Remember how at the end of every "Captain Planet" cartoon that weird, green-haired super hero would stick his face in the screen and give you a purpose-laden epilogue to the plot of the episode?
Somehow, through a strange cartoon about teenagers, magic rings and environmental disasters, the cartoon's creators expressed the real-world effects of environmental destruction. Even better, the message was accompanied by a practical way to stop global disaster that even a child could do.
The show carried a message about how saving the planet was everyone's duty - a message that years of scientists' statistics about decaying resources never seemed to deliver.
Yet again, many of the world's brightest minds have come before humanity to warn that our use of resources is far outreaching what is being replenished. A study that was released Wednesday came with two startling numbers. First, about two-thirds of the earth's natural resources are "used up." Second, this evidence is backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries, some of whom are global leaders in their fields.
They've reinforced these claims with a litany of scary details. Among them the fact that - because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel - more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined. With at least a quarter of all fish stocks over-harvested in some areas, catches are now less than one hundredth of what they were before industrial fishing. Because of deforestation and other environmental changes, the risk of malaria and cholera could increase as well as open the way for an unknown disease to emerge.
Are you scared yet? Not likely.
Who hasn't heard a statistic about X percentage of X resource being used up? Years and years of these types of messages haven't derailed humanity from the collision course senseless waste and pollution has set.
Even significant recycling and conservation efforts have yet to turn things around. Perhaps it's because their importance hasn't found a fresh way to impress these issues upon people.
The image of recycling has become an alternative bin to put garbage in that's set next to a trash can. Conservation is merely turning off the water while brushing teeth. They are not societal duties people feel it's crucial to fulfill.
Although the work of scientists helps give a realistic picture of the severity of the problem the world faces, the way leaders try to tune people to importance of environmentalism has to change.
Messages have become washed out to the point where some people no longer believe the environment is being ruined. They are told that emissions of fossil fuels are negatively affecting weather patterns and then they look out the window and everything is still OK. On a mass scale, people just don't connect ideas in a way that makes them consciously think about improving global conditions.
What the world needs now is a new resolve to tackle its environment problems. As Captain Planet drilled into our heads all those years ago, "the power is yours."
