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!
