1. 2023

Hot potato! Hot potato!

2023 was a scorcher. The northern hemisphere summer brought extreme heat and wildfires, and July was officially declared the world’s hottest ever month on record. In the southern hemisphere, we were told to prepare for an El Niño weather pattern, likely to be made more extreme by climate change.

Australia’s cartoonists got hot under the collar about climate change remaining a political hot potato, despite the urgent call to action issued in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report, released in March. But there was movement on one environmental front, with decisions made to ban native forest logging on Crown land in Victoria and Western Australia from 2024.

A man, Chris Bowen, offers a cut-out image of a winter landscape, which is stuck to the wall of a room where a man is suffering in the heat.

Untitled

Warren Brown, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney),

Two animals look at a sign in the forest that reads 'Native forest logging to end in Vic', and one says 'Now we only have climate change to worry about!'

Native Forest

Matt Bissett-Johnson, Melbourne Observer,

A figure in bed holding a pillow over its globe for a head hits the snooze button on a bedside alarm, and says 'five more minutes'.

Snooze Button

Harry Bruce, Rockhampton Morning Bulletin,

A woman sits at her desk, eating her lunch whilst watching headlines about natural disasters, then says 'Oh well, back to it', reaching to a pile of paper marked 'mining approvals'.

Lunch Break

Pat Hudson, self-published,

From overhead, a group of whales spell out the letters SOS in the water.

Pilot Whales' WA Mass Stranding

Badiucao, The Sydney Morning Herald,

Four contestants sit in a competition to pick an answer to the question 'What's the best way to limit your personal plastic consumption?' and one responds 'I think I'd like to call for some legislation?'

Who Wants to Do The Right Thing with Plastic?

Megan Herbert, The Sydney Morning Herald,

A girl in black with a raincloud over her head leaves a room with two people ankle-deep in water, and one says 'If you think La Nina was bad, just wait 'til you meet her brother', and at the window, a boy in flames looks through.

Kids These Days

Fiona Katauskas, The Echidna,

At the Bureat of Meteorology, two men look up at a sign that reads 'Number of days since the hottest day on Earth' and one says, 'On the bright side, I don't have to get up that ladder so often these days...'

Every Day a Winner

Jon Kudelka, The Saturday Paper,

Three penguins argue about whether climate change is more important than getting Taylor Swift tickets.

Sea Level Taylor Swift

First Dog on the Moon, The Guardian Australia,

A timeline from 1992 to now, showing two people discussing how to 'get off coal" as it gets hotter and the water levels rise over time.

Getting off Coal Slowly

Costa A, self-published,

A description of fire ants, their bites and how to treat then.

Fire Ants! Everything You Need to Know

Andrew Weldon, The Big Issue,