#title The Lorax & L-P #lang en #pubdate 2026-06-23T03:51:28 #authors Mary Norbert Korte, Dr. Seuss #date Spring 1995 #source Mendocino Environmental Center Newsletter (106 W. Standley St. Ukiah, CA 95482), Issue 19. <[[http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/8221]]> #topics radical environmentalism, direct action, #notes adapted from the Dr. Seuss original by Mary Norbert Korte Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean, and the song of the Osprey rang out in space... one morning, Merlo’s L-P came to this glorious place. And there were the trees! The Redwood Trees! The bright-colored tufts of the Redwood Trees! Mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze. And, under the trees there were big cats and deer frisking about in their cat & deer suits as they played in the shade and ate Redwood fruits. From the rippulous river & pond came the comfort, the comfortable sound of the Salmon a-spawning while splashing around. Ol’ Harry Merlo the Baron of L-P Didn’t see any of that tranquility All he saw were the Redwood Trees. But those trees! Those trees Those Redwood Trees All his life he’d been itching O how he’d been scheming O how he wanted to cut down those Redwood Trees! In no time at all, he set down a great L-P Mill - Plop! He cut down a million Redwood with one chainsaw chop! And with great belchy stinks and with great toxic spills he took that sweet wood; chewed it up in his mill. The instant he’d finished he heard a ga-Zump! He looked. He saw something pop out of the stump of the tree he’d chopped down: She was old; she was young; she lived in the woods; she lived in town; she had lots of kids; she lived all alone; she had a clenched fist and her brilliant eyes shone. “Mister!” she said with a sawdusty sneeze, “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. And I’m telling you, sir, at the top of my lungs - Sir! You are crazy with greed. These words you must heed: Stop cutting these trees! STOP CUTTING THESE TREES! I repeat,” cried the Lorax, “I speak for the trees!" “I’m busy,” Merlo told her. “Shut up, if you please.” And then... Oh! Baby! Oh! How Merlo’s L-P did grow! Now, chopping one tree at a time was too slow. So he quickly brought in his great Feller-Buncher which whacked off four Redwood Trees with one cruncher. He was making board-chips four times as fast as before! But the next week the Lorax knocked on Merlo’s L-P Office Door. She snapped, “I’m the Lorax who speaks for the trees which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please. But I’m also in charge of big cats & the deer. They can’t drink the water and they can’t breathe the air! Now if they can’t, I can’t either!” she said, “And you can’t think when sawdust fills up your head! You’re glopping the river where salmon once hummed! No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed. So they’re dying off. O their future is dreary. They’ll walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn’t so smeary." And then Merlo got mad. He got terribly mad. He yelled at the Lorax, “Now listen here, witch! All you do is yap-yap, and bitch-bitch-bitch-bitch! Well, I have a duty to stockholders (I want it all) & I’m telling you: I intend to go on doing just what I do! And for your information, you Lorax, I’m figgering on biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING and BIGGERING turning more Redwood Trees into chips ‘n boards which everyone, everyone, EVERYONE hoards!” At that very moment, they heard a loud whack! From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then they heard the tree fall. The very next-to-last Redwood Tree of them all! Almost no more trees. No more boards. No more work to be done. So, in no time Merlo, his Bobby, his Company men every one will wave good-bye. They’ll jump into Company Cars & drive away under the smoke-smuggered stars. And the Workers, the loggers will be left ‘neath the bad-smelling sky outside the big empty Mill selling hamburgers to tourists cleaning motel rooms & front yards after Unemployment runs dry. But NOW, Folks of the Forest now that YOU’re here the words of the Lorax are perfectly clear. Unless all the Folk care a whole awful lot nothing is going to get better. It’s not. THE WORDS OF THE LORAX ARE PERFECTLY CLEAR! I AM THE LORAX I SPEAK FOR THE TREES! TAKE DIRECT ACTION AGAINST CORPORATE GREED!