Captain Planet – Renewable Energy
February 28, 2012
What if Captain Planet and the Planeteers were real? How would this change the face of renewable energy? Wind, water, earth, fire, and heart. Each extremely powerful forces in their own right, but when combined, virtually unstoppable. Imagine now, for a moment, that this brilliant 1990’s cartoon was not the fictional creation of Ted Turner and Barbara Pyle, but was real, rings and all… Let’s start by looking at the origin of each Planeteer. Gaia, the spirit and protector of the earth, chose to give a ring to each Planeteer strictly based on their abilities, kindness, and willingness to save the earth. Gaia is portrayed as an extremely wise goddess type figure, so we will assume she chose the best five people in the world to have rings. Five rings, five special young men and women: Each Planeteer is from a different part of the world, with only Wheeler being from a specific city, New York City. Kwame grew up in a small, rural farming village in Ghana. Linka is from Eastern Europe, but most people believe that she was originally from what used to be the Soviet Union. Gi is from somewhere in Thailand, and Ma-Ti is from somewhere in Brazil. How they could each benefit the world of renewable energy: Let’s assume that each Planeteer only spends a small portion of their time fighting Eco-Villains – at least 30 minutes a week. If Gaia had so wisely chosen them for their abilities and willingness to save the earth, I think it is safe to assume that they would spend a lot of their free time finding other useful ways to help the planet besides fighting off Eco-Villains. Below is a breakdown of each Planeteer and what they could theoretically do with their free-time to help save the planet: He has the power to move huge pieces of earth, create earthquakes, large holes, and has top caliber knowledge on growing and planting things from his time spent growing up in a small African Village. So, Kwame could easily use his powers and knowledge to create perfect locations for extracting geothermal energy, or grow plants in areas where other people struggle to get results from the land, which could then be used to create biofuels. Kwame could also aid in moving and morphing large pieces of the earth for mining purposes. His powers could replace large machines needed for digging that are dangerous and emit large amounts of pollutants into the atmosphere. Kwame would probably be tempted to earn huge sums of money helping to mine for the diamond industry in Africa or perhaps the gold industry in his home country of Ghana. The United States Government would probably try to lure Kwame into working in the United States. He could help companies locate oil reserves deep in the Earth, or maybe build ski resorts in the flat plain areas of the US. Kwame would have no problem finding ways to make huge sums of money with his powers. Theoretically, with her power of water, Gi could do a number of things. She could bring water to areas of the world that need it most for farming, and could help grow sugarcane for biofuel production in areas that were once too dry. Gi could also find ways to harvest water for hydro-turbine generators. She could create huge reservoirs of water that could generate electricity in a hydroelectric dam, and they could be constructed in areas that harbor little wildlife in order avoid causing danger to existing ecosystems. She could also create flowing water in dried up rivers and streams that could use zero-head turbine generators to create clean electricity. For fun, or maybe for money from tourism, Gi could find beautiful and calm remote lakes in the world and make huge waves for people to come and surf. The wind turbine would probably have to be a vertical-axis wind turbine so it could withstand the high wind speeds. It would essentially be an indoor wind turbine power plant specially designed to create a lot of electricity with the powerful wind provided by Linka. Linka could really mess with sporting events. She could help or prevent field goals at live football games, home runs in baseball games, or even goals in soccer games. Her wind would be a hot commodity. He could also supply the heat to create huge amounts of electricity without the risk of nuclear disaster or carbon emissions from coal. Ma-Ti, with the underrated power of heart literally at his fingertips, could convert everyone in the world to conscious lovers and protectors of the planet Earth and the environment. If Ma-Ti does not choose to use his power of heart to make everyone love the earth and the environment then there would probably be some intense disputes about the ownership and use of the Planeteers powers. There would be visa and citizenship issues, and many countries and nationals would want to get their hands on these powerful people. Nobody knows for sure if the power from the rings will work on anyone’s fingers. If they do, and the rings end up in the wrong hands, bad things could happen. In the end, the world should be a better place as long as Ma-Ti consistently uses his power of heart to keep everyone in the world in a proper balance of love for each other and love for the environment.