Im the Lorax I Speak for Teh Trees if You Litter Again

Hey kids.  Don't be like the Lorax.  He'south a bad example.  I should know.  I used to be like him, and I nevertheless am sometimes.  I'll explicate what I mean, merely starting time, let me support a bit.

A couple of weeks ago, a representative from Universal Pictures invited me to write a compensated* post for the LESSONS FROM THE LORAX Blog Bout in back up of Universal Pictures' animated film DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX, which volition be in theaters March 2.  I had seen ads for the movie and was already looking forrad to it, and so I was happy to participate.  "Except," I told the rep, "my blog is about plastic, and isn't The Lorax about saving trees?  I don't know if I can write a relevant post."  Believe it or non, I had never actually read the volume.  Somehow I missed it as a kid, and and then as an adult, I estimate I'd heard then much about it, I never felt the need to actually pick it up and read it.  "Don't worry," she said, "Your post doesn't have to be nigh trees but about any Lorax-inspired theme."  So I agreed to practice it and hurried downward to the library to bank check out the book.

While The Lorax has been revered by environmentalists since it was written in the 70's as a cautionary tale confronting rampant industrialization and overconsumption, I institute myself seeing much more in it than a unproblematic environmental tale.  Here's the basic story, with my own interpretive spin on it.  (If you are also one of the few who hasn't read the volume and don't want me to spoil information technology for you, then terminate reading this post now and come back to it subsequently you've read the volume or seen the movie.)

The Story of the Lorax

(Note: This is the plot of the book, which is pretty short.  I haven't seen the movie nevertheless, but I sympathize there are a lot more elements added to brand a feature-length picture.)

Nosotros begin on the Street of the Lifted Lorax, in a mural that is dour and desolate.  No trees.  The sky is clouded with smog.  The h2o is polluted.  There's not really much life of whatever kind.   All that is left from where the Lorax once stood is a pile of stones.  To detect out what happened to the Lorax, we must ask The Once-ler, a mysterious green being whose face nosotros never see.  After some bribery, the One time-ler begins his distressing tale.

As he describes it, a long fourth dimension agone, he was traveling in his wagon and came upon a beautiful identify teeming with life: Swomee-swans, Dark-brown Bar-ba-loots, Humming-Fish, and of grade the amazing, colorful, silken Truffula Trees.  The Once-ler says:

I felt a great leaping
of joy in my heart.
I knew just what I'd do!
I unloaded my cart.

Immediately, he sets to work. He builds a picayune shop, chops downward 1 of those beautiful trees, and with the silken tufts, knits a Thneed.  He'due south pretty tickled with himself. But the instant he finishes, the Lorax appears out of the tree stump to burst his bubble and gives him holy heck.  Here'due south how the Once-ler describes him:

He was shortish. And oldish.
And brownish. And mossy.
And he spoke with a vocalism
that was sharpish and snobby.

The Lorax is steaming mad. He wags his finger:

"I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.
And I'thou asking yous sir, at the height of my lungs" —
he was very upset as he shouted and puffed —
"What'south that Affair you've made out of my truffula tuft?"

Not such a good first meeting, right? But the Once-ler tries to calm him downwards and explains that he only chopped downward one tree, and that the thing he made, the Thneed, is actually absurd because you tin can employ information technology for a 1000000 different purposes, and everyone is going to need one. Just the Lorax isn't convinced. He calls the Once-ler "crazy with greed" and tells him his Thneed is foolish and no i will want to buy it.

Well, that only sounds like a challenge to the One time-ler, who laughs in the Lorax's face when someone comes along and really does buy his Thneed. Encouraged by his outset sale, he calls all his relatives and invites them to come assist him. Then, he builds a bigger shop and a machine that can cut down four Truffula Trees at a time. He'south going along peachy guns and having a bully time, when the Lorax shows upwards at his door with the Brown Bar-ba-loots.

It turns out, Truffula Fruits are what they consume, and at present there are not enough left to feed all of them. They are hungry and sad and must go out the Truffula forest to discover nutrient somewhere else. The Once-ler tells us that he felt sad about the Bar-ba-loots, and that he meant no damage, but that concern is business, and he had to grow bigger to encounter the demand.

A while afterward, the Lorax comes dorsum and chides him for smogging up the air so that the Swomee Swans can't sing and must leave like the Bar-ba-loots. And he snaps at the One time-ler for glumping upwards the swimming with his Gluppity-Glupp and Schloppity-Schlopp (chemicals) so that the fish must get out too. The Lorax snaps:

And what do you do with this leftover goo?…
I'll show you. You dirty old Once-ler man, you!

At that indicate, after all the Lorax's nagging and name calling and snapping, the In one case-ler loses his cool:

I yelled at the Lorax, "Now listen hither, Dad!
All y'all practice is yap-yap and say, 'Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!"

He tells the Lorax that not merely is he going to continue doing what he was doing, but he'due south going to go even bigger and bigger and bigger!

Um… the Lorax's strategy isn't really working, is it?

And so suddenly, they hear the sound of the very last Truffula Tree falling to the ground. It'due south all over. The place is in ruins. The relatives leave. The factory is empty. And the Lorax lifts himself up and steals himself away leaving behind but a pile of stones with the word UNLESS.

For years since that day, the Once-ler has sat in his tower worrying with all his heart about the damage he has done. He's sorry, only he doesn't know what to do. Until the day a boy comes to hear the story. And so, the Once-ler understands and says what are probably the most quoted words from the volume:

"But now," says the Once-ler,
"At present that you're hither, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like yous
cares a whole awful lot,
zip is going to get ameliorate.
It's not."

The Once-ler tosses the male child the very last Truffula seed, and entrusts him with the task of growing and protecting a new Truffula forest. Then, maybe the Lorax and all his friends will come back.

The Lessons I Learned from the Lorax

That's the story.  It has a wonderful environmental message for both adults and children.  But equally I saturday in bed reading information technology, I discovered another message–maybe unintended–likewise.  I found myself non only frustrated with the Once-ler, but yelling at the Lorax: Don't call the One time-ler names!  Don't snap at him!  Don't tell him he'due south crazy!  All yous're going to do is piss him off and brand him want to do it fifty-fifty more!  Certain, peradventure the guy is totally inconsiderate and greedy and blind to his environmental affect.  But approaching him in a confrontational mode right from the beginning is not the fashion to become what you want.

How many of u.s.a. take used just this "strategy" when communicating with companies that pollute our air and water or add toxic chemicals to the products we purchase?  How many of u.s. have wagged our fingers and chided people we saw littering or using plastic bags or driving big gas guzzling cars?  Sometimes it tin can experience momentarily adept to vent our frustrations at those we see as doing damage.  I sure have my fair share of those moments and take been known to rant about stupid plastic crap.  Only by behaving that way, are we really creating the kind of change nosotros want to see in the world?

And then, what are some positive means nosotros can spread our ecology messages without creating enemies?  What I take from the story of The Lorax is that the Once-ler is actually a skillful person at heart.  He just gets carried abroad and doesn't understand the impact of his actions.  In fact, he tells united states that he felt really sorry most the Bar-ba-loots.  I'chiliad wondering if there is a way in which the Lorax could accept met him at that level and plant some mutual ground from which to build a dialogue.  And what would have happened if the Lorax had not berated and belittled the Once-ler from the very first?  How would that have changed the story?

Some other thing I notice is that the Lorax is a lone vocalization.  He says he speaks for the trees, only really, he speaks against the Once-ler. What if he had gone out and garnered support from agreeing people and built a coalition to convince the Once-ler to change or even to pass laws regulating how much the Once-ler could cut downward and pollute? What if he asked people to think virtually whether they really needed to purchase Thneeds in the offset place?  Wouldn't that be more effective than standing alone and ranting at the In one case-ler?

Dorsum in 2008, when I started the Take Back the Filter campaign to convince Clorox to have dorsum and recycle its Brita h2o filter cartridges, I never felt that nosotros were fighting Clorox or that nosotros were enemies.  Instead, I had plant an effect that had a lot of support from Brita's customers, and I felt that it was just my job to bring all of our collective voices together to help Brita run across what its customers wanted.  Similar a character in another Dr. Seuss volume, Horton Hears a Who.

Then, what are your ideas?  What are some means we can spread environmental sensation and create systemic change without igniting segmentation with inflammatory language?  What are the best means to speak to children?  To other adults?  To heads of companies? Or to legislators? I would dear to hear your ideas virtually what approaches yous call back are the most effective.

The volume does cease on a hopeful notation.  My hope is that the boy volition employ a dissimilar strategy from the Lorax and actually exist able to protect the trees.  And I also hope that Danny DeVito'due south Lorax in the movie will at least exist funny because honestly, the Lorax in the volume makes me want to go out and pollute, but to bear witness him.  Only then, I never really grew up past age 17.  You guys are probably fashion more mature.

*Disclosure: I received a small amount of compensation from Universal for participating in the weblog tour. However, the only requirements were that I mention the moving picture and the weblog tour and brandish a photograph from the flick.  The topic and point of view are 100% my own ideas, and I was excited to share my thoughts near The Lorax!

Advertising

I just mail service ads for companies I patronize myself. Your support helps to fund my plastic-free mission.

robertseine1972.blogspot.com

Source: https://myplasticfreelife.com/2012/02/lessons-from-the-lorax-why-nagging-doesnt-work/

Share this post