I Speak for the Trees!

Dr. Seuss's furry forest sage just turned 38, and his forever timely message continues to fuel the passions of early childhood initiates. But Seuss's classic children's book is more than a mere plea to end forest clear-cutting. Released in 1971 with the rise of the environmental movement, it's about values, materialism and the irreversible costs of runaway corporate greed.

"But those trees! Those trees! Those Truffula trees! All my life I'd been searching for trees such as these!" If you recall the story, the sad old Once-ler lives in an industrial wasteland. One day he tells a curious boy about the Lorax and what was once an abundant forest paradise. That is, until the Once-ler began chopping down the lush Trufrula Trees, using their fur to mass-produce a garment called a Thneed that everyone thought they needed.

"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues," the Lorax cried out. But his warnings fell on deaf ears, and the forest soon became uninhabitable with pollution, driving away the Swomee-Swans, Humming-Fish and Bar-ba-loots. Finally, the last Truffula tree was chopped down, and the Lorax sadly floated away. But the Once-ler reveals that he'd kept a single, precious Truffula seed, asking the boy to grow a new forest, so that "the Lorax and all his friends may come back."

Passing the baton to the next generation, Illumination Entertainment just announced a 3-D, CGI production of The Lorax to be released March 12, 2012, on Dr. Seuss's birthday. Chris Meledandri, Fox Animation's producer of 2008's Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! is bringing the Horton team back together, this time under the Universal umbrella, and with Seuss's wife, Audrey, as executive producer. "Ted Geisel [Dr. Seuss] was prescient in an uncanny way when he wrote the book and explored themes of greed and how that can lead to the destruction of the environment," Meledandri told Variety.

Meanwhile, children can visit Seussville and "Go Green With the Lorax" in a special interactive Lorax page that offers tons of features, including a Save the Trees game and fun, simple tips for kids. While youngsters can participate in the Lorax Project, pledging to become better earth stewards, teachers will be impressed with a fat file of engaging classroom projects. And if that weren't enough, Facebook recently added a Lorax fan page with even more interactive content. The Lorax's current Green Tip of the Week at Facebook? "At holidays and birthdays give your family and friends the gift of saving the earth. Donate to their favorite environmental group, foundation, or organization."

Is it any surprise that the good folks at Dr. Seuss Enterprises are inspiring not talk, but action? Reminding us, in the words of that original fuzzy tree-hugger, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

Image courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons