This cartoon is heavily influenced by the books Natural Capitalism - Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins (1999) and Mid-Course Correction - Ray Anderson (1998). It is also in the same vein as the flash animation "The Story of Stuff" by Annie Leonard, which I watched when I was about 90% of the way through the drawing process.

Back to post / website. View/add comments for this article.Part of Nature by Stuart McMillen. September 2009. We think it's fine to throw waste "away", but there is no such place on this planet. We created an economy that does not value the free services of nature... ...and so we destroy it. We sell natural resources at their extraction cost, rather than their replacement value. We have seen leading businesses spectacularly reinvent their practices, but are told to give concessions to the laggards that resist change. We maintain perverse government subsidies that contradict and counteract environmental policy. We have exploited natural systems to the point of collapse... ...and still we are exponentially growing our toll on the planet. We are no longer living off nature's interest, we are liquidating its capital. We must rewrite the values of our economy and incorporate the full cost of decisions. We must live within our "current solar income", rather than burning through our finite fossil fuel stores. We must eliminate industrial toxins by design so that containment and disposal are no longer necessary. We must "close the loop" and make all products resusable, recycleable, or compostable. We must use nature for inspiration and redesign our technologies to do things cleaner and better. We must stop viewing the environment as being separate to our economy. We must realise that the environment is at the core of our society and economy. It is time we understand that we are a part of nature. Only then can the change begin.