Conclusion
Captain Planet was an immensely popular environmentally conscious cartoon . It may be easy to dismiss children ' s programming as not important , but the identities children develop from watching these shows can have a deep and lasting impact on them . An examination of these cartoons shows that the influence of the Deep Ecology and the radical environmental movement based on Naess ' s philosophy created a show that elevated a proenvironmental message coupled with violent action as a moral imperative . These lessons seem more in line with the radicalization of the environmental movement near the time of the show ' s creation , and a far cry from Naess ' s vision of a peaceful , spiritual view of ecology . By aligning the cartoon ' s ethos to that of the more radicalized environmental movement , like Earth First ! and ELF , the series writers could potentially have affected millions of children to a greener identity , albeit a more revolutionary one . As Captain Planet often declared , “ The Power Is Yours .” Let ' s hope the viewers of the series find the wisdom to act responsibly .
Works Cited
Ark II . Dir . Martin Roth . Perf . Terry Lester , Jean Marie Hon , Jose Flores . CBS programming . 1976 . 14 Apr . 2015 . Youtube .
Captain Planet Foundation . Captain Planet Foundation , Inc . 2015 . Web . 17 Apr . 2015 .
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