The Lorax and Reality of the World
The Lorax, the latest animation movie by Universal Studio was a hit among many viewers, young and old. It was the US 1st box office with gross sale of over $70 million in its first week of release from 2nd March this year. The magical story brought a very meaningful message for all generations. Dr. Seuss, the author of The Lorax, was able to convey his environmental concerns to his readers, especially when this book was first published in 1971, which was the beginning of the industrialized world.
Illustration of the Lorax movie (Source: The Lorax movie)
by Elis Tjandra,
The Lorax, the latest animation movie by Universal Studio was a hit among many viewers, young and old. It was the US 1st box office with gross sale of over $70 million in its first week of release from 2nd March this year. The magical story brought a very meaningful message for all generations. Dr. Seuss, the author of The Lorax, was able to convey his environmental concerns to his readers, especially when this book was first published in 1971, which was the beginning of the industrialized world.
Lorax, the orange creature who represents the voice of the trees was concerned and against the abusive use of the forest by the greedy businessman called Once-ler. In this story, Once-ler took no notice of the well-being of the nature. He was blinded by the material world and was only concerned about earning more profits for his company. His factory was not only causing the animals to become homeless but also resulting in water pollution to the pond where the Humming Fish resided and producing terrible smog that forced the animals to flee. Only after all the trees were gone, and leaving nothing except for a small pile of rocks, that Once-ler learnt and regretted his greediness.
This story is a good case study of the real industrialized world. Our earth is still in danger of all the pollution caused by human kind. According to the statistic published by United Nation in the United States alone, the municipal waste per capita is estimated to be 222,863,000 tonnes in 2005 (Source). Municipal waste is generated by households, commercial activities and other activities which are similar to that of household and commercial enterprises. It does not include industrial, construction or mining processes. U.S.A. is thus the largest producing waste in the world despite making up only 5 percent of the world population.
Illustration of a garbage dump (Source: Freedigitalphotos)
However, despite of the huge waste generated, there has been quite a numerous programmes that has been carried out as a community to reduce the waste generation. This includes programmes such as recycling, educating the people to reduce, recycle and reuse materials. They are encouraged to to work as a community to embrace this waste generation problem as one of their own and not only the government’s issue. Many resources over the internet, including the Environment Protection Agency website from the States, help to educate and to provide the materials, even for educators, to participate actively in educating the young ones.
Image illustration of a 'recycle symbol' (Source: Freedigitalphotos)
How about Indonesia? Indonesian government does try their best in protecting our environment and nature. Generally they are preoccupied with handling issues on chemical waste pollution by factories around the country and also deforestation by irresponsible and notorious agencies. You can read the following article by Greenpeace on Indonesia’s mass destruction of rainforest.
There are also various environmentally-concerned communities in Indonesia that try to play their roles as a concerned citizen. For example, Wishnu Foundation is taking charge on sanitation and waste management in urban places and tourist centres like in Bali. Indonesian Institute for Forests and the Environment is an educational organization that aims to educate the public about the natural environment and how we, as citizens, can take part to change the consumer behaviour and sustain the environment. Yayasan Pengembangan Biosains dan Bioteknologi is another example in which concerned citizens are trying their best to outreach to students and teachers in urban school by introducing educational programmes to be incorporated into school curriculum. Activities on the importance conserving the environment are organized to draw the attention of the future generation of the country.
It is indeed not an easy task to conserve and protect the environment as a community. So, what can we do to help? Do we just sit back and point our fingers to others for not doing the job for us? Why don’t we try to embrace it and to take ownership to solve this problem? Try to participate and to incorporate it into our daily lives to make our country a greener and more comfortable place to live in. It does not need to be a drastic change. We can start small by stop littering out of our car windows or even when we are walking down the pedestrian roads. Try to recycle, reduce and reuse items as much as possible. It will be even better if we could refuse the use of excessive plastic bags from our daily groceries shopping. Do it as a habit, spread the habit and be sure that the objective of your actions will have great impact to others and the society in the long run. Be sure that our actions are part of the solution to the environmental degradation in our country, not the problem.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Dr. Seuss, The Lorax.
