With his singular style, Tom Toles tackles the complex issues of the day. This Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist skillfully targets political, economic and social concerns — in particular complicated environmental issues — with a clear-eyed precision that hits the mark every time.
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Mike Thompson by Mike Thompson
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Comments (85) (Please sign in to comment)
greenbrd said, 5 months ago
I don’t get it.
mickey1339
said, 5 months ago
@greenbrd
I think it implies it’s a roll of the dice if there’s any chance of a realistic response. I’m often way off on some of these “symbolic references” in cartoons.
Mighty Mouse said, 5 months ago
On this planet, if you have deep skepticism about man-made climate change, then you are most likely an American without a significant schooling in science.
Michael wme said, 5 months ago
To figure out what a cartoon means, type the text into Google News.
Last year, there were thousands of record low temperatures. Some use this as irrefutable proof that there is no global warming. But there were tens of thousands of record high temperatures. So the odds were better for a record high than for a record low. And the odds are much shorter that one will see a catastrophic weather event than they were. E.g., many places are seeing more fires, but, as Mr Toles points out, no one seems to be getting the hoses ready.
Mighty Mouse said, 5 months ago
From your NOAA:
“November 2012 also marks the 36th consecutive November and 333rd consecutive month with global temperature higher than the long-term average. The last month with a below average temperature was February 1985, nearly 28 years ago.”
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2012/11
Mighty Mouse said, 5 months ago
And I also don’t get the cartoon.
;)
Rockngolfer said, 5 months ago
@Mighty Mouse
One problem is that NOAA, NASA and other sources give different results.
Do what NC did and make it illegal to quote studies that say that sea level will rise 3 feet this century.
edinbaltimore said, 5 months ago
I think we should make it illegal to make laws that make it illegal to cite something you don’t like. I think NC runs afoul of the First Amendment.
ultramaroon said, 5 months ago
Dalmatians are white dogs with black spots, often seen with fire trucks in olden tymes – see wikipedia for more info.
In representing them as dice, Toles seems to be commenting that the global response to GW is gambling with our future. Sure it’s a forced analogy and not exactly ROFL-funny, but you know what they say about desperate times…
Kylie2112 said, 5 months ago
@Rockngolfer
The four primary climate observatory services have results withing ¼ºC. And their trends are all consistent over the past 120 years.
-
For all those who doubt man’s influence: the 1930s were slightly colder than expected due to a world-wide depression and reduced industry followed by the 1940s being higher due to WWII…and it’s been climbing since.
Doughfoot said, 5 months ago
If you were told that there was a 10% chance that your house would catch fire in the next month if you didn’t fix the wiring, which would be an expensive job, what would you do? How about if you were told it was 50? Or 90%? If you decided to chance it and three months went by without a problem, would you consider the problem solved? And say the fire inspector was full of it? We are rolling dice with our future, the odds are against us, and the stakes are very high. That doesn’t mean we are SURE to lose, but it is just plain stupid to bet everything against the odds, when the payoff is small. Remember, in the end, the house always wins. And the house, in this case, is old Mother Nature.
avarner said, 5 months ago
Meanwhile, Al Chakra Gore buys a multi-million dollar beach home….
Anyone see anything wrong with that??
Respectful Troll said, 5 months ago
I think the cartoon and some of our better commentators have said it all.
I’ll just ad, in response to the quip in the bottom right corner of the toon….I think we’re all getting hosed. :(
Sadly,
C.
onguard said, 5 months ago
AGW is all about controlling People. The Climate can’t be controled .
ossiningaling said, 5 months ago
All that is very nice, but on MY dice the five and two are opposite each other.