For years people have grown up reading the colorful world of Dr. Seuss. He made us laugh. He made us rhyme. He invented new words that bear no meaning outside the context of his stories. The man was a genius. Yet tales like Green Eggs & Ham and How the Grinch Stole Christmas had less effect on worldly culture than the first environmentalist handbook, The Lorax. This yarn is non generational as it shows how beauty and landscape can be destroyed by industrial domination. Born in 1974 the children’s author saw the technological boom, and seventy years later he used The Lorax to tell the world why there are no more trees left. This playful bible of the environmental world may have been just the start for the great doctor; and if he were alive and writing today, one has to wonder what he would have to say about global warming.
The winter of 2003 has been surprisingly cold. With mountains of snow and weeks so cold that frostbite could appear after five minutes of exposure, this has been one of the coldest seasons ever recorded. That’s surprising because the temperature of the Earth is rising.
Rising? Yes, one degree over the past century, with most of that change occurring in the past twenty years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Maybe that one degree is too small or insignificant to notice, but that doesn’t mean it’s an ignorable problem. One degree is the difference between 32 degrees Fahrenheit and 33 degrees Fahrenheit–one of those freezes water, the other doesn’t. One degree may not affect a summer tan, but in time it will leave people getting those tans on a boat since the sea and ocean levels are on the rise.
Theories on global warming are popping up all over the place. A few say it’s an inevitable piece of some master plan for the universe. Others think that the Earth is a living creature and time is taking its toll. But the EPA and Sierra Club say that most of the global warming within the past fifty years can be directly or indirectly attributed to human activities. “Human activities have altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed although uncertainties exist about exactly how earth’s climate responds to them.”
Those greenhouse gases trap the sun’s energy after it passes through the Ozone Layer of the atmosphere, therefore, with the increase in gasses comes the retention of solar heat and radiation. This greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon, and it keeps the temperature to a hospitable degree, but that won’t last if we keep pushing forward to become an electronic nation. So it seems, we have some effect on Mother Nature’s temperamental attitude.
The global warming scare stems from the industrial revolution. Dr. Seuss’ Once-ler cut down a few trees to make thneeds, a multi-purpose sweater is the most explicable name, and free-market capitalism took over to destroy an entire forest and everything living in it. This parallels our society that gladly clear-cuts miles of forest so that factories can be erected and construct an army of Furbies–clearly a worldwide necessity, though one fifth of the problem is caused by the United States alone.
All sarcasm aside, humans have been partial culprits in global warming. Industry and technology have increased the greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere, but they are not the only problem. Cars, factories and power companies may exhaust greenhouse gases into the air, but environmental destruction may be a greater cause of increased temperatures. It’s not the gasses that cause the problem; it’s the ratio between gasses and plant life. With the rise of industry and population we find less and less plant life, such as the rain forests or oceanic plants, which absorb greenhouse gasses to live, and give off oxygen. Cutting down trees and spilling oil does do more than kill small animals–it kills people. It could be time to heed the Lorax’s warning.
According to the EPA, “rising global temperatures are expected to raise sea level, and change precipitation and other local climate conditions. Changing regional climate could alter forests, crop yields, and water supplies. It could also affect human health, animals, and many types of ecosystems. Deserts may expand into existing rangelands, and features of some of our National Parks may be permanently altered.”
Impacts like these shouldn’t require further explanation. The effects of global warming only start with these and in turn may completely change the world until there’s nothing left to change. Maybe it won’t happen in our lifetime, but the future is still a painful possibility. In New Hampshire alone, temperatures have risen two degrees in the past century and are expected to rise another four to five by 2004. Winters will see up to sixty percent more snow, with a possibly severe increase in winter storms, and summers will get even hotter. Protection from sea-level rise affecting the handful of coastal towns could cost over $300 million, just in this state.
Thankfully, New Hampshire was the first among the fifty states to take on global warming. Last April state lawmakers passed a law that aimed at curbing the problem, according to an article in The Concord Monitor last year. “The bill targets Public Service’s three fossil-fuel-burning power plants in Bow, Newington and Portsmouth. By 2007, it requires a 75 percent cut in sulfur dioxide, the chief component of acid rain and airborne soot; and a 70 percent cut in nitrogen oxide, which causes smog and acid rain. It cuts carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels, or about 3 percent. It also requires the utilities to measure mercury emissions, leaving tighter controls to future lawmakers.
“If the utility does not meet those standards, it must buy ‘pollution credits’ from out-of-state utilities that have cleaned up their emissions first. The concept provides a market-based incentive for industries to reduce pollution faster and at lower cost.”
The fiscal repercussions were expected to be about $5 million a year, which added forty cents a month to the average household electric bill–a tiny fee compared to the financial battle against rising ocean levels. Hopes for the law were that the rest of the country would take a similar action and make laws to reduce global warming across the nation. In time, global warming might take a step back. That requires more attention to the environment; meaning less cars and less industry. It’s been that way before, it can be again. Can we live with that? Yes.
So…Catch!” calls the Once-ler. He lets something fall. “It’s a Truffula Seed. It’s the last on of all! You’re in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds. And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all his friends may come back.