Editorial: The UN climate report, 'The Lorax' and us
By The Herald Editorial Board
Two publications are worth attention this week.
The first, is the United Nation’s most recent update from its International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), nearly 4,000 pages long, by 234 authors citing more than 14,000 previous studies and papers, providing the most comprehensive-to-date look at global warming, its effects on the climate, global weather and ecosystems and what the world can expect in coming decades depending on our response to what the findings call “a code red for humanity.”
The second, a much quicker read, is Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax,” which this summer marks its 50th year since publication. “The Lorax,” for those who haven’t read it themselves or to a child or grandchild in a while, is Seuss’ cautionary tale — meant for adults as much as children — about the Lorax’s protests to an entrepreneur, the Once-ler, who’s turning Truffula trees into all-purpose Thneeds, “a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need.” That is, until the last Truffula tree is gone, along with the land’s teddy-bearlike Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, Humming-Fish and the Lorax, himself.
Years before the IPCC was first convened in 1988, Seuss appears to have understood the future choices we would confront in continuing our consumption of fossil-fuel “thneeds” even in the face of air and water pollution, changes in climate, loss of species and creation of an increasingly hostile landscape.
Both the IPCC report and Seuss’ classic can seem a little bleak, yet both speak of hope for change and a better future.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-the-un-climate-report-the-lorax-and-us/