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Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, summons four teenagers and a young boy named Ma-Ti from five different corners of the world to help her in the battle to save the planet. For their first assignment, the Planeteers battle Hoggish Greedly, whose oil rig operation is jeopardizing the coastline.

• Note: First appearances of Captain Planet, Gaia, the Planeteers (Kwame, Wheeler, Linka, Gi and Ma-Ti), Hoggish Greedly and Rigger.

Ma-Ti battles self-esteem issues as the Planeteers try to stop Verminous Skumm from destroying a city with a giant cloud of acid rain.

• Note: First appearance of Verminous Skumm.

Dr. Blight and Duke Nukem hold Captain Planet prisoner in Antarctica, demanding that the Planeteers give them a lifetime supply of nuclear waste in return for his safety. Without their powers, the Planeteers must mount a daring rescue in order to save Captain Planet.

• Note #1: First appearance of Dr. Blight, MAL and Duke Nukem.
• Note #2: First case of Eco-villains working together.

The Planeteers are led astray by the promise of power from Zarm, a war-like god and another spirit of Earth, like Gaia. Zarm dazzles the Planeteers into telling them that they can create an environmental utopia on Earth and gets them to follow him instead of Gaia, save for Ma-Ti, whose loyalty to Gaia is the strongest. With the Planeteers split up, Gaia becomes mortal and increasingly weaker. Can Ma-Ti convince the Planeteers that Zarm's true intent is to instigate a nuclear war?

• Note: First appearance of Zarm.

Wheeler plans to buy Linka an ivory necklace for her birthday, but Kwame recommends anything except that for a gift. Meanwhile, Looten Plunder is wiping out the elephant population of Africa, Kwame's native land, in order to gain a quick profit in the ivory trade. Wheeler learns firsthand the true cost of ivory trinkets, as he and the other Planeteers help return a baby elephant to its mother and battle to save the elephants from extinction.

Note #1: First appearance of Looten Plunder and Argos Bleak. This is also the episode that sees Plunder uttering of the famous line "You'll pay for this, Captain Planet!", which would resonate throughout the end credits for the series.

Dr. Blight and her robojacks chop down a sacred tree known to villagers as the "Tree of Life" and Blight harnesses the tree's powers for herself. With her new powers, Blight grows gigantic and a match for Captain Planet, then plans to destroy the ancient redwood forests.

Sly Sludge, who claims to have solved the world's problems of waste management by inventing a shrink ray that reduces garbage, is making big bucks by having countries ship their garbage to him for disposal. However, Sludge is secretly only dumping the garbage into a volcano on Laipuno Island. When the volcano erupts, Captain Planet and the Planeteers must save the islanders from the lava flow.

• Note: First appearance of Sly Sludge.

After Gi is rescued from Sly Sludge's mechanical octopus, she is taken to a secret underwater city known as Oceanus, which is being threatened by Sludge's illegal toxic dumping. When the dome around Oceanus begins to burst, flooding the city, Captain Planet and the Planeteers must race against time to save the people of this underwater paradise.

• Note: First appearance of Sly Sludge's right hand man Ooze.

When a scientist tries to cover up a radiation leak at a nuclear power plant, Duke Nukem zeros in on the "hot spot" and triggers a meltdown. With time running out, Captain Planet and the Planeteers are forced to cool off the reactor before an explosion occurs and contaminates the planet. When the scientist admits that he supported nuclear power on the basis it was clean and plentiful in an attempt to solve the energy crisis, the Planeteers recommend he instead research geothermal power.

• Note: First appearance of Duke Nukem's right hand man Leadsuit.

Greedly hijacks Jane Goodair's environmentally friendly automobile factory in order to manufacture his Road Hog, a smog-spewing nightmare, and the city is soon choking on exhaust fumes. When his own son, Greedly Jr., falls ill from the pollution, Greedly must turn to Captain Planet and the Planeteers for help.

Duke Nukem destroys the ozone layer over Antarctica with C.F.C. gases so he can feast on the sun's dangerous UV rays. Captain Planet and the Planeteers battle to protect the Earth from Nukem's deadly radiation.

• Note: First unmasked appearance of Leadsuit.

5 of the main eco-villains steal the Planeteers' rings and abandon them on an island inhabited by Commander Clash, a soldier with a cold war mentality. Clash appears to be their most dangerous opponent to date, until Captain Pollution, summoned by evil duplicates of the Planeteers' rings created by Dr. Blight, appears and traps them.

The Planeteers befriend Commander Clash and convince him to help them retrieve their rings and use his military skills in the battle against Captain Pollution.

The Planeteers find themselves whisked aboard an interstellar Noah's Ark, while trying to save endangered tigers from Hoggish Greedly and Dr. Blight's forest-destroying Monster Golf Cart in India. The alien zookeeper named Collector thinks humans are an endangered species, whose habitat is about to be destroyed.

The Planeteers stumble across the island of Dr. Apollo, an American scientist who has perfected incredible devices for storing and transmitting solar power. They discover that the laboratory assistant is actually Leadsuit, who is helping Duke Nukem subvert solar technology to produce a radioactive weapon.

Pete, a dirt bike enthusiast, loves off-road racing with Hoggish Greedly and Rigger, until Ma-Ti and desert guide Joshua Stone show him how alive this "barren" desert really is, and how much damage off-road vehicles do to it. Pete and the Planeteers swoop in on hang gliders to stop Greedly's ORV race, but Captain Planet is needed to save everyone from a flash flood.

The Planeteers are present for the testing of JASON, a robot that observes wildlife and the environment, and transmits the data to its home base. The tests are being done on the Galapagos Islands, which is where Hoggish Greedly, Verminous Skumm and his rats have crash landed, since their ship was thrown off course from a storm. Now, they're hungry, and consider feasting on tortoise eggs to fill their appetites. The Planeteers must fly to the Galapagos to save the eggs, and remove the rats from the environment to restore the balance of its ecosystem.

• Note: First time Linka reciprocates Wheeler's crush on her by kissing

Gi and Linka are livid when Wheeler belittles their favorite rock singer, Sky Runner, but it looks as though Wheeler may be right when they come upon a land-ravaging surface mining operation run by Hoggish Greedly, but bankrolled by none other than their idol.

After discovering that it is ten years later outside Zarm's ship, the Planeteers race to find Commander Clash before Gaia ages into dust. He returns with them and fights Zarm, but is defeated and opts to return to his island. The Planeteers refuse to give up and are recaptured and taunted by Zarm. He is just about to decimate Ma-Ti when Clash reappears and saves Gaia and the Planeteers.

Kwame takes the Planeteers to Africa to meet an old friend from his tribe, Dr. Mabutu, who is experiencing trouble on his game ranch. The trouble is Dr. Blight, whose experiments turn ordinary cattle into "raging bulls", which threaten to destroy the entire region. When they go on a rampage, it is up to Captain Planet to hit the trail and corral the "bum steers".

• Note: First time Dr. Blight reveals the scarred portion of her face to the Planeteers. in one scene, Blight's face is mirrored.

The Planeteers travel to the Northwest after hearing about an old growth forest which is literally disappearing into thin air. After Wheeler sets out to investigate, along with an attractive local teenage bird watcher, Linka spots a "flying saucer" but they then discover that Hoggish Greedly is the pilot. They discover Greedly's scam -"Sucking up" five-hundred-year-old trees to make pressed board furniture.

When Dr. Blight convinces the President of the United States to let her create a fuel for a spaceship trip to Venus, the Planeteers try to change his mind by showing him the accelerated greenhouse effects from fuel's emissions. MAL however takes control of the rocket and sends Kwame, Ma-Ti and the President to crash land on Venus while an underpowered Captain Planet must save the rest of the Planeteers.

• Note: First time Captain Planet is formed without all 5 rings.

The Planeteers are called into action to stop Duke Nukem from stealing radioactive minerals and using them for his own sinister purposes, and to save a town from being exposed to lethal amounts of radiation.

Carlos, an Hispanic farm boy on a small island, becomes jealous of his cousin's return from the big city. He is given the power to wish for anything he wants from Zarm, who calls himself the Dream Maker. To impress a girl that he likes and to get back at his cousin, Carlos wishes for things that will gain her interest. Soon the whole town discovers the Dream Maker, and they all want something big. Blinded by greed, the townspeople fail to realize that their natural resources are being drained in a flagrantly careless and destructive manner in order to create the things they wish for. They soon learn the effects of this, but the Planeteers need Captain Planet to get rid of Zarm, and quell a near war between the townspeople and the villagers in the hills, who also want a piece of the Dream Maker.

Sky Runner returns to ask the Planeteers for help after Looten Plunder tricks his people into selling their lands for urban development.

Dr. Blight's minions have been capturing animals from Dr. Rice's animal shelter for her experiments that she runs under the nose of her employer Laurie Saunders and it's up to the Planeteers to stop her.

Hoggish Greedly, Rigger, and Sly Sludge travel back in time to create the biggest trash crisis in the Earth's history, and the only one who can stop them is Captain Planet.

Gaia tells the Planeteers about Captain Planet's first adventure in the 1940s, when he and the Planeteers before them stopped Hoggish Greedly's grandfather, Don Porkaloin from building developments too close to the ocean. To prepare for a Hurricane Kira, Porkaloin's lounge singer/scientist Betty Blight (Dr. Blight's grandmother) uses her moon manipulator to bring the hurricane to his shores. When the Planeteers of that time are formed, Captain Planet is summoned to save the day.

When a high school basketball player named Todd Andrews finds out he has HIV/AIDS, Verminous Skumm and one of his Rat Pack minions start rumors about the disease that turn Todd's schoolmates against him, hoping to spread the disease further.

This was one of the first times that an American animated series dealt with the issue of AIDS education.

The Planeteers go on separate missions across the world to prevent the detonation of three separate nuclear bombs in three major conflict zones between warring factions. Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem are behind the plot of inciting hatred to get people into nuking each other. The main story sees Wheeler arrive in Northern Ireland where the conflict is between the Protestants and the Catholics. Kwame and Linka travel to South Africa where the blacks and whites are raging battles. Gi and Ma-Ti travel to Israel where tensions are high between Palestinians and Jews.

The episode's portions set in Belfast have become a popular viral internet meme; its wildly inaccurate accents and depictions of the Troubles have been met with large degrees of mirth from Northern Ireland inhabitants, when originally released in the US it was viewed by the Northern Ireland government and banned from release in the third season run in Northern Ireland.

Linka's Grandmother suffers from an undiagnosed illness, causing Linka to leave the Planeteers and return to her home town. Because half the town is affected, she investigates the reason of the problem. Wheeler, unable to abandon her, secretly stays in town – and helps Linka, as soon as the situation gets dangerous to her. Meanwhile the other Planeteers worry about getting her back. The Planeteers combine their powers to call Captain Planet to save Linka's town.

Gi is invited to a dolphin research center in which provides dolphins to Hoggish Greedly, who is behind a number of dolphins getting hurt due to his use of them to collect toxic waste from a submarine.

Transported to ancient Maya, Ma-Ti is captured and mistaken for the son of environmentally minded rebels.

In this story about street gangs, Wheeler gets a letter from his hometown in New York with some bad news: his father, whom Wheeler never had a close relationship with, is ill. So Wheeler heads back to his hometown, where he bumps into his old friends. Among the friends Wheeler bumps into is Trish, who now goes by the nickname of "Trash", who has turned to crime. Her boss is none other than Verminous Skumm.

Goki, a boy from the future where gorillas are extinct, is given a virtual reality goggle by a mysterious woman that sends him into the past around the time when Looten Plunder tries to get rid of some gorillas. With Goki's help, the Planeteers call Captain Planet to stop him. At the end, Goki receives the power of Earth as a Planeteer, and the woman is revealed to be Gaia.

Vermenous Skumm plans to terrorize the earth with his wicked weevils. But Captain Planet stops him.

This episode features a game show "You Bet Your Planet" in which the Planeteers competed against the Eco-Villains. The game show is hosted on an alien planet, with aliens for the audience and the host Lexo Starvak, and a big mouth for the announcer. The prize is the fate of Captain Planet.

Special Guest Stars: Casey Kasem as Lexel Starvack and Gene Wood as Game Show Announcer.

Looten Plunder is behind a plan to ruin an environmental sustainable ranching operation. The Planeteers call Captain Planet, who defeats Plunder and Plunder is hauled off to jail again.

This episode dealt with gang violence, guns, and the peace messages of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Mohandas Gandhi, as well as their assassinations. An old friend of Gi's, a teacher, is caught up in a gang war and nearly killed, so the Planeteers infiltrate the two feuding gangs and try to put a stop to the cycle of violence, which may prove easier said than done.

The Planeteers meet Dr. Blight's do-goody sister Bambi Blight who will be starring in an environmentally friendly movie. Unfortunately, Dr. Blight plans to ruin it. She binds and gags her sister and takes her place. However Bambi is able to escape and stop her sister's plan to destroy Captain Planet.

Note: This episode features a little inside joke in the scene where Dr. Blight, posing as her sister, tries to wreck the film. Because Dr. Blight's acting is so bad, the scriptwriter tells the director that they'll get Kath Soucie to loop her voice later. Linka agrees with the idea, saying "I hope they get that Soucie person." Kath Soucie provided the voice for Linka as well as that of Bambi Blight.

Dr. Blight kidnaps wealthy philanthropist Ella Salvador with the intention of preventing the implementation of a new smog reducing railway system in overcrowded Latin American cities (the city depicted resembles Santiago, Chile, specifically). Only Captain Planet can stop Dr. Blight.

The Planeteers split up to stop 2 plots involving rhinoceros horns: Looten Plunder and Argos Bleak distributing them and the Slaughter Family poaching rhinos for their horns. Upon learning that they have the same goal in rhino horns, Looten and Argos bust out Mame and Stalker to set up a trap for the Planeteers.

Hoggish Greedly starts a war between workers in a town. The Planeteers call Captain Planet, who puts an end to the feud when he captures Greedly.

Dr. Blight makes Gaia mortal and leaves Captain Planet and the Planeteers powerless.

A vine designed by nature to control the rate of erosion is altered by Dr. Blight using a stolen growth enhancement ray which she stole from Dr. Georgina Carbor. When the vine mutates into a plant monster when placed in Dr. Blight's eco-system, it's up to Captain Planet to stop it.

Zarm makes a bet with Gi after she claims that children are not born with hate, placing two neighboring children in a computer simulation where they can shape the world via thought, along with the shrunken Planeteers, threatening to expose the children to a traffic accident if Gi loses. Zarm allows the kids' feuding parents to influence them, causing the children to turn on each other, but the Planeteers and Captain Planet show them the error of their ways.

Sly Sludge shrinks the Planeteers and sends them to a dump. There, they build a plane, but the shrinking ray is wearing off, and the Planeteers call Captain Planet, who saves the Planeteers, and closes down Sludge's operations.

Trivia: By the time Sludge's operations closed down once and for all, he redeemed himself along with Ooze as his long-time sidekick.

Dr. Blight, Duke Nukem, Verminous Skumm, and Hoggish Greedly hijack a national television network and fill it with their own pro-pollution propaganda, the Planeteers arrive to cut their transmission and schemes short, but things escalate when Duke Nukem insists on dropping a nuclear missile for the cameras.

Trivia: Duke Nukem may had been presumed deceased after Captain Planet froze him turning into rock.

Last appearances of Duke Nukem and Verminous Skumm.

Special Guest Stars: Ted Turner as Fred Lerner and Jonathan Winters as Eco the Clown

The Planeteers have three days to prove to a judge that Looten Plunder is cutting down old growth forests. Wheeler falls into the river, and the Planeteers call Captain Planet, who rescues Wheeler. Later, our heroes lose the battle as Looten Plunder and the Pinshead Brothers cut down more growth forest.

This is a rare episode in which the Planeteers lose, and the eco-villain comes out on top.

The Planeteers join the circus to rescue some abused animals after they were abducted by the Slaughters.

In the future, Hoggish Greedly, Looten Plunder, and Dr. Blight are older but not wiser. They also trapped their time period's versions of the Planeteers. With help from MAL, Dr. Blight's daughter Betsi Blight comes to the past to help the Planeteers stop Dr. Blight from winning the US Presidency.

The Planeteers are trapped in a terrible blizzard while journeying up Mount Everest. They are led by a wisecracking snow leopard named 'Heather' into an ice cavern where they think they will be safe. But, as it turns out, the cavern is actually a courtroom, and the Planeteers (as well as the rest of humanity) are judged for committed crimes against their fellow species. The Planeteers are all taken back to the times when the species were either hunted or had their homes devastated, resulting in endangerment or worse, extinction.

The Planeteers head South to meet their pal Milton who plans to show them all he's doing to preserve the endangered Mississippi River. But Wheeler and Ma-ti don't want a guided tour; they have delusions of experiencing the Mississippi like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer did in the old days.

Looten Plunder and Hoggish Greedly try to destroy the African wetlands with their mining and cattle business, but are stopped by Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

Hoggish Greedly is behind a scheme to get rid of the manatees, but the Planeteers call Captain Planet, who defeats Greedly and saves the manatees.

When Lord Boxman and the Eco Villainess Dr. Blight are trashing the Plaza with pollutants, Planeteer Kwame (the only member of the Planeteers who is still active in environmental work) swings in and recruits K.O., Rad, Enid and the quarreling team of Brandon and A Real Magic Skeleton to wield the elemental rings and take back the ecosystem!

• Special Guests: LeVar Burton as Kwame and David Coburn as Captain Planet
• Notes: The events of the crossover specials take place after the final episode of the series.