Cartoons For Climate Change

While a lecture on some serious issue can probably influence the minds of some, humourous pictorial illustrations of those in power or mocking the policy of the policy makers can surely grab the interest of innumerable and make them sit up and take a serious note on the situation.
Martin Rowson, renowned cartoonist of The Guardian newspaper, United Kingdom who has to his credit millions of illustrations and cartoons with a satirical take at politics and serious social issues spoke on the power of cartoons and the impact that these caricatures can create on human mind in a two day workshop on ‘Cartoons for Climate’ organized by British Council in collaboration with the Regional Science Centre, Guwahati.
Terming cartoons as a ‘sugar coated bitter pill’, Rowson stressed on the seriousness of global warming and said that awareness is the most important thing in this moment of crisis.
Involved in the art of cartoon making for the past 27 years, Rowson’s work appeared regularly in The Guardian, The Daily Mirror, The Independent on Sunday, The Times, The Scotsman, The Spectator, The Morning Star and many other papers and magazines.
Chairman of the British Cartoonists' Association he has won several awards, including the prestigious Premio di Satiri di Forte dei Marma's International Satire Award he has authored a number of books and is currently working on a comic book version of Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
Around 25 interested participants inclusive of students, artists and media persons attended the workshop and works of other cartoonist featuring the issue of global warming were displayed inside the Regional Science Centre.
In order to encourage students to inculcate the art of cartoon making for climate change, an all India competition on 'Interpretation of climate change in cartoon' was organised by the British Council and Ken Sprague Fund UK in October 2009 which was also judged by Rowson.

(This story was published in teh newspaper Eastern Chronicle)