Don’t you understand, or should I draw?

Abstract

I will show and tell about my thoughts and experiences as an environmental cartoonist and illustrator.

I have done political cartoons, informative educational illustrations and also popularization of scientific research.

I often work together with experts and scientists, changing and testing ideas and checking the facts.

With the help of some hopefully illustrative illustrations I will ponder for example these questions:

How to make abstract or complicated ideas visible? Environmental issues are often complicated. One has to seek the balance between communicating the point and keeping it simple.

How to wake up public interest, but avoid trolling or click baiting.

Is it a threat for your credibility as a researcher, if you use humor or funny pictures?

Ways to to make a graph easier to understand for non-scientists, stakeholders and decision makers.

Where to draw the line between an informative scientific illustration and a political cartoon? Conservation biology studies the real world facts. But conservation biology often has to have an influence on political processes to achieve its desired outcomes.