“Only we humans make waste that nature cannot digest” Captain Charles Moore

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Lessons learnt from Captain Planet






During my childhood, one of my favourite cartoon shows was Captain Planet.  I still remember rushing home from primary school to watch this with my little brother each afternoon. 

The essence of the show was as follows; each week a villain would commit some sort of environmental atrocity, and the Planeteers - a group of 5 teenagers, who were given magic, elemental rings from Gia, the spirit of the Earth, would do their best to rid the word of crime, pollution, and hate. Each villain in the series represented a different aspect of mankind's dark side, or an ecological issue. After a little bit of action, the Planeteers would realise that they couldn't win against the villain alone, and so by working together, they would call on a superhero called Captain Planet, who would inevitably save the day. At the end of each show was some type of educational message such as recycling, saving water, or switching off lights.

Compared to other cartoons of the day the point was not to sell toys but rather convey the message about looking after the environment. In fact I think my first introduction to environmental awareness was through watching captain planet as a child.

Well here are the some life lessons I have learnt from Captain Planet

1)      Looting and polluting is not the way.
 I consider that most of the people in my generation will never be able to loot or pollute without knowing it is wrong.

2)      Billionaire tycoons are universally evil.
The lesson here was clear: rich people are environmentally ignorant jerks. Take for example Coca-Cola and MonSanto.

3)      You can’t do everything on your own.
The message here is that there is power in community and collaboration. There are times in your life when you have to put your “rings” together to summon Captain Planet. The Planeteers understood that they each contributed some valuable (cool) power but that ultimately – together, they could truly be champions.

4)      The power is yours!
Sometimes it takes an individual to lead and inspire others to make a change. Captain Planet always inspired the Planeteers to keep trying, and to apply their knowledge to the next difficult situation.

5)      Education is the key to real environmental awareness and sustainability.
The general public were normally ignorant, embraced or enabled the villain's activities to an extent before being educated by the Planeteers. Education is paramount to instil environmental awareness so that people understand the importance of their relationship with the natural world.


The captain planet foundation –From Cartoon to Real Life

The Captain Planet Foundation (CPF). Schools and organizations around the world present their environmental projects to the Foundation and receive seed money to grow their ideas. The CPF receives hundreds of proposals yearly and enables young people to become Planeteers themselves by raising environmental awareness and creating a positive impact in their communities and their own lives.
  
Does anyone else remember Captain Planet? Go Planet!



Saturday 23 March 2013

Plastic Free Junk-Food



Normally I eat pretty healthy, BUT this weekend, I’ve jumped overboard and abandoned the diet ship….we all do. But this got me thinking, when it is time to abandon said diet ship what plastic free alternatives are out there?
  1. Ice-cream in the cone (don’t ask to taste first as most places use little plastic spatulas, just pick a flavour and go with it)
  2. Pizza
  3. Fish & chips in paper
  4. Burger from the corner surf shop/takeaway store, wrapped in paper (huge and delicious!)
  5. Wine (bottle, not case/cask)
(I indulged in #1, #4 AND #5!, Yes I'm terrible)

What delicious and guilt free (in terms of non-plastic packaging that is) junk food do you indulge into during junk days?