Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist Nick Anderson won the Art in Service to the Environment Award for 2014 at the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter Environmental Awards this past Saturday. Wait a minute. A cartoonist won an environmental award? You bet!
(Bit of background: the Art in Service to the Environment Award is given to an individual or group for an outstanding work of art in any medium or discipline in service to the environment and is awarded only when merited.)
Nick was nominated for his innovative three-part series of full-page editorial cartoon drawings entitled “The San Jacinto River In Peril” in the Summer of 2014. Equal parts editorial cartoon, investigative journalism, and graphic narrative (as he describes it), the series explores the story of his friend Jackie Young, who had suffered many mysterious illnesses at a very young age, and connects it to the decades of illegal dumping of toxic pollution from companies who then attempted to cover it up.
Sections of the San Jacinto River, as well as the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay, have been contaminated for decades and no one knew what groups were responsible. Recently, some of the toxic pollution was traced to wastewater from a paper mill that had been dumped into the waters since 1965.
In October 2014, the Harris County Attorney’s office filed a lawsuit against three companies deemed responsible, to the dismay of the Texas Association of Business. Spurred to act because state regulators would not, the county filed the suit, demanding what could amount to billions of dollars in civil penalties for violating state water laws.
The Chapter recognizes Nick for his wonderful portrayal of the human cost and the corporate cover-up of the San Jacinto waste pits story.
Bravo!
We thank Nick for his wonderful portrayal of this important environmental issue!
(Part 1)
(Part 2)
(Part 3 available online only in sections. See below)
More about Nick Anderson
Nick is a syndicated cartoonist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his work with the Louisville Courier-Journal. His "unusual “painterly” graphic style is nationally recognized for producing extraordinarily thoughtful and powerful messages.
Nick is syndicated in more than 100 newspapers by The Washington Post Writers Group. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post and USA Today. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor.
His series can be found online in three parts: here, here, and here.
{Thumbnail photo: James Nielson (Chronicle))