My kids love Dr. Seuss, so for Christmas we gave them The Lorax.  I don’t know how I reached age 36 without reading this brilliant 1971 classic. Now that I have, I think it the single most imaginative presentation of the tension between industry and environmentalists ever written.  The story opens when a boy comes to a desolate corner of town to hear the story of “the Once-ler” (a green being who is never shown throughout the book except for his arms and legs).  After the Once-ler receives payment from the boy (consisting of 15 cents, a nail, and the shell of a great, great, great grandfather snail) he recounts how he first arrived where they now stand, back then a beautiful forest of Truffula Trees, colorful woolly trees that supported various fantastical creatures.  As soon as the Once-ler drives his covered wagon into this paradise, he becomes so enamored with the fuzzy tufts of the Truffula trees that he sets about cutting them down to make Thneeds.   Why?  Because “a thneed is a thing that everyone needs!”

The Lorax, a short furry animal resembling a sea otter, enters the picture as “a voice for the trees” (think annoying environmentalist, but cuter).  From the time the Once-ler chops down his first tree until he cuts down the last, the Lorax keeps trying to warn him of the dangers to the Bar-ba-Loots, who survive on Truffula fruits. The Swomee Swans and the Humming Fish also suffer from pollution and smog of the thneed factories.