determine what gets shown ” ( 300-01 ). Ted Turner developed the Captain Planet show as a “ Hero for the Earth ” as an outgrowth of his own view of environmentalism which he wanted to impart to younger viewers . The message of the show is clearly radical and explicit .
Overpopulation Bomb
Overpopulation has been a topic explored in many Science Fiction ( SF ) stories and films . Charlton Heston wading through an endless sea of humanity in Soylent Green , John Brunner ' s classic novel , Stand on Zanzibar , and even J . G . Ballard ' s famous short story “ Billenium ” speculate on the rising human population on Earth . Popular culture of the 1970s picked up on this as the population was beginning to grow at an alarming rate . Paul Erlich ' s book , The Population Bomb ( 1971 ), became a rallying cry for controls on population growth . Critics panned the work because he sought controls on growth . Capitalism ' s very core relies on unstoppable growth , so business and government highly criticized his findings .
However , the idea of overpopulation challenged the status quo thinking , and so in 1972 , John Calhoun developed the now famous “ mouse utopia experiment .” He placed eight mice , four male and four female , into a “ rodent utopia ” with multiple levels , plenty of space , and abundant food in water . At the end of two years , there were 2,200 mice living in the utopia . By year three , they were all dead . The mouse colony had collapsed , and the utopia was at an end .
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