Hacker News Reader

I wonder how much of this changed due to public sentiment driven by pop culture? Movies like Fern Gully[0] and TV shows like Captain Planet[1] definitely had a hand in shaping my generation growing up.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FernGully:_The_Last_Rainforest

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Planet_and_the_Planete...

View on HN

Forest cover in just about every first world country has been increasing since the the late 1970s, which predates these shows. All deforestation since then has been occurring almost exclusively in poor countries, not to mention most other environmental problems such as the dumping of plastics and toxic chemicals into the ocean.

It seems to me that a clean environment is a kind of pleasure project that people are willing to spend money on only once they can afford it.

I mean, follow the money. Why are those countries dumping chemicals, plastics in the ocean? Why are they cutting down forests and agriculturizing their land?

Mostly because the rich countries pay them to do it, basically. So they can build our toys and grow our beef. In other words, we export our environmental damage so we can afford to keep our environment cleaner.

The modern environmental movement got its start in the late 1960s. So that’s consistent, although not with TV shows.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com