While Dr. Seuss' book "The Lorax" came out nearly 41 years ago, its message still rings true for environmentalists, teachers and students who flip through its pages.
For Read Across America Day today, which is also Seuss' birthday, the theme is "Read for the Trees," and "The Lorax" was chosen to promote that theme. A movie titled "The Lorax" is also being released today in theaters across the country.
The book chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, a furry creature who speaks for the trees, since they can't speak for themselves. The Lorax opposes the greedy Once-ler, whose face is never shown in the book but who symbolizes industrial corporate greed.
In the story, a boy living in a polluted world visits the Once-ler, who recounts his history of chopping down "Truffula trees" to make clothing from their furry foliage.
On Tuesday, in honor of Read Across America, Patrick M. "Porcupine Pat" McKinney, environmental education coordinator for Schuylkill Conservation District, Pottsville, and Lisa Barnes, Title I Reading Specialist for Blue Mountain Elementary East, Cressona, and Blue Mountain Elementary West, Friedensburg, read the book to fourth- and fifth-grade students and talked about what it meant for the environmental movement.
"Since the book came out in 1971, it shows that people have been caring about the environment for a long time," Barnes told the students. "There are a lot of people in support of it because of the environmental issues in it."
McKinney said that, to him, "The Lorax" is like a spark plug, It gives environmentalism energy, which people see and then they have a model.
"Really, what it's about is stewardship and caring," he said. "Stewardship means you are a conservationist and they want that. 'The Lorax' has been around for many years and people love Dr. Seuss."
McKinney said "The Lorax" is one of several Seuss books with a message, another being "The Butter Battle Book," which talks about trying to live in peace.
"The environment, according to Dr. Seuss, is something we all share, and we should be able to aspire to be something like the Lorax, where you care, because I know for me, when you talk about trees, no matter where you are, what time of the day, you're always surrounded or within two feet of something made from a tree," McKinney said.
Some of the things McKinney mentioned made from trees include cellulose in carpets and paper.
While the book was controversial when it came out due to its depiction of capitalism and the logging industry, McKinney said it remains controversial today.
McKinney told the students about growing up in Ohio near Lake Erie. The book originally referred to pollution that plagued the lake at that time and McKinney said that he was in junior high school when the book was published, and it may have helped raise concern for the environment around the lake.
Since then, the lake has bounced back and is now a national recreation area.
The line in the book that read, "I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie," was removed more than 14 years after the story was published after two research associates from the Ohio Sea Grant Program wrote to Seuss about the cleanup of Lake Erie.
At the end of Tuesday's program, the students were given leaves made from construction paper and were asked to write down what they could do to help the environment.
The leaves were then taped to a paper tree on a wall in the school, where there is also a cut-out of the Lorax.
The ideas written on the leaves included taking shorter showers, not wasting water and electricity, planting trees and flowers and not littering.
"This (program) is to get young people to read and I know that nowadays they have different styles of reading, but there's nothing like a book in your hand where you can actually feel it and experience it," McKinney said. " 'The Lorax' was something that conserves and teaches you to make sure you don't waste and you love what you have."