Lorax Research Paper

Nature and everything in it serves a purpose to the world and humans are known to do a terrible job in keeping it clean. Much of the acid rain and tons of carbon dioxide and methane are in the air because humanity is not doing anything to keep this world clean, the only world humanity has. One of the Major disasters of this century is the deforestation of our earth by taking the only thing that gives us life, trees. The deforestation of trees has a major after effect on habitats, it destroys ecosystems and puts many animals in danger. Deforestation has been known to have increased the effect of global warming in the world and it is said to be getting worse.

The orangutan, one of the world’s great apes, resides on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The forests of these islands are being destroyed in order to create palm oil plantations. Palm oil is in high demand due to its uses as a biofuel and as a vegetable oil. The palm oil industry is a major threat to the survival of the critically endangered orangutans, due to loss of habitat. This leads to illegal poaching since the orangutans are viewed as pests, leaving many young infants orphaned and alone. There are rescue groups that rehabilitate these great apes, but more must be done in order to prevent the extinction of this rapidly declining species. Sustainable palm oil options need to be researched and utilized and there should

Because orangutans are so well adapted for the ecological niche they occupy, it is understandable why their populations suffer when their habitat is destroyed. In fact, in the last 20 years orangutans have lost nearly 80% of their natural habitat largely due to deforestation. Between the years of 1999 and 2006 roughly 55% of that deforestation was due to the expansion of the palm oil industry. Furthermore, Indonesia and Malaysia combined account for nearly 87% of the global output of palm oil with Indonesia generating about 18.7 and Malaysia 17.4 million tons a year. When considering these statistics, it raises questions about why this industry is seemingly more relevant than conserving natural resources and more importantly protecting an invaluable species of ape from extinction. To answer this question, it might be helpful to consider how the vast majority views the palm oil industry by comparison to the orangutans in terms of economics.

The Lorax and the Tragedy of the CommonsThe Loraxis a 1971 book by Dr. Seuss about the dangers of exploiting the environment with reckless abandon and the consequences which come from a lack of foresight in doing so. Thebook is very culturally impactful and has proven to be in many ways a foreshadowing of what was to come for certain areas around the world. Along with this the story of the Lorax shows to demonstrate a phenomenon known as the tragedy of the commons; a phenomenon in nature which deals with the depletion of a resource due to the individuals in a population all acting in self-interest to profit off of the resource. The tragedy of the commons is also seen when studying what occurred on Eastern Island, with many

The Tragedy of the Commons and the Lorax bring to the people’s attention that a growing population that is growing as if there are infinite amount of resources will do severe damage to the environment. The Tragedy of the Commons was an essay written in 1968 by an American ecologist by name of Garret Hardin. Hardin explains in his essay that the Tragedy of the Commons is an economic problem in which every individual who tries to reap the greatest benefit from a given resource. Then when demand for that particular resource surpasses the supply, every individual who consumes another unit of that resource will directly harm others who cannot reap the benefit as well. This particular economic problem is analogous to what happens in the movie The Lorax. The Lorax is about a greedy businessman known as Once-ler who shows up to a forest. Then cuts down all the trees to make his invention, while being chastised by a furry orange create known as the Lorax but he doesn’t listen. By the end of the movie there are no more trees and all the animals have lost their homes and Once-ler is poor again. The Lorax indirectly address the issue of the Tragedy of the Commons since it deals with the fundamental problem of unlimited needs and wants and limited resources.

Deforestation has lead to terrible living conditions and 38 species have been driven to extinction. John Vidal, author of “The Sumatran Rainforest Will Mostly Disappear Within 20 Years,” writes about the ways logging companies are getting past regulations to take more land and logs away from the forest and natives. Ian Sample, author of “Amazon’s Doomed Species Set to Pay Deforestation’s ‘Extinction Debt,’” on the other hand mostly talks about the affects deforestation has on animals. Vidal has the better argument over Sample because his explanations about its effects on humans and corruption from companies and the government.

Dr. Seuss portrays the harms of deforestation in one of his most inspirational stories, The Lorax. The Once-ler, who represents logging companies, is a self-driven inventor who moves to a virgin forest and creates the Thneed, a versatile object that can be useful in any situation. He then removes all the Truffula trees until one seed remains. Deforestation affected Sneedsville in ways Earth is being affected today. An estimated 18 million acres of land are cut down each year around the world (“51 Breathtaking”). The Lacandon Jungle, located on the Mexican-Guatemalan

Better known as the tragedy of the commons, the over usage of resources results in there not being enough resources for the environment to sustain itself. In The Lorax, this act is represented by the trees that Once-ler cuts down in order to fund his enterprise. Similar to this, many countries are beginning to have problems with overfishing and over logging due to the fact that they take more than the environment can give back. The tragedy of the commons ultimately ends when there is nothing left due to the individual benefit of a single person or corporation. Although the group has gained, it can no longer gain because they have nothing left to use which can be seen in the end of the movie where Once-ler runs out of trees to cut down.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” (Dr. Suess) The quote infers to his book The Lorax. In the lorax a greedy company clear cuts the truffula trees that house the ecosystem around it. When they cut them down it results in a bad world. Although the words are whimsical and childish they hold strong meaning, so strong that states with major logging bad the movie. Dr seuss persist to talk about the relentless logging that crumbled the community. Although just a story, it is still happening in the real world today. In the Amazon Tropical rainforests cover about 7 percent of the earth's dry land. But those rainforests are being cleared at a rate of about 8.5 million hectares per year. They

Dr. Seuss displays an alternate universe where the Lorax is the speaker for the Truffala Trees. One day an aspiring entrepreneur, the Once-ler, discovered how versatile the trees really were and began to distribute the product. The Once-ler calls the Truffala Trees byproduct, Thneed; the public quickly admires the product. Thneed was made from Truffala Trees and due to the demand for it, Truffala Trees were quick to dwindle in numbers. In ladder years, a young boy hears about the almost extinct trees and tries to find out why they are no longer are abundant. The young boy finds the Once-ler, who tells him “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot nothing is going to get better it's not” (Dr. Seuss) Deforestation and the destruction

The Lorax—The Significance of Taking Environmental Responsibility Originally written as a children's story but then produced into a movie in 2012, The Lorax, written by Dr. Seuss, is a colorful and ebullient film that arouses grins on the faces of adolescents—and even adults. However, although the movie is full of exuberant energy and enthusiasm with upbeat songs and avid characters, it underlies and addresses a significant ethical issue regarding the ruination of the natural world and unfortunate result of it. The strenuous debate as to whether or not the environment is something to be crucially protected--regardless of industry and how it is sometimes a mainspring to environmental destruction—is a an predominant issue in the film and continues to become an evident discussion in what we know as environmental ethics. Nevertheless, The Lorax discourses the negative effects that the industry has on the biosphere and how it is important to consider the earth for the subsequent

Rainforests are a forest of tall trees in a region of year round warmth. There is an average of 125 to 660 centimetres of rain that falls yearly. Rainforests belong to the tropical wet climate group. Rainforests cover less than 6% of the Earths land surface but they produce 40% of the world’s oxygen. Rainforests are found in Central America, Africa, Indo-Malaysia and New Guinea. In the 19th century there were 6 million square miles of tropical rainforests worldwide but now as a result of deforestation only 2.4 million square miles remain. Orangutans are a large arboreal ape that is affected by the deforestation of rainforests. The Orangutans are threatened by habitat loss and illegal hunting. Palm oil is the edible oil

Rainforests are being destroyed at a rate of 150 acres a minute. If this fact doesn’t astonish you then understand that that means a total of 78 Million acres a year. While this is in itself a horrible act it is also causing many species to go extinct thanks to loss of habitat. The main culprits of this are large corporations such as McDonald’s and Burger King. The greed of large corporations leads them to mistreat earth’s largest and most inhabited forests, leaving many species struggling for survival.

he Lorax, by Dr. Seuss is a light-hearted but cautionary tale with a critically important message. If we do not collectively take responsibility for the stewardship of the environment, then our own world will soon be like the one that the Lorax left behind. Left to the devices of greed-based business interests, the resources of our world are being consumed at an abominable rate. And soon, they will all be gone. So while the Once-ler did eventually see the error of his greedy ways, it was already close to too late for his world.

In the Air Unit, we learned the importance of preserving not only our trees and nature but also protecting our environment as a whole from Air, Noise, and light pollution. In one of the first activities we did in class, we watched The Lorax(2012). At first the movie based on the original Dr. Seuss book, seems like just a normal movie for kids. But after analyising it in class, we understood the deep connections it had to conservation movements. How each of the characters connects a role player in the conservation movement in the 20th century. We took a look at what our country would look like without trees and how we are letting corporations dictate how things go in the world. Throughout the entire movie it is never said “stop cutting down trees”, so it is not necessarily pitting our resources versus companies which is sacrificing our nations economy. It is merely suggesting that we tone it down, and be more productive and use the resources like they contain more value. Another activity that pointed out the worlds pollution problem was the Dirtiest Countries Card Game, it exploited our perspectives on the world’s leading polluters. We also researched these countries to see why maybe they had so much pollution. For instance, China has taken little to no efforts to recycle their large amounts of waste and work on their industrial waste. A lesser known pollution is light pollution, a consequence of outdoor lighting and includes such effects