Nicholas Sardano
9/3/2015
AP Environmental Science
Ms. Vilberg
Easter Island and the Lorax
The story of “The Lorax” begins with a man, known as the Once-ler, discovering a forest with vasts amount of truffula trees. The Once-ler represents the meaning that once a resource is used, it cannot be used again, just once. The Once-ler knows that he can make much profit and economy through the use of the truffula tree cloth found on it. With this knowledge he sets up his business and begins to cut down truffula trees to make “thneeds”. Thneeds are symbolic to the necessities of man with their wanting of resources in the real world. When the Once-ler starts cutting down trees, the Lorax, symbolic to an environmentalist in the real world, comes out of one of the trunks of a chopped truffula tree and approaches the Once-ler. The Lorax states that he “speaks for the trees”, meaning that he is the one representing nature to the Once-ler. The Lorax tells the Once-ler that he should not be cutting
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down any of the truffula trees in the forest, as they are crucial to the ecosystem of the area. However the Once-ler ignores this demand of the Lorax and continues to chop down more and more truffula trees without much resistance. Soon his business and profits begin to grow rapidly with many of the truffula trees being cut down. The once-ler creates new machines and contraptions to cut even more of the truffula in the ecosystem for more profits. The Once-ler is quickly depleting the resource of truffula trees for the ecosystem which forces the fish and the birds to leave the area to find a new home. The Lorax begs the Once-ler to stop this madness, but it is already too late when the last truffula tree is cut down. When the last truffula tree is cut down, the Once-ler finally realizes the destruction he has caused to the ecosystem of the area. The Once-ler now spent his days in his old house and gave the last truffula tree to a boy for him to plant. The Once-ler has hopes of the boy creating an amazing ecosystem like the one the Once-ler first saw. The story of Easter Island begins with the Polynesians first discovering this mysterious tropical island that is 2000 miles from any other landmass in the area. When they land on this island, they see that there is a massive tropical ecosystem on this island with many trees. The Polynesians use this ecosystem much to their advantage and soon proves to be their downfall. The Polynesians would use the wood more multiple purposes, such as using them for food, canoes, transportation of statue heads, and to create shelter. There were many uses for wood and the Polynesians thrived on this resource for some time. They were able to produce a large population of people with this abundance of resources. However as the population of Easter Island increases, so does the demand for more resources. Soon this resource of wood depleted due overpopulation on the island which is what started the chaos on Easter Island. Because of the removal of trees from the island, it was difficult for other plant life still existing on the island to survive under harsh water conditions. There were no more trees to cut down and the Polynesians had to accept the hard fact that they could use wood for its many purposes anymore. Eventually the Easter Island population killed off all the other animals in the island for food resources and decided to initiate warfare on each other for the remaining resources. The Polynesians now had to rely off of cannibalism to survive on the island and kill other people. Eventually there was no one else to eat and everyone basically died on the island. The destruction of the trees caused massive changes to the ecosystem of Easter Island and its species. The Lorax and Easter Island are very similar in that they are both tragedy of commons.
Both locations had lavish forests and wildlife in them. And in both situations, a surplus in demand caused the depletion of resources in the environment. In the Lorax it was the rapidly growing business of thneeds while in Easter Island it was the high demand of resources from overpopulation. Both stories depleted resources and ultimately changed the ecosystem and environment of the area because of it. Once the resource was depleted both the Once-ler and the Polynesians disappeared from the location as well. Moreover the animals that once use to live in these two environments were gone because the resources could not sustain them any longer. In addition, the Once-ler saw a decrease in profits when the thneeds were quicjly depleting while the Polynesians saw chaos consume the population in Easter Island. Now the Once-ler’s business is gone and the Polynesians are dead with the tragedy of
commons. The Lorax is different from Easter Island in that the Once-ler learned his fault of depleting the truffula tree resource while the Polynesians did not learn the reason of their downfall. The Once-ler used the trees for economic profits while the Polynesians used trees for survival and food. Moreover, the Polynesians did not have a person that warned them of the dangers of depleting resources while the Once-ler was warned by the Lorax of the dangers that soon followed the depletion of the truffula trees. In addition, the Once-ler kept a seed in hopes of being able to save the truffula trees and create a new ecosystem full of them while the Polynesians had absolutely no hopes of regaining resources. The Polynesians also turned cannibalistic on each other while the Once-ler only got bankrupt from the tragedy of commons. Although the two stories have only slight differences from each other, they both show the consequences of tragedy of commons. The tragedy of commons is a very serious issue in the world today and many people cannot see this problem. These two stories have brought much awareness to the public but there is still much to be done to teach society the dangers of depleting resources. Overpopulation is a serious issue in our world today and it does not seem to be getting any better now. There are already many tragedy of commons happening currently in the world and a clear solution to these problems is not known. The best thing we can do is make sure we do not make the same mistakes the Once-ler and the Polynesians did in our environment.
The Lorax has a very pessimistic view on how we humans are using the environment or our needs. Something he said was that cutting down the trees leaves nothing for the environment; meaning that trees are a big part of the environment and if we cut them down it’ll be very unhealthy. Another thing the Lorax had to say is about how unhealthy for the environment it is to cut down the trees for our benefit, and that we care
As nature is destroyed the connection between the land the people is destroyed as well resulting in the loss of culture. In The Rabbits, as the invaders urbanize more land the native numbats become sad and devastated over the lost of land. Their culture is that they are part of the land and the nature, this means as they lose the land they are also
He gives an example of a college student that found a red spider. This student, ironically, passes the Endangered Species Act and becomes powerful. This student rose from the bottom because of his “conservationists” beliefs. The example allows the writer to move into a mocking conclusion. He states that these power hungry men and women do not actually know best for the environment as much as property owners do. Just because they state that they are “ all for the environment”, it doesn’t mean that they know
The Barbiloo bears had to leave their homes because the trees provided food for the bears. Also the birds were forced to leave after the air had become contaminated with awful gases that filled the air. The fish also played victim, the water had also been contaminated from all the toxins being thrown into the water. The Lorax and The Silent Spring tell close to the same story and have the same story. They look at what having factories, communities and, humans and what it can do in an environment without out our
The second idea of the island archetype is that isolation reduces humans to their most basic tendencies. The absence of law, structure, and order either leads to complete serenity, insight, and innocence, or the opposite: destruction, chaos, and confusion. In both of the stories, the latter is what occurred. One example of this from Lord of the Flies is shown in the quote “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (181). One way this shows complete chaos is how they kil...
It shows the intimate knowledge that the tribe has on where and when to get food, and also how to predict predators. It turns the forest environment from intimidating and unknown, to understandable and friendly .... ... middle of paper ... ...
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
In the story of The Island of “Kora”, the island had been devastated by a violent earthquake that had been triggered by a volcano eruption four years earlier. The island which had prior to the disaster been about twenty square miles in size and been reduced to less than a fourth that size to about four square miles. The island prior to the earthquakes had previously been able to support comfortably 850 to 900 people. It was a peaceful island where the inhabitants got along well. Because of the disasters the lives of the inhabitants had been changed forever.
He believes that the wilderness has helped form us and that if we allow industrialization to push through the people of our nation will have lost part of themselves; they will have lost the part of themselves that was formed by the wilderness “idea.” Once the forests are destroyed they will have nothing to look back at or to remind them of where they came from or what was, and he argues everyone need to preserve all of what we have now.
If the Lorax was not a voice of the environment, the Once-ler would still find different harmful ways to produce his popular product, Thneeds, that everybody in the town of Thneed-ville wanted. It is human nature that propels people into outdoing themselves when ideas come into mind. Going above and beyond is an ideal idea that people consistently turn to when they want to succeed. The Truffula trees symbolize natural resources in the environment that can be cut down very quickly but take time to grow back. The Once-ler always wore a pair of green gloves while he worked on producing Thneeds.
Human beings have made much of purity and are repelled by blood, pollution, putrefaction (Snyder, 119). Nature is sacred. We are enjoying it and destroying it simultaneously. Sometimes it is easier to see charming things than the decomposition hidden in the “shade”.We only notice the beautiful side of nature, which are benefits that nature brings us: food, fresh air, water, landscapes. But we forget the other side, the rottenness of human destruction. That is how human beings create “the other side of the sacred”. We cut trees for papers, but we fail to recognize that the lack of trees is the lack of fresh air. Therefore, it is crucial to acknowledge “the other side of the
Benzon, William. Talking with Nature in "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" PSYART: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts, article 042011. Available http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/articles/psyart/2004_benzon03.shtml. March 12, 2010
Leopold’s view is a glorified dream at best. While most people do acknowledge the need for some type of ecological consciousness, the one illustrated by Leopold is far from probable. Today’s society is overrun with the desire for speed and convenience, and driven by competition. Asking the busy world to stop, step backward, and work the concerns for such things as soil, rocks, or oak trees into its contracts and agreements is a foolish notion. It has come to be that to most individuals, the sight of a city skyline that is bustling with business and life is just as pristine as the sight of a natural forest.
“The Lorax” is a poem written by Doctor Seuss was published in 1971 and is very popular among children. It takes place in a dystopian society in which greed takes over. Use of language is also important in this poem. The poem leaves an underlying message of how greed is bad. It also tackles issue such as environmental impacts.
Overall, Robinson Crusoe’s ship crashing on the island forever changes the ecology, and biodiversity. Robinson colonized the island by introducing invasive species, European crops, and enclosing areas of the island. This colonization would lead to the islands decent in, wildlife habitation, and biodiversity. Although, these concerns would change the ecosystem on the fictional island they are the signs of colonization, and improvement in the lives of the inlands inhabits.