Kaitlyn Jochum

Political Cartoons
The political cartoon shows climate
change as Godzilla and that some people
do not believe that it is happening even
though it is right in their face. They
allegedly do not believe climate change is
real, and need more proof that it exists.
The political cartoonist used Godzilla as
climate change because Godzilla himself is scary and causes mayhem on the city
just like climate change. The only difference is that Godzilla just affects cities, but
climate change affects the world. The political cartoonist is trying to show that there
are people out there who are still in denial and will do nothing to change the
situation. In the political cartoon it shows that a city is flooded and that will happen
to cities on the coast because the water levels will rise and take over some land.
The political cartoonist made Godzilla huge because climate change is a big issue
and should not be overlooked.
In this political cartoon is shows the climate change summit. The political
cartoonist is trying to illustrate that at the summit that nothing happened but the
naming of the summit. So it shows that the politicians did not think of any solutions
about climate change but the only thing that they thought of is the name of climate
change summit. The political cartoonist is trying to show that the officials at the
summit did nothing and it was a waste of time. One frog tries to show that there is
an issue but the whole issue is overlooked because of one opinion and the other
frogs debate if theyre in a pot or a kettle. The importance of the illustration is that

while they are arguing, they are ignoring the

issue, and are slowly being cooked alive.
In this
political
cartoon
the
cartoonist is showing two sides of

climate

change; the scientist and the

politicians. The Scientists are
showing the data of the climate change, while the politicians are getting informed
on opinions. The political cartoonist is showing that many times people tend to
believe more on opinions instead of the facts. The scientist and politicians have
their backs turned on each other, meaning that they have two different ideas to
solve climate change, but neither is opened enough to listen to the other, and both
of them are in two different worlds and the divide between them. The political
cartoonist is conveying the idea that the reason climate change continues to be a
big issue because no one wants to admit they are wrong, and wont even try to
listen to one anothers perspective.
Data

The data in this picture shows a

trend of warming temperature from four of the top institutes; the NASA, NOAA, Met
Office Hadley Center/Climate Research Unit, and Japanese Metrological Agency. At
the same time it a lot of peeks and drops in the temperature around every ten
years. Which means there are a lot of peaks along the line graph and those are tiny
peaks during those years which, which means the high temperature. Same thing
with the drops in between each peak, which indicates the lows. Between the 1800s
and the 1900s the temperature decreased and from the 1940s to 1980s it was
consistent. In between those years the climate was not increasing like the rest of
the line graph, so it shows that something happened in between those years that
made a difference on the climate. In the beginning of the 1800s there were a lot of
explorations toward the end the Jim Crow laws became law and the Wright Brothers
make the first plane. During the 1940s and 1980s wars were happening, World War
2 and the Vietnam war.
Personal Story
Climate Change was not been a big part of my life until freshman year of high
school because I use to live in Illinois and there is not much change in climate there.
However, in California there is a drought and people can clearly see the drastic
change in climate. During the time I was living in San Francisco I remember some

seniors in my high school talking about climate change and the drought situation in
California. They gave some solutions that were attainable. For example, reduce
shower time by listening to at most two songs since most songs last two minutes
and to also encourage public transportation. Since then, I have been doing my part
in helping the environment. I knew my input would not make a huge difference and
that it would take more people had to get involve to help change the drought
situation. With the help of that senior in freshman year helped me realize an
effective way to change my habits. My high school was also a big advocate in being
more environmentally friendly by having garage, recycle, and compost bins. They
also did not turn on the sprinklers during the night to help conserve water. In my
senior year of high school I moved again, about thirty miles east of San Francisco,
and it was there where I realized that I could do more to help the climate change
situation. My family and I began using recycled water to water out lawns. My family
was also remodeling the house so when we installed the osmosis water tank we
made sure that the filtered water was not going back to the water treatment plant
but to our back yard. To clarify an osmosis tank is where the water filters to clean
water so that people are able to drink it, the osmosis gets rid of lead or dirt in the
water. The problem is that a lot of the water that is unpurified just going to the
water treatment plant than goes back in the delta or somewhere else, which is why
my family came up with the plan to use the extra water in order to conserve it.
Over the summer between my senior year of high school and freshman year
of college my family built a chicken coop because we wanted fresh egg and also
reduce our carbon footprint of transportation from driving to get eggs or for farms to
transport the eggs. The chicken lay about one to two eggs a day and having eleven
hens we get between eleven to twenty-two eggs a day so that is enough to make

breakfast and make a cake for yourself in that same day. Chickens will eat almost
any food so you do not have thrown away any table scraps you could give it to the
chickens. This is important for climate change because my family and I are
producing less carbon dioxide in the air. During that same summer my family built
hydroponic, where plants float in water and no dirt is involved. We made a platform
for the plants filled it with clay rocks because that is the best way of absorbing
water and keeping the plants moist. On the bottom of the platform there is a hole
for the water to be drained into a bucket, and in the bucket there is a pump to push
the water back into the plants. While dirt gives the plant nutrition by itself, using
hydroponics you have to buy nutrition from the store, so it is not free like the dirt.
Most people think this is wasteful but in reality when you put a plant in soil and
water it the dirt will take most of the water not the plant, because dirt is like a
sponge and will absorb a lot of the water. While in hydroponics the plants absorb all
the water and the best part is that you can put hydroponics in a home or a
warehouse and have plants growing all year round and not have a seasonal thing.
Hydroponics will help with the drought because you can fit more plant in one area
using less water will fitting fewer plants in dirt and using twice as much water. Also
if done on a grand scale it would take up less room and it can be located anywhere.
For example, it could be in a warehouse in the city or in the suburbs, so the carbon
footprint will be reduced for transportation and not a lot of land would be used like a
farm so people can save on space. This is one solution to reduce carbon dioxide and
to save water, this works for climate change because carbon dioxide is the biggest
problem to climate change. During my high school years and beyond I have really
gotten into how we can reduce climate change with tangible goals, because some
things out there make it hard to change. For example, reducing carbon footprint it is

easy for someone living in the city but harder for someone who lives in the suburbs
and have to drive to work because there is no public transportation.
Citations:
Ditchbum, John. "How Can Politics Change to Serve Future Generations (on Climate
Change,
but Lots of Other Stuff Too)?" From Poverty to Power. Twitter, 24 July 2014.
Web. 2
Dec. 2015. <http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/how-can-politics-ever-serve-futuregenerations
-on-climate-change-but-lots-of-other-stuff-too/>.
Luckovich, Mike. "Cimate Change Summit." The Cagle Post. 16 June 2013. Web. 2
Dec. 2015.
<http://www.cagle.com/2013/06/climate-change-summit/>.
"Scientific Consensus: Earth's Climate Is Warming." Climate Change: Vital Signs of
the Planet.
NASA. Web. 2 Dec. 2015. <http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/>.
Zyglis, Adam. "Climate Skeptics." The Cagle Post. 15 May 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.cagle.com/2014/05/climate-skeptics/>.