The absurdity of the world is hard to take sometimes.
That's partly why former Newcastle Herald journalist Paul Maguire wrote a new book called Going Bananas: Vegan Ninja 2.
Peter Lewis, a long-time Herald cartoonist who now does the newspaper's Saturday cartoons, drew the main cover cartoon and two inside artworks.
Paul, who lives in the Hunter Valley, has long been concerned about the environment, animal cruelty and personal health.
"These concerns led me to becoming vegan 20 years ago," he said.
"Being vegan is about compassionate action in every aspect of life, not just where our next meal comes from."
Peter quipped that he was a "carnivorous cartoonist" who helped out a mate with his "vegan manifesto".
"If you want to write a book about going bananas, you couldn't look further than a cartoonist," he said.
Paul said the book title does reflect that the world often drives him bananas.
"At times, the choices we make as individuals and as a species just slap me in the face," he said.
"Basic things, like the way we pollute the air, water and land that all life depends on, as if there were no tomorrow.
"It makes no sense to put personal greed for money, power and status ahead of the essentials of life - yet we do."
He finds it especially sad because "we know what we're doing and blithely repeat the stupidity".
Political corruption, climate change, species extinction, domestic violence, homelessness, population explosion, plastic pollution, fossil fuel impacts and the latest gizmos all get some attention in the book.
"Mankind produces enough food for everyone, while hundreds of millions are in extreme poverty, deprived of fundamental human needs, food, clean drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, shelter and decent education," he said.
About 19,000 children in impoverished countries under the age of five die every day of mainly preventable diseases.
"And at the other end of the scale, the world's fat people outnumber the starving millions and the imbalance gets worse every day. It's enough to drive anyone nuts who thinks about what's happening," he said.
"The issues I've mentioned may imply the book is heavy stuff, but it's not.
"It's penetrating and relevant to these uncertain times, but also readable and occasionally funny."
He doesn't want everyone to "simply do as I do", but he does believe the answer lies in "the gap between humanity and nature".
"I'd just like to see more people question what's happening around them and understand that their actions, large and small, do make a difference," he said.
"That's also why I'm giving all profits from Going Bananas to wildlife and habitat preservation, education and solar power for disadvantaged communities."
The second half of the book has 73 recipes with "delicious plant-based food" as a "mainstay of daily sustainable action".
Visit facebook.com/veganninjabook for more details.
Non-Viral Jokes
Can we tell you a vegan joke? It's not cheesy.
An argument between two vegans is never referred to as a "beef". It's considered to be two people with bad "tempehs".
What do you call a vegan surfer who can only surf half a wave? Radish.
