Pop Goes Green

If you don’t know who Captain Planet is, then you must be from another planet! Captain Planet and his Planeteers graced our t.v. screens in the early 1990’s to entertain and educate audiences about the importance of protecting our planet. Even though he had blue skin and a green mullet, he was still the hippest superhero around.

So why did Hollywood never make a movie about Captain Planet? Now would be the perfect time to praise the environmental awareness that Captain Planet brings to families everywhere, especially with the threat of global warming and a continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Since no movie has ever been made, I decided to pick my top 2 candidates for the role of Captain Planet. I’ll list the pros for both, so you can decide!

Al Gore	Leonardo DiCaprio
Won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his knowledge about climate change. Won an academy award for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Created the We Can Solve It Organization, which spreads awareness about global warming. Buys carbon offsets when he travels by jet. Drives a hybrid.	Owns an island in Belize that he hopes to turn into an eco-friendly resort. Created the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 to educate people about environmental issues. Made two short films about the environment titled Water Planet and Global Warning. Flies on commercial flights instead of private jets to reduce fuel emissions. Drives a hybrid.

There’s really not much difference between the two if you look at their environmental efforts. Al Gore has more father-like experience advocating the environment in his older age, while DiCaprio has the boyish good looks that would draw screaming 13-year old girls into movie theaters.

In my eyes, they’re both environmental superheroes!

Let’s all just look beyond the fact that Gore’s 2007 natural gas bills for his mansion and guest house averaged about $1,080 per month, and DiCaprio worked on Titanic, one of the most expensive movies ever made that required a lot of manufacturing of props and sets, and a lot of fuel to fly cast and crew to various worldwide locations.