Monday night marked the debut of Saving My Tomorrow, a new HBO documentary described thusly in promotional materials*:
From the children who will inherit the planet comes a collection of songs, activism and heartfelt tips for protecting the earth … A lyrical mix of science, animation and music, celebrates the wonders of the natural world and is a call from kids to kids to help take care of the planet.
The last sentence of the synopsis above suggests the documentary is a “celebration,” but I can report that it’s anything but. I watched a recording of episode one this morning, and it’s less a party and more a dirge.
Target demographic?
To wit, there were four songs in the first half hour installment, and below I’ve excerpted lyrics from each:
- Song 1: ♫ “Hey, farmer, farmer, put away the DDT now” ♫
- Song 2: ♪“Bio-di-ver-sity…don’t let it fade away”♫
- Song 3: ♫“Please don’t send your exploding trains through our city. We don’t think that people dying is pretty”♪
- Song 4:♪“The state of the nations is poisoned from pollution, greed and war”♫
Uplifting stuff! The third *celebratory* song (titled, “Exploding Trains”) was particularly upbeat.
When it wasn’t scaremongering, the documentary seemed a bit complex for an audience of children. For example, here’s Liam Neeson warning about ocean acidification:
To build their shells, sea butterflies need calcium carbonate. But the burning of fossil fuels is making the ocean more acidic, and reducing the amount of calcium in the water
That’s pretty heady stuff for a 6 year old. Another segment, “Wildflowers,” was a reading by Jeffrey Wright on Henry David Thoreau. Again, Transformers this documentary is not.
In fact, I’m thankful that Saving My Tomorrow is boring; otherwise, it would be dangerous, insofar as it’s an attempt to brain wash kids into an alarmist state of mind.
*Below, I’ve reposted the email pitch from the public relations firm (“Big Mouth PR”) hired to promote the film.
RSS Updates 
RSS E-Mail Updates 
CEI.org
stop feeding kids this crap.
Its not crap, its the truth. You many not care what happens to your great grandchildren but i for one do. Creating awareness to the problem is the first step to solving it, just as bullying or any other problem which all seems to cause harm to our children as well as ourselves. AS A CHILD MYSELF I am quite moved by the intentions of this document and surprised to see such information has been neglected to this generation by our own parents. You don’t want us children to be aware of the problem ,fine but i don’t see any of our heroesqu parents doing anything to help stop the internal demise of our plant, but instead exploiting their kids to uncharacterized music (which exploits them to drugs and other unruly behavior) and teaching their children to look the other way and mind your own business. It also seems unfair to allow the future generation to die due to our unruly behavior and ignorance to the situation. Its time to Stop HIDING and face the causes of our selfish acts and try to prevent the effects it can have on our future. As a child i am also hoping to implement some ways to stop this into my daily life as well as my parents and am hoping to raise awareness of this situation as well. This document has caused me to truly question many things and i am willing to try to help stop these terrible effects by creating organizations in my our neighborhood.
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