This article was originally published on PBS Newshour’s Making Sen$e blog May 30, 2014, reprinted here with permission.
One of my goals in life as an environmental economist is to harness market forces to fight climate change. And I like to find innovative ways to communicate that message: hence the stand-up economist gig, which started as a hobby and is now my full-time occupation.
Another innovative communication approach is cartooning, and I’m delighted to share with you a chapter from my new book, The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change, co-authored with and illustrated by Grady Klein. Grady and I also wrote the two-volume Cartoon Introduction to Economics, and both of those books touched on climate issues a bit. The new book provides an expanded treatment of climate science and policy using the same engaging cartoon format. (For more on our collaborative artistic process, see our Island Press Field Note that follows a page from idea to printed page.)
Cartooning has a bit of a bad reputation here in the U.S. in that people think it’s “just for kids” silliness. But in fact, cartooning is a terrific way to convey information, and my books with Grady are based on the idea that something can be fun and intellectual at the same time. That’s also true of my stand-up comedy career, and both the comedy and the books involve boiling down complicated topics and making them accessible to high school and college students and the general public.