The Lorax Essay

“If I throw out this one plastic bottle instead of recycling it, it won’t make a difference at all, right?” Wrong. This is the entire premises of Tragedy of the Commons. One person thinks their tiny action has no impact on the world, like throwing out a plastic bottle, but it does. Eventually all these tiny plastic bottles from everyone on the planet will add up along with their other trash, and then landfills are built and pollution levels rapidly rise. If, on the other hand,someone was in charge of keeping their own land clean, they would be more conscious about their one ‘tiny’ action. The Bluefin tuna population all over the world is decreasing due to tragedy of the commons. People are overfishing these tuna on public land, even though
there is a program trying to slow them down, they fish anyway for money. A similar environmental issue occurred in Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. In this book and movie, the greedy, entrepreneurial Once-ler destroys an environment to make money. He has short-term success but in the end, is not satisfied after his fortune dies along with the environment.
The Bluefin tuna population and the plot of The Lorax are very similar. Both involve human cluelessness and greed for money, short-term success and long-term demise, and people trying to save the environment to no avail.Some people are not informed about the bluefin tuna issue, some are greedy for money, and others are both. There have been international conservation efforts to save the bluefin tuna population, but it has mostly just hurt businesses (National Geographic). “Illegal fishing in Europe has pushed the Atlantic bluefin populations there to the brink of extinction. (National Geographic)” These business owners don’t care about the population in the long run, as long as they get money and successful business now. The same thing occurs in The Lorax, whenthe Once-ler starts chopping down trees for his product. The tree population plummets, and the Once-ler keeps chopping because his empire grows along with his ignorance (Seuss).A large concept of Tragedy of the commons is short-term success and long-term demise. An essay about the Tragedy of the Commons describes many situations in which people use up a common resource too quickly, and they become wealthy at first, but that wealth goes away
later. Some situations include air and land pollution, freedom to breed leading to overpopulation, andthe decrease in the American bison population (Hardin). The bluefin tuna stocks have recentlyplummeted due to overfishing and extinction of the fish in some areas of the world (New York Times). The population decrease is a long-term issue that can be difficult to fix. In The Lorax, after the Once-ler starts chopping down more and more trees, he becomes extremely rich. After he chops down the last tree, and he can’t sell any more of his product, the Once-ler’s family and customers go away and his fortune has no more value (Seuss).During both issues, there has been a person or thing that has tried to warn and stop the people from destroying the populations and environment. When it come to the bluefin tuna population, that ‘thing’ is the Bluefin Tuna Research Program, BTRP, and the Global Tuna Conservation (PEW trusts, NOAA). These are both companies and research programs to help increase the population of the bluefin tuna and solve the tragedy of the commons problem. Still, there is overfishing occurring and the population continues to decrease (National Geographic). In The Lorax, the Lorax is a fictional character that “speaks for the trees” (Seuss). He tries to save the trees and the other animal that live in that environment, but is only ignored by the greedy Once-ler.It is obvious that the bluefin tuna population and the Lorax are very similar because they both relate to the Tragedy of the Commons. They both involve human greed, short-term success,and people trying to help to no avail. In the original movie version of The Lorax, there is a line ina song that says, “For he’s a jolly good Once-ler, aren’t we all.” All the blame is put on the Once-ler for destroying the environment, but it was everyone’s doing. They are all Once-lers. The only solution to Tragedy of the Commons involves sacrifice, which is something few humans are willing to make. They would choose economy over ecology, and as The Lorax showed, that does not make for a good ending. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not” (Seuss).