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Blowing the Future

Longtime readers know that I despise leafblowers, and have drawn several strips about them over the years. I had been debating whether it was time to do another comic on the subject when a reader shared an essay in the NYT by Margaret Renkl entitled “The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Leaf Blowers.” I already knew about some of the quoted statistics, such as the Edmunds study that found a Ford F-150 Raptor pickup created the same amount of emissions driving from Texas to Alaska as a half hour of yard work with a crude two-stroke blower. I hadn’t heard that gas-powered lawn equipment now creates more ozone pollution in California than the state’s tens of millions of cars.

This is also very much an environmental justice issue; blowers emit carcinogenic benzene and lung-damaging particulate matter, as well as cause hearing loss in workers exposed to them all day long. Powerful electric alternatives now exist.

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Which Deaths Matter?

As the pandemic unfolds, I keep finding myself thinking about the round-the-clock coverage I saw a while ago on Fox about the death of one person caused by an undocumented immigrant. I can’t even remember the details at this point, but they’d clearly cherry-picked a story to rehash over and over, sowing fear and panic about immigrants. (They probably do this all the time; I just don’t watch Fox very often.) In doing so, they presented a wildly disproportionate sense of risk, given that immigrant crime tends to be lower than that from US-born citizens.

I’ve also been struck by the use of car deaths as a justification for not worrying about coronavirus deaths. 36,000 traffic fatalities a year is an unacceptably high number to write off as “inevitable accidents,” and the very Republicans who oppose traffic safety measures are the same ones using that high casualty rate as an excuse for allowing more death! (Interestingly, the libertarian Cato Institute, of all places, has a study disputing the claim that immigrants cause more drunk-driving deaths.)

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Atmospheric Cleansing

So Trump is starting up a Presidential Committee on Climate Security as a counterpoint to various agencies (including the Pentagon) that view climate change as a national security threat. Chairing this committee would be one William Happer, a physicist and climate skeptic who said on CNBC in 2014: “The demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler. Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the Jews.” Later, he said “Demonization of CO2 and people like me who come to its defense is nothing to be proud of. It really differs little from the Nazi persecution of the Jews, the Soviet extermination of class enemies or ISIL slaughter of infidels.” Sometimes when the fruit is hanging this low, it’s hard to resist drawing a cartoon about it.

After writing a bunch of gags around Happer’s ridiculous analogy, it felt to me that the situation is far too dark to end the cartoon on a light, jokey note. Climate journalist David Wallace-Wells has been citing a study showing that we are at risk of 150 million premature deaths, or 25 Holocausts, from air pollution by the end of the century if we do not limit global warming to an extent that seems unlikely right now. Given Happer’s comments, it felt fitting to end with this more sobering comparison.

This Week’s Cartoon: “Killer Kleen”

I found out about the scented-laundry-product study last week thanks to a brief article in The Oregonian. To quote the original press release from the professor who led the research:

Analysis of the captured gases found more than 25 volatile organic compounds, including seven hazardous air pollutants, coming out of the vents. Of those, two chemicals – acetaldehyde and benzene – are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as carcinogens, for which the agency has established no safe exposure level…Emissions from the top five brands, they estimate, would constitute about 6 percent of automobiles’ acetaldehyde emissions.

Puts “mountain fresh” scent into a whole new perspective, doesn’t it?

Longtime readers know I violently hate leaf blowers. I still can’t believe most people regard these infernal shrieking monsters as a “normal” part of life. There’s always one blasting away in my neighborhood, destroying the peace and quiet. I’ve noticed that the amount of work being done with them is often minimal or downright imperceptible compared to the public disturbance they cause. I swear, my neighbor just enjoys waving his blower around like a metal detector as he strolls through his perfect grass. And yet we can’t necessarily see the crud they spew into the air, or the sound waves radiating out for blocks, so it’s all good, man.

I lived in rural Virginia for several years, where some people still burned their trash. In case you were thinking of escaping to the country to avoid dryer vents and leaf blowers…

For more on the ultra-plush toilet paper issue, Greenpeace has been on the case. I’m not a TP radical, but I’ve always been of the opinion that super-soft rolls run out too quickly.

PS: A Daily Kos commenter linked to an article about these awesome Japanese toilets. I want one.

Hillary eruption

Even if we learned that Hillary could totally shred on guitar, it seems the media would find a way to turn it into a scandal. A few months ago, Vox reported on a study showing that Clinton had received the most negative coverage and the least positive coverage of any candidate. Recently, the normally-staid Washington Post ran an incredulous editorial about the conspiracy-theory-level reporting on the emails. While I certainly don’t believe Clinton should be immune from criticism or examination of her record, the fact that she and Trump have been rendered more or less equivalent is an utter indictment of the way these elections are covered.

The Trump-supporting union member

Well, Ted Cruz has won Iowa, an outcome I find no less gooseflesh-inducing than a Trump victory.  A few days ago, a disturbing report surfaced about Trump making inroads among union members. According to a study conducted by Working America, white working-class voters who support Trump cited his tendency to “speak his mind” as the quality they most admired. This attribute was more of a driving factor among his supporters than agreement with his policy positions.

Possibly the biggest blow to labor under a Trump or Cruz presidency would come in the form of extremist Supreme Court nominees. Trump has mentioned Clarence Thomas as his favorite justice. With unions already under assault at the state level, a Supreme Court tilted even more toward radical market fundamentalism and against worker rights would be absolutely devastating.

Natural Gasbags

One thing that got under my skin last week was a little remarked-upon NYT column by Joe Nocera making the Very Serious Person’s case for a Sensible and Balanced™ approach to fracking. Environmentalists are dismissed as prone to “hyperbole” and “teeth gnashing,” and fracking is referred to as “a blessing.”

Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health just reported on a study showing how hospitalization rates jump near fracking sites. In particular, heart disease, neurological problems, cancer, urologic problems, and skin conditions were much higher near fracked areas. This isn’t exactly the first time such health concerns have been reported on, but Nocera’s article euphemistically sweeps them under the rug, referring abstractly to the “disruption” and “local controversy” that fracking causes in communities.

Look, we’re way past the point where you can write an essay like this without explicitly acknowledging how gas companies have been bullying communities and destroying people’s health, homes, and finances in a manner that would make the Chinese ruling party proud. We’re not just talking about a few pinpoint locations. We’re talking about huge swaths of the country being made unlivable. But it’s so much easier to call the citizens of Denton, TX and Longmont, CO — who’ve been fighting a David and Goliath battle to keep fracking out of their towns — teeth-gnashing hippies.

Nocera cites Council on Foreign Relations fellow Michael Levi, who claims the dispassionate analysis mantle in coming down in favor of fracking. To his credit, Levi does describe the need for specific regulations — but offers no credible means of accomplishing these legislative goals. You show me companies abiding by the best of all possible rules, show me that communities are no longer having their health destroyed, and then let’s talk about fracking as a viable alternative. Coal is indeed bad, but this is not an excuse to ignore the completely unacceptable health consequences of fracking. I guess these communities are just supposed to wait for that brilliant federal regulation to come along any day now, right?

For a better perspective, I recommend Naomi Klein’s remarks given recently at the Vatican.

Pretty in Pain

As a wide-footed, cranky-toed woman, I have always been incapable of wearing high heels, and I’ve had doctors instruct me not to wear them. Of course, this sometimes makes me the least-fancy woman in the room.

More info on the study here.

This Week’s Cartoon: One Weird Trick

The “one weird trick discovered by a mom” meme has persisted for a while now in the illustrious world of web ads. And it’s not just moms — all sorts of ordinary folks are coming up with strange tips and tricks for our collective benefit. Just a few weeks ago, I spotted a rather paranoid ad that read: “47yo patriot discovers ‘weird’ trick to slash power bill & end Obama’s power monopoly.” (I’ve heard Obama accused of many things, but being an electricity cartel kingpin is a new one.)

I wonder how this trend came to be. Was there some marketing study on the clickability of different phrases, and “weird trick” came out on top? Especially if the weird trick came from moms, dads, patriots, and other salt-of-the-earth folks? The implicit rejection of professional expertise here frankly says a lot about our culture. Don’t need no fancypants scientist telling us how to lose our flab!

In 2011, the Washington Post reported on a Federal Trade Commission investigation of the “tiny belly” ads; they’re the front end of a highly profitable scheme involving a large number of dubious dietary supplement companies. The fact that anyone is seduced into giving their credit card numbers to these people boggles the mind.

Side project: Illustrations for Book of Jezebel

One thing I’ve been working on in addition to my political cartoons is a bunch of illustrations for the Book of Jezebel, which was officially released this week. The book is laid out like a dictionary, filled with humorous entries on a variety of subjects (this illo is for “Perm”). It feels a lot like America: The Book; it’s from the same publisher (Grand Central). A number of women illustrators and writers contributed, and I’m honored to be among them.

More info at http://bookofjezebel.com/

Speaking

Jen Sorensen has given presentations and speeches at numerous places and events around the country, including the National Archives, the Library of Congress, Netroots Nation, the Center for Cartoon Studies, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Center For American Progress, the first annual ACLU convention, the Ohio State University Library Festival of Cartoon Art, the Virginia Festival of the Book, and a special cartoonist edition of Todd Zuniga’s internationally-renowned Literary Death Match. Talks typically involve a highly-entertaining and informative cartoon slideshow, discussion of politics and the life of a professional cartoonist, the business of freelancing, and more.

To bring Jen to your college or event, please be prepared to cover travel costs plus a speaking fee. For further information, email jensoren {at} gmail dot com.

This Week’s Cartoon: Ron Paul’s Muffin-care

The more I think about Ron Paul’s solution to the plight of the uninsured, the more baffled I become. So, churches are going to come to the rescue? That would seem to leave an awful lot of non-churchgoers to die, but maybe that’s the point. And what about, as the Beatles put it, all the lonely people? These same politicians calling for communities to pitch in together are the ones pushing the myth of the radically-atomized individual. They are the party of American alienation: inhuman-scale corporate bureaucracies, big-box stores, unchecked sprawl, barricaded McMansions, and oversized vehicles with outside-world-avoiding names like “Enclave.” (I generalize, but only slightly.) These are the people who crush attempts at fostering community through urban planning and the creation of public space. For these ideologues to lecture anyone about neighborliness takes a lot of chutzpah.

Not even Ron Paul’s muffin-based health care plan could help his former campaign manager who died with $400,000 in medical bills. He was reportedly ineligible for health insurance due to a pre-existing condition. (For an eloquent statement on this, and general Republican cruelty regarding health care, I recommend this Daily Kos diary).

A note about the Kickstarter joke in the fourth panel: I had a nagging feeling that I’d seen a tweet about Kickstarter-funded health care somewhere, but a rather lengthy search turned up nothing. In any case, I apologize if I’m not the first person to think of that.

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