several films have picked up on this type of narrative as a driving force : Silent Running , starring Bruce Dern ( 1972 ); The Day After Tomorrow starring Dennis Quaid ( 2004 ); and Chris Nolan ' s environmental apocalypse as the driving force behind Interstellar ( 2014 ). However , all of these movies owe a slight nod to Rachel Carson who mapped out a believable disaster years before Hollywood could envision it . I0n Silent Spring , Rachel Carson lays out a vision where ecosystems are negligently destroyed through the overuse of toxins and pesticides . Her use of rhetorical flourishes in the essay work well to move the audience to action . According to Killingsworth and Palmer , “ The agonistic rhetoric of the expose , of which Silent Spring is a fine example , must ever rest on the assignment of praise and blame in an effort to influence decisions about public ends and means ... thus mobilizing citizens for a quick decision one way or the other , as is required in moments of crisis ” ( 76 ). Carson ' s use of this rhetoric forces the readers to challenge the way they have always done things and ask which ways they can make a difference .
Captain Planet often uses environmental apocalyptic narrative as a means of affecting the children viewing the show , in effect making them ask the difficult questions about how they can affect change . Captain Planet writers are playing the long game here . They are attempting to affect the way these children see the world . To make them consider the Earth in their decisions from childhood . How can they prevent catastrophe ? By following the tenets of Deep Ecology , question over consumption , see nature as needing balance , and look at a fundamental ideological change in the way we view the environment .
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