The Green Mister Rogers

The Green Mister Rogers: Environmentalism in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood centers on the show's environmentalism, primarily expressed through his themed week “Caring for the Environment,” produced in 1990 in coordination with the twentieth anniversary of Earth Day. Unfolding against a trash catastrophe in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Rogers advances an environmentalism for children that secures children in their family homes while extending their perspective to faraway places, from the local recycling center to Florida’s coral reef. It uses imagination, art, music, puppets, field trips, toys, games, and puzzles to engage children. Rogers depicts animal wisdom and uses puppets to voice anxiety and hope and shows an interconnected world where each part of creation is valued and love is circulated in networks of care. Ultimately, Rogers cultivates a practical wisdom that provides a way for children to confront the environmental crisis through action and hope and, in doing so, develop into adults who deliver greater care for the environment and possess a capacious imagination for solving the ecological problems we face.