The other day I texted a few friends and asked, When you think of eco-conscious characters, who springs to mind? I was trying to wrap my head around sustainability’s overall image and typed out the message as a litmus test of sorts.
The agreed-upon answer was Captain Planet, and that says a lot about the place of sustainability in pop culture. Sure, the animated ’90s icon was the first “eco-toon,” and the show put environmentalism front and center over its 113 episodes. But both as Saturday morning cartoon characters and superheros go, he certainly wasn’t cool. Summoned by five kids with magic rings, he fought hokey villains with names like Hoggish Greedly and Looten Plunder. He had vague powers, no real personality, and storylines with all the subtlety of a middle-school PSA.
He also disappeared from TV nearly 30 years ago.
The underlying issue is that pop culture rarely, if ever, offers us eco-conscious characters that feel aspirational or exciting. Staying on heroes for a moment, most of the popular ones aren’t exactly on the right side of the climate fight, but rather stuck in some strange middle ground. Take Batman. He’s saved Gotham numerous times, but he’s also throat-punched his share of unstable terrorists and villains like Poison Ivy who were fed up with humanity’s indifference towards the environment. He’s also a billionaire. You don’t need to drive behind the Batmobile to know its tailpipe isn’t spreading wildflower seeds. But, if you are curious about his impact, a University of Stanford lecturer calculated Bruce Wayne’s emissions, and they’re considerable.
He’s not alone. Iron Man hammered out a fusion-powered exosuit in a cave—but seems oddly unmoved by fusion’s potential role in addressing the global energy crisis. Even Black Panther, despite Wakanda’s advances, doesn’t always seem keen on exporting clean energy solutions to the rest of the world. We do have Aquaman defending our oceans, but that franchise is currently dead in the water.
Then we have the archetype of the quirky environmentalist. Your list of mentions will certainly differ from mine, but when I think of the smart character who’s passionate about the planet, I picture Lisa Simpson, who I adore, lugging out a bowl of gazpacho while boycotting Homer’s pig roast. Phoebe Buffay, a (sort of) staunch vegetarian who took a dart in the ass in defense of a monkey, is up there, too. Animated films like FernGully, Up, Wall-E, and Princess Mononoke hit the pollution and waste notes pretty hard. The Lorax is still out there somewhere, tending forests and waxing his tremendous mustache.
A USA Media Impact Lab study found that only 0.6% of the more than 37,000 film and TV scripts written between 2016 and 2020 even mentioned the phrase 'climate change.'
But eco-minded characters are still rare and not super aspirational. When pop culture deals with climate change, it’s most often through the lens of dystopia or disaster: drowned cities, barren forests, or Gerard Butler battling a geostorm. Don’t Look Up skewered our denialism and institutional failure—but it certainly didn’t make sustainability look cool.
And that’s perhaps the core issue. Acting in a way that protects the planet is rarely depicted as something desirable. It’s a few-episode problem or a continuous punchline. From a creative standpoint, I understand this. As one of my friends pointed out, caring about the Earth doesn’t make for a great character arc. It’s rarely fun or escapist.
Data backs this up. A USA Media Impact Lab study found that only 0.6% of the more than 37,000 film and TV scripts written between 2016 and 2020 even mentioned the phrase “climate change.” A similar report from Goldsmiths University in London found that most top-rated shows in the UK regularly reinforce norms like frequent flying and unrestrained consumerism with little mention of the costs.
No wonder being eco-friendly feels exhausting—and deeply uncool. While more people are interested in living sustainably than ever before, misperceptions abound. It still brings to mind granola bars and guilt trips, cloth diapers and scratchy toilet paper. Eco-influencers are still niche compared to the ones who hawk convenience culture and Amazon hauls.
Shifting that narrative in a way that won’t turn people off is a tight-rope walk. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology examined the perceptions of environmentalists and found that people are more likely to view them as warmer, more competent, and more trustworthy when they recycle or display other everyday sustainable traits, and have moderate politics and more traditional profiles. When portrayed as radical and politically extreme, perception tanks. Activist or non-mainstream portrayals—older folks, protestors, non-binary individuals—often tend to be seen as less relatable.
So, what’s the solution? There needs to be a shift—one where sustainability isn’t portrayed as an offbeat alternative lifestyle or quirky personality trait but something that smartly drawn characters just, well, happen to do. We need to see more kinds of people (superheroes, sitcom characters, reality TV stars) living less-extractive lives without making a big deal out of it.
Might it be interesting to see Batman or James Bond step into a wow-worthy electric vehicle? Sure. But what I really want are human characters doing what we urge our readers to aspire to: do a little bit better every day. The Bear’s Sydney already cares about the origin of the restaurant's ingredients but what if Carmy became recognized for rolling dough on a silicone baking mat or neurotically plating faux caviar? What if HGTV makeovers made rooftop solar as desirable as a subway tile backsplash?
Admittedly, these aren’t the best pitches—a bit obvious, kinda heavy handed. But the more people see sustainability as something everyone does naturally, the more we won’t need a sub-par superhero as a stand-in. Or get too distracted by Bruce Wayne’s carbon footprint.
