The Representation of Biofuels in Political Cartoons: Ironies, Contradictions and Moral Dilemmas

Abstract

Biofuels are an important component in the suite of renewable energy alternatives but their development trajectory has been fraught with controversy. This study investigated the representation of biofuels in political cartoons on the Internet. Political cartoons have relied on informative, persuasive, and performative attributes to engender critical reflection and mobilize action. We analyzed a corpus of 130 relevant cartoons obtained through Google Images which were then thematically categorized. The problems highlighted in these cartoons focused on the social injustices arising from the diversion of food sources to fuel, the environmental destruction arising from deforestation, the unfulfilled expectations for climate change mitigation, and the policy contradictions that emerged. We suggest that political cartoons’ discursive dimensions allow us to make immediate connections between the image and our cultural stores of meaning, while at the same time further elucidate the dilemmas and contradictions embedded in the public's interface with biofuels as an environmental issue.

Keywords:

• biofuels
• political cartoons
• discourse analysis
• Internet cartoons

Notes

1. We first derived thematic categories from an initial set of 20 cartoons, refined the themes into subthemes with the succeeding cartoons, then used the simplest formula of percent agreement between two coders for the entire cartoon set.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grants to the first author from the PhytoMetaSyn project funded by Genome Canada and the project “Towards effective public engagement: Stakeholders and controversy surrounding greenhouse gas mitigation energy systems” funded by Carbon Management Canada