Fighting climate change with comics and superheroes

Raising awareness of climate change through comics — that's the goal of Zambian cartoonist Mwelwa Musonko, founder of Foresight Comics. His work includes cartoons on Germany's energy transition, drawn in 2018 while on the International Journalists' Programme (IJP). This cartoon looks at the focus on immigration in Germany and Europe — ignoring the "elephant in the room" that is climate change.

In another cartoon, Mwelwa's pen takes aim at how the world's meat and dairy sector is heating up the planet. Drawn while on a placement at Clean Energy Wire in Germany as part of the IJP, it followed a report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and GRAIN in 2018 that said the world's livestock industry could eat up 80 percent of the globe's allowable carbon budget by 2050.

Mwelwa, aka "Tax," also gave his take on Germans' attitudes to the energy transition. This came on the back of surveys suggesting that while Germans support a switch to renewables in principal, they're less keen on the costs that come with it. The artist told DW that cartoons are a great way to communicate the dangers of climate change, saying: "Art is a perfect way of getting a message through."

This cartoon was inspired by data showing Germans are reluctant to say goodbye to their petrol and diesel cars in exchange for an electric vehicle, despite the government offering a €4,000 ($4,676) subsidy per car. Two years after Germany launched the subsidy scheme, only one-sixth of the earmarked funds have been used, said a report from the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control.

Germany's lignite mines also got Mwelwa's satirical treatment in this cartoon. Lignite, or brown coal, is extracted using opencast mining in Germany and it made up around 23 percent of the country's power production in 2017, according to AG Energiebilanzen (Energy Balances Group). Lignite-burning power stations are high on the list of Europe's largest CO2 producers.

In 2018, Mwelwa came up with a unique way to raise climate change awareness by launching a comic book series. The Fifth Element follows the adventures of superhero Quin Ence, a 10th grader in Lusaka, Zambia, as she battles to save the planet from global warming. He told DW he created the series over concerns that "the majority of Zambians think that climate change is a foreign problem."

Mwelwa hopes the comics will raise awareness of climate change among children and teens — using eye-catching cartoons to overcome what he calls an aversion to reading in Zambia. "The reading culture where I am from in Zambia is really, really bad," he told DW. "So, if you would give somebody a book with pictures in it, I think it sparks their interest. Trying to create value with this art."

Mwelwa decided to make his superhero a girl because it "brings a different thing to the table," telling DW that comic book writers are increasingly talking about creating more female characters. He added: "If you follow my comic book, you start to see that this character is not perfect. Her life is miserable, and she rises above all of that to save the world and fight climate change."