It always amazes me that climate deniers can still call global warming a hoax when looking at hotter temperatures, dying forests and increasing wildfires. Millions of burning acres are a little more obvious to most than calving glaciers or seas rising by centimeters.
I was a little distracted while creating this cartoon. My parents’ home in Idaho is so close to one of the Northwest’s raging forest fires that this sort of thingis going on just a stones throw from the house. I know global warming isn’t all about hot temperatures everywhere, "global weirding" as some people say, but right now the world seems to be on fire.
The fires by my parents’ place or here in California are nothing compared to what is going on in Alaska. (All you need to do is check out a fire map to get a sense of the scale.) If you’re a small government type who thinks the global warming hoax is a plot to increase government control and spending, just imagine government representatives kicking you out of your home as a wildfire approaches, all while they spend billions to fight these fires. Seems like doing something about global warming might not be so expensive after all. Enjoy the cartoon, stay safe and check out the links behind the ‘toon.
[earnest, female doc-style VO]
Narrator: Remember when wildfires were simple?
Smokey: Only you can prevent forest fires!
Narrator: Today, things are different, more complicated.
Smokey: Only you can reduce carbon emissions that contribute to drought, bug infestations and wildfire.
Narrator: Even though many still call it a “hoax,” signs of global warming are all around us.
Denier: Warming? What warming?
Narrator: Fire seasons are longer, fires more intense, and Smokey the Climate Scientist is on the job.
Smokey: Only you can help keep carbon sequestering organisms alive.
Narrator: With seven and a half million acres burned in the United States this year, and the hottest Alaskan temperatures ever recorded . . .
Smokey: Only you can help prevent permafrost from melting.
Narrator: The fires are made worse by global warming, and the fires in turn make global warming worse.
Smokey: Only you can help stop the positive feedback loop.
Narrator: Yes, Smokey the Climate Scientist has his work cut out for him.
Smokey: Only you can save lives and money by reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million.
Narrator: It’s either that, or replace Smokey with . . . Stumpy the Denier.
Stumpy: Warming? What warming?