon about environmental degradation, war, man made disaster, over consumption, resource depletion, the end of civilisation as we know it
Cartoon reference number: env048

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Filed Under: Consumerism, Deforestation, ENVIRONMENT, Pollution cartoons, Transport, Waste

Cartoon about the psychology of motoring. Cartoon of a man and his relationship with his car

September 11, 2011 by chrismadden

Man and his car as a protective carapace

Cartoon about the psychology of motoring.

Slightly surreal illustration of a man and his car – which acts as a protective shell or carapace

In a car a person is insulated from, and isolated from, the outside world, with the car giving a sense of protection, wellbeing and power to the driver.
The car driver may feel a strong sense of invulnerability when driving the car
Cartoon reference number: env044

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Filed Under: ENVIRONMENT, MORE, Sociology, Transport

Aviation cartoon – air transport’s impact on the environment

September 11, 2011 by chrismadden

Air travel environmental impact cartoon

Air travel’s environmental impact cartoon or illustration
Climate change and aviation cartoon

Cartoon about the impact of aviation on the environment
A single transatlantic flight contributes as much to global warming as a typical year of driving a car

A cartoon about aircraft, climate change, con trails, air miles, carbon footprints
Cartoon reference number: env045

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Filed Under: Climate Change cartoons, ENVIRONMENT, Transport

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