Pity the logging industry. They face one of the most powerful foes in American Politics. A man so influential that he continues to mold the thinking of millions from beyond the grave. I'm referring, of course, to Dr. Seuss.
Remember the Lorax? Who spoke for the trees? Well, evidently too many children were taking its conservationist message to heart. The industry had to fight back, rhyme for rhyme. Terri Birkett, who's married to the head of the National Oak Flooring Manufacturer's Association, wrote Truax, the anti-Lorax. (The book is published by NOFMA and the Hardwood Forest Foundation, and distributed to elementary schools all over.) Truax is a logger (True Axe, get it?) who calmly rebuts the arguments of the shrieking, hysterical, tree-hugging Guardbark, as they stand in a clear-cut meadow surrounded by cute animals. Done in a badly-rendered, charmless, pseudo-Seussian style, "Truax" exposes our nation's kids to arguments like this on endangered species:
Would anyone mind if we lost, say, a tick
That carried a germ that made Cuddlebears sick?
Or what about something that's really quite nice,
Like the Yellow-Striped Minnow that lives in Lake Zice?
How far will we go? How much will we pay?
To keep a few minnows from dying away?
Darn those minnows, always getting in the way of profits -- I mean, progress. In the end, Guardbark is convinced of the industry's logic, and flies away, saying "I am the Guardbark, ward of the trees, / And I like the way that you're managing these!" The book's quite a read (I read a reprint of it in this month's Harper's, but you can read it on-line here) and I encourage you to check it out. If you want something even scarier, read this article at the Utne Reader on corporate control of environmental education. And you thought advertising was bad.
Jill Weglarz replies: "I tried to read "Truax" and was so creeped out by that woman's hideous depiction of environmentalists that I backed out right quick! That Guardbark scared the crap out of me. Almost made me want to go chop down some trees myself rather than side with him. And why is he so swarthy? What's THAT about?"
| Environment | Children's Books | Propaganda | Logging |
