My Earth Day editorial cartoon

My third editorial cartoon was published in today’s Enterprise-Record and Mercury-Register. I call them “cartoons,” but they’re really more like photo-montages and computer illustrations to illustrate my thoughts.

In this case, I used Photoshop to modify an image from NASA’s Visible Earth site. That image was then imported into Freehand, where I added the ribbon of text.

These cartoons are unusual for me because I don’t divulge my opinion in such a permanent way very often. I don’t feel my opinions have any part of the reporting I do. I strive to make sure I cover people and issues as fairly and accurately as possible given deadlines and other constraints.

As further separation, I don’t report or cover the subjects of my cartoons (disc golf and the Earth, I suppose).

I’m curious about what you think when you saw this cartoon. I think it can be viewed in several different ways given our perspectives on the environment and the economy.

I think this is a modern version of an exercise I took part in growing up. I recall teachers in English classes asking me and others about what the author was “thinking” when he or she wrote the story we just read. The exercises were interesting and probably helped with critical thinking. On the other hand, I always thought part of it was silly — how do we _really_ know what the author thought especially when we’re looking back over decades of time and space?

Anyway, I’ve got a gallery of my other cartoons. The Enterprise-Record also keeps a small gallery of recent cartoons it has run on its ChicoER.com opinion section.

I’m curious about what you think about the cartoon. If you wish, please leave me a comment.