Photo by mattwitmer [Flickr]
The current post on The Disney Blog regarding Walt Disney's green "propaganda", if you will, in films got me to thinking about how Disney has made me more green aware over the course of my life.
While many credit Bambi as planting the seed for the love of nature, I can't say I'm much different. Bambi's pivotal scene of the hunter in the woods has stayed with me forever and it's one that, I admit, I can't really watch much.
But there are others instances within Disney that have reiterated Disney's Green message - before green was cool. Some that have, through Disney's work, continued to spread his love for nature and the earth even after his death and beyond his films.
For instance, the first time I became aware of solar energy was as a child at Epcot Center (as it was then called). At a pavilion known as "The Universe of Energy", I learned at a VERY early age how alternative forms of energy needed to be sought as fossil fuels were becoming more scarce. This was something that wasn't in the news everyday as it is now and definitely something that wasn't taught in my school. It prepped me for the current conversation on global warming and made the rhetoric regarding fuel and alternative energy one that was easier to understand.
I don't think it's hard to see that Walt Disney was in love with the earth and, perhaps, he was trying to edutain us more than we realize. And it looks like Disney's *trying* to help that legacy live on. I was surprised to see a paper straw when I was at Animal Kingdom this past December. Honestly, I don't believe I had ever seen a paper straw before.
So yeah. I think that, despite some loud mouth protests, Walt has had a pretty strong voice when it comes to living green.
