I spent 13 years of my life working as a scientist, in wildlife conservation, for the government. I resigned 4 years ago, and now work for myself. But I have discovered that once a public servant, always a public servant.

By this I don’t mean that I crave the mindless bureaucracy, cut-throat ladder-climbing of some employees, the weird inner-city office life or the constant pressure to ‘make the Minister look good’. No, what I find runs deep in me is the desire to work hard for the public interest. Remember that ethic? The urge to do something that would make society and the planet a better place?

Well clearly many folks do remember that (whether they work for governments or not) and are striving for it too (thank you all. And a special mention for the firefighters who are risking their lives again today).

In recent years, it seems that governments have slashed the funding for education programs and resources for the public good (except, it seems, at election time). The Queensland government even decided to remove images from their websites, so that blind people would not be disadvantaged (I kid you not).

So I was thinking about what I’d like to do for wildlife conservation if I was still working for the government. And because I think that changing human behavior is absolutely essential for wildlife conservation… and because I’ve noticed this year that people seem to like cartoons… this is what I came up with.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.