Analysis Political Cartoons: Environmental Awareness
US History/Napp
Name: _________________
Do Now: [American Vision]
The 1980s brought a new societal awareness of environmental issues and concerns.
Scientists and environmental advocates published dramatic findings showing that the
habits of Americans – from individuals in their homes to industrial corporations – were
harming our environment and threatening our planet. Today our habits are slowly
changing, but there are still many environmental issues upon which to focus, such as everexpanding landfills and emissions harmful to the atmosphere.
Directions: Study the cartoon below, and then answer the questions that follow.
1- Is this cartoon primarily addressing our ignorance toward the environment or the way
in which Native Americans have been treated?
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2- How does the cartoonist seem to feel about the current American interest in protecting
the environment?
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3- What is the irony [the use of words to express something other than and especially the
opposite of the literal meaning] in the cartoon?
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4- Why do you think the cartoonist chose not to illustrate the cartoon more fully?
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Critical Thinking:
5- Identifying Assumptions: Why do you think Americans seem to have taken the
environment for granted, allowing these problems to develop?
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6- Recognizing Stereotypes: Look at the Native American figure. How is he stereotyped?
Do you think this stereotype helps or hinders the message of the cartoon? Explain your
response.
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Document Analysis:
Questions:
1- What increases the
amount of Carbon
Dioxide in the
atmosphere?
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2- What is the primary
difference between
industrial nations and
developing nations?
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3- What is the conclusion of
the “genie” representing
the developing countries?
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Excerpt from Silent Spring (1962) By Rachel Carson
“The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and
their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth's
vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. Considering the whole
span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings,
has been relatively slight. Only within the moment of time represented by the present
century has one species – man – acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.
During the past quarter century this power has not only increased to one of disturbing
magnitude but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon
the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even
lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it
initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part
irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the
sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world
– the very nature of its life. Strontium 90, released through nuclear explosions into the air,
comes to the earth in rain or drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters into the grass or
corn or wheat grown there, and in time takes up its abode in the bones of a human being,
there to remain until his death. Similarly, chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or
gardens lie long in the soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a
chain of poisoning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams until
they emerge and, through the alchemy of air and sunlight, combine into new forms that kill
vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure
wells. As Albert Schweitzer has said, ‘Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own
creation.’”
1- How does Ms. Carson view the history of life on earth?
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2- According to Ms. Carson, what has been relatively slight?
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3- According to Ms. Carson, what species is responsible for profoundly altering the
nature of the world?
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4- According to Ms. Carson, what is the most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the
environment?
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5- According to Ms. Carson, what are chemicals responsible for?
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6- According to Ms. Carson, how is Strontium 90 released and what impact does it
have on humans and the environment?
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7- According to Ms. Carson, what is the impact of chemicals sprayed on croplands or
forests or gardens?
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8- Why does Ms. Carson quote Albert Schweitzer?
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1- What is Earth Day?
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2- What is the irony of the image?
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3- What environmental problem has caused the polar bears to swim?
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4- Explain how this environmental problem leads to water instead of ice?
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5- Why could this environmental problem have catastrophic effects?
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6- What “revolution” increased the possibility of this occurring?
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7- Why did this “revolution” increase the possibility of this occurring?
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Excerpt from the Article: July 22, 2013; New York Times; Alaska Looks for Answers in
Glacier’s Summer Flood Surges; By KIRK JOHNSON
JUNEAU, Alaska – The idea that glaciers change at a glacial speed is increasingly
false. They are melting and retreating rapidly all over the world. But the unpredictable
flood surges at the Mendenhall Glacier, about 14 miles from downtown Juneau,
Alaska’s capital, are turning a jog into a sprint as global temperatures and climate
variability increase.
Starting in July 2011, and each year since, sudden torrents of water shooting out from
beneath the glacier have become a new facet of Juneau’s brief, shimmering high
summer season. In that first, and so far biggest, measured flood burst, an estimated 10
billion gallons gushed out in three days, threatening homes and property along the
Mendenhall River that winds through part of the city. There have been at least two
smaller bursts this year.
“That first one caught us by surprise,” said Tom Mattice, the emergency programs
manager and avalanche forecaster for the City and Borough of Juneau.
That the Mendenhall Glacier is thinning, and has been for decades, is only part of the
explanation. Water from snowmelt, rain and thawing ice are also combining in new
ways, researchers said – first pooling in an ice-covered depression near the glacier
called Suicide Basin, then finding a way to flow downhill.
What prompts a surge, and the urgent search for a way to anticipate and prepare by
scientists and safety officials like Mr. Mattice, is pressure. As water builds up in the
basin and seeks an outlet, it can actually lift portions of the glacier ever so slightly, and
in that lift, the water finds a release. Under the vast pressure of the ice bearing down
upon it, the water explodes out into the depths of Mendenhall Lake and from there into
the river.
Glaciologists even have a name for the process, which is happening in many places all
over the world as climates change: jokulhlaup, an Icelandic word usually translated as
“glacier leap.”
…What elevates the concern is the proximity of people, and lots of them. Glaciers may
be leaping in many places, but it mostly happens in isolation.
1- What is happening to glaciers all over the world?
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2- What is the danger of the flood bursts from glaciers?
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3- What is jokulhlaup?
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4- What is the danger of jokulhlaup?
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Explain the meaning of the political cartoons:
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Explain the meaning of the political cartoon.
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