For many decades booming businesses have scattered them selves across the U.S. Building factories to gain more profit and control. But what they don´t know is how much their business is affecting our planet and the health of us, the humans. Dr. Seuss brought the problem to the public eye with his well known book The Lorax. This may be a fictional tale, but I´ll tell you what isn´t: the history of Easter Island told from an article called Easter´s End published in the Discovery Magazine in 1995. Both stories create one big picture, one big lesson that must be learned before it´s too late.
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is focused around saving the planet. It begins with the ·Onceler· discovering an area that has acres of ·truffola· trees which he believes will be of great use to him in his business, which is producing ·theends· (THings that one might NEED). He hacks one down and begins with his project. Out comes this bear-like animal called the Lorax, who ·speaks for the trees·, telling the Onceler that what he´s doing is not right and he should leave the area alone and let it be. Throughout the story the Onceler continues to cut down the trees and starts building his factory which begins to pollute the area, once again the Lorax continues to pop up telling him how it must stop now before it´s to late. Before you know it all the native animals are gone, the skies are gray, the water is brown and full of sewage and not one truffola tree is in sight. What once was beautiful became ugly.
The article Easter´s End has a very similar story but what caused the Polynesians to cut down trees was not for business use but to move their statues that still stand to this day. To move statues and build boats to go fishing. The deforestation process eventually wiped out all the trees causing there to be a food shortage. Because Easter´s Island´s location is surrounded by the ocean the wind blew the top solid away since it was no longer secured by the roots of trees, making it a lot harder to replant. And since food became scarce they turned on each other and cannibalism began. They ended up wiping out their own tribe. Like in The Lorax, Easter´s Island began as a beautiful healthy place to live, and ended up being a deserted ghost town.
Both Easter´s End and The Lorax share a number of similarities, from environmental problems to the main event that created the destruction; deforestation, but the main similarity that they share is the overall theme. Both stories bring out the problem of how humans destroy their natural resources, like birds fouling their own nests. In The Lorax the Onceler was the one wanting to build a huge factory and start a business making his thneeds, not caring how much his project would affect the area around him. In Easter´s End the Polynesian society kept cutting down their trees in order to continue to create their towering statues never keeping in mind that maybe one day that would be a problem and cause their civilization to wipe out. Which leads me to another similarity that I noticed right off the bat, both stories have conflict which comes from competition. In The Lorax the competition came from the Onceler, always wanting to be the best and make his company grow, so it was a man vs. self conflict while in Easter´s End the conflict was more man vs. man because the Polyneisan society competed on who could build the biggest statue. The endings of both stories ended in a disaster-filled way. In The Lorax the animals ended up·leaving· and once all the truffola trees were gone so was the Onceler´s business and the beauty of the area. Easter´s End ended a bit more crazily, since the soil was not fertile and all the trees were gone, the wind from the ocean surrounding Easter´s Island blew away the soil making it hard to plant, leaving the civilisation with a shortage of food which led to them eating each other complete chaos.
As for the differences there is a small handful of them, one of the big ones being that one is a fictional children´s book and another is a real life event that happened hundreds of years ago. Although in both stories the problem started with deforestation, the uses of the trees were different. In The Lorax the Onceler used them to create his ·thneeds· while the Polynesians used their trees to buid boats to fish, but mostly cut the trees to help move their huge statues. But the big difference I see is that in The Lorax there was someone warning the Onceler that his actions were going to affect the animals and area around there. The Lorax always said ·I speak for the trees·. In reality he spoke for the environment as an environ-mentalist. As for Easter´s End there was no indication that anybody tried to stop that disaster, but if there were, maybe they were like the Lorax, but the people surrounding them were like the Onceler, never listening.
Both of these stories are a great example of why we should start thinking about how to make our planet better, if we keep living the way we are, allowing big industries to pollute the air and wasting our natural resources, it won´t be long until we´ll end up like The Lorax´s environment. Or treating each other the way people from Easter´s End would. Earth is a beautiful place and it´s something to take care of. This is our home; we don´t want to trash it. A small action can cause a chain reaction, so start today.
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is focused around saving the planet. It begins with the ·Onceler· discovering an area that has acres of ·truffola· trees which he believes will be of great use to him in his business, which is producing ·theends· (THings that one might NEED). He hacks one down and begins with his project. Out comes this bear-like animal called the Lorax, who ·speaks for the trees·, telling the Onceler that what he´s doing is not right and he should leave the area alone and let it be. Throughout the story the Onceler continues to cut down the trees and starts building his factory which begins to pollute the area, once again the Lorax continues to pop up telling him how it must stop now before it´s to late. Before you know it all the native animals are gone, the skies are gray, the water is brown and full of sewage and not one truffola tree is in sight. What once was beautiful became ugly.
The article Easter´s End has a very similar story but what caused the Polynesians to cut down trees was not for business use but to move their statues that still stand to this day. To move statues and build boats to go fishing. The deforestation process eventually wiped out all the trees causing there to be a food shortage. Because Easter´s Island´s location is surrounded by the ocean the wind blew the top solid away since it was no longer secured by the roots of trees, making it a lot harder to replant. And since food became scarce they turned on each other and cannibalism began. They ended up wiping out their own tribe. Like in The Lorax, Easter´s Island began as a beautiful healthy place to live, and ended up being a deserted ghost town.
Both Easter´s End and The Lorax share a number of similarities, from environmental problems to the main event that created the destruction; deforestation, but the main similarity that they share is the overall theme. Both stories bring out the problem of how humans destroy their natural resources, like birds fouling their own nests. In The Lorax the Onceler was the one wanting to build a huge factory and start a business making his thneeds, not caring how much his project would affect the area around him. In Easter´s End the Polynesian society kept cutting down their trees in order to continue to create their towering statues never keeping in mind that maybe one day that would be a problem and cause their civilization to wipe out. Which leads me to another similarity that I noticed right off the bat, both stories have conflict which comes from competition. In The Lorax the competition came from the Onceler, always wanting to be the best and make his company grow, so it was a man vs. self conflict while in Easter´s End the conflict was more man vs. man because the Polyneisan society competed on who could build the biggest statue. The endings of both stories ended in a disaster-filled way. In The Lorax the animals ended up·leaving· and once all the truffola trees were gone so was the Onceler´s business and the beauty of the area. Easter´s End ended a bit more crazily, since the soil was not fertile and all the trees were gone, the wind from the ocean surrounding Easter´s Island blew away the soil making it hard to plant, leaving the civilisation with a shortage of food which led to them eating each other complete chaos.
As for the differences there is a small handful of them, one of the big ones being that one is a fictional children´s book and another is a real life event that happened hundreds of years ago. Although in both stories the problem started with deforestation, the uses of the trees were different. In The Lorax the Onceler used them to create his ·thneeds· while the Polynesians used their trees to buid boats to fish, but mostly cut the trees to help move their huge statues. But the big difference I see is that in The Lorax there was someone warning the Onceler that his actions were going to affect the animals and area around there. The Lorax always said ·I speak for the trees·. In reality he spoke for the environment as an environ-mentalist. As for Easter´s End there was no indication that anybody tried to stop that disaster, but if there were, maybe they were like the Lorax, but the people surrounding them were like the Onceler, never listening.
Both of these stories are a great example of why we should start thinking about how to make our planet better, if we keep living the way we are, allowing big industries to pollute the air and wasting our natural resources, it won´t be long until we´ll end up like The Lorax´s environment. Or treating each other the way people from Easter´s End would. Earth is a beautiful place and it´s something to take care of. This is our home; we don´t want to trash it. A small action can cause a chain reaction, so start today.