As I was choosing a cover from The New Yorker magazine to analyze, I kept searching for a cover I had no immediate judgement about in order to produce a better piece overall. When I arrived at “Forward Thinking” by Ian Falconer, I had no immediate judgement. I was drawn in by the simplicity of the cartoon, and what could be the motivation behind Ian Falconer to create this. As I began to dig deeper into the cartoon, I first decided to look into the publication date to see what major events were front and center at the time.
This piece was produced on August 1, 2011. In 2011, some very major events occurred, more than I was aware of in fact. One of the most memorable moments for most would be the death of Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist responsible for the attack of 9/11/01. In 2011, the global population reached 7 billion. Also, consumer-level robotics began to boom. Economically speaking, there was a debt crisis occurring in the United States at the time of this publication. The Dow Jones plummeted 512 points on August 4th, becoming the worst day for stocks since 2008, when the stock market took a crash. The economy was not performing well at this time whatsoever. How could any of these events listed above explain why an old, run-down, wide-eyed man sitting on a pile of white, coarse, unpleasing sand? Not to mention, his back is up against a giant and dull wind-turbine in the middle of a large, green, fresh body of water? Is the man stranded? If so, how did he get to this point? Could he be looking at something in the distance, which would explain his wide-open, round eyes and mouth?
Still, I had many questions about this cartoon. I decided to look deeper into the time in which it was produced. I came across an article by Discover Magazine, where they stated that 2011 was the 9th hottest year on record. Temperature increased almost universally during 2011. The Earth was getting hotter. I took another look at the cartoon, realizing I had missed possibly the most important message. As I mentioned in my initial analysis, I thought an old, run-down, wide-eyed man was sitting on a pile of white, coarse, unpleasing sand. That “sand” is really a melting polar ice cap. The reason this man is on it is because all the ice around him has been melted away, due to the rising temperatures globally, creating a valid argument for this issue of global warming.
As I began researching more, I concluded that this old, run-down, wide-eyed man with white, messy hair and torn up pants must be in the Arctic Sea. According to “Climate.gov” in 2011 there was an Arctic Sea ice minimum. The 2011 summer minimum sea ice extent was 4.33 million square kilometers: the second smallest following 2007. The five smallest Arctic ice extents had occurred in the past five years of this time (2007-2011). The September Arctic sea ice volume, which incorporates extent and thickness, was the smallest on record. With the rising global temperatures, it only makes sense that places like the Arctic Sea would experience a decrease in the ice extent throughout.
Why the wind turbine? According to aweablog, wind power remains one of the most effective and affordable ways to reduce carbon pollution. Since the Industrial Revolution, nearly 180 years ago, humans have emitted more than 2,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (a gigaton is one billion metric tons). This thickening blanket of heat-trapping greenhouse gases causes the global warming we experience today. If nothing changes, climate impacts such as forest fires, stifling heat waves and damaging sea level rise will only continue to intensify. Wind turbines do not release emissions that can pollute the air and water. Wind turbines may also reduce the amount of electricity generation from fossil fuels, which results in lower total air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. All in all, Ian Falconer chose to add the wind turbine in this cartoon as a means of combating global warming.
Coming full circle, this cartoon aims to address the topic of global warming, and how it is affecting our world every day. With the global temperatures increasing, polar ice caps will continue to melt. Eventually, this could lead to the rise in sea level of nearly 230 feet, meaning the ocean would cover all the coastal cities we know of today. Although we might not notice this small change in temperature, overtime, this can lead to greater warming, making the polar regions most vulnerable to climate change on Earth. Ian Falconer included the wind turbine in order to advocate for the use of clean energy sources, which can significantly decrease the amount of carbon emissions us humans welcome to the environment each day. This cartoon seems to be about melting polar ice caps and global warming, but can also be about clean and productive energy sources that can be used to reduce emissions that pollute the air, ultimately opposing the problem of global warming.
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