Supporter of the week: Steve Bell

Hannah Booth

13 October 2011

To celebrate Friends of the Earth's 40th anniversary, I've been talking to some of the supporters who've made it all possible. Steve Bell (right) uses his cartoons to draw attention to more serious matters. 

 "There's scope for taking the piss out of everything.

I did a strip with a farting cow and a polar bear arguing about who has the bigger right to exist.

"And I've done a cartoon on nuclear power, and a strip called Fat Blokes Stand Up For Global Warming. But it's harder to do cartoons on contentious issues, as it can grate.

"One of my three-inch drawings of John Major once ended up as a huge chalk figure carved into the Downs by the artist Simon English. It was a Friends of the Earth campaign in 1994 against the proposed widening of the A27. It was a wonderful ego trip."

Next week: Suzannah Evans. To see all the supporters I've interviewed, visit our 40th anniversary gallery.

Hannah Booth also writes Lives Less Ordinary.

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