I was sitting in the barber’s chair and chatting with the barber about her children (it’s a husband and wife barber shop where the kids wander through all the time) so I asked about what kind of environmental instruction her kids get, thinking mostly about the oldest girl who is around 13. But it was her son, in his first year at Kinder, who was being drenched with it. In fact, she told me, he is now a young fanatic, and was that very day going to be singing the Captain Planet song before the whole school. Me, never heard of Captain Planet, but clearly I am way behind the times. So if you are now to succeed me as the last person never to have heard of Captain Planet, you can learn more here.

Here are the words. And I noticed first off that their science goes back to the ancient Greeks with the division in fire, water, earth and air. Heart, I suppose, is to replace reason.

Earth!
Fire!
Wind!
Water!
Heart!

Go planet!

By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!

Captain Planet, he’s our hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero,
He’s our powers magnified,
And he’s fighting on the planet’s side

Captain Planet, he’s our hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero,
Gonna help him put asunder,
Bad guys who like to loot and plunder

“You’ll pay for this Captain Planet!”

(chanting)
We’re the Planeteers,
You can be one too!
‘Cause saving our planet is the thing to do,
Looting and polluting is not the way,
Hear what Captain Planet has to say:

“THE POWER IS YOURS!!”

And these were the top 30 comments. If you want to know the kind of slide we are on, and how steep that slide is, read these through:

1. We all let this dude down
2. Sad kids don’t get messages like this these days
3. When cartoons used to have substance.
4. I still don’t litter because of Captain planet!
5. i wish captain planet was real so he could save are planet right now
6. Remember guys, Captain Planet isn’t real, but his enemies are. We have a duty to protect this planet. It is our only home. We don’t get another. Save the Amazon.
7. I feel so depressed looking at this now, thinking how optimistic we were in the early ’90s, and how few people took the message to heart. The power was ours… and we wasted it.
8. Ah 90s Saturday mornings!
9. I still finish every last bit of product in my bottles because of captain planet.
10. Memories of playing ‘Captain Planet’ with friends at the time and no one would want to be ‘Heart’ because it was the shit one.
11. Need him to save the Amazon right now
12. It’s too bad almost all of the Planeteers left to get real jobs
13. The should make a 2019 movie of Captain Planet
14. The Planeteers: The first benders.
15. THE POWER IS YOURS! legendary 😂😂
16. i wish i could have a time machine and go back to enjoy again those times
17. The world trully needs Captain Planet right now.
18. When cartoons were actually teaching kids good stuff…
19. They should invite this guy to the next global warming conference
20. Who’s watching this in 2019 and remembering their childhood?
21. Me as a teenager: “Captain Planet is so corny. The save the trees message is so hamfisted! I can’t believe I ever watched this!” Me now: “I was fool! A fool! Please come back, Captain Planet! You were right all along!”
22. Watched it when I was a kid I remember the lyrics
23. When you realize the kids from Captain Planet came from The Magic School Bus!🤔😅
24. 2019? Sad that this cartoon is still relevant to this day.
25. Omg the nostalgia!! I used to LOVE this show. I tuned in EVERY morning to watch it. (luckily for me it was before school, so I was able to see it!!)
26. “The Power is Yours” !! goosebumps ❤❤ people haven’t realised yet the power is in us to save this planet…
27. Just a little trivia…Ted Turner created this animated series. Great job, Ted…1990…almost 30 years ago!
28. Ahh the good old days when the environmental movement was cool and actually cared about the planet before it was taken over by politics and fear mongering pseudoscience
29. We need you captain planet, more than ever. Come back for real.
30. My mom just digged out Captain Planet bedding it’s in great condition my sons just watched this with me#2019

We have reverted back to the Dark Ages if not farther.