The Lorax

For Environmental Literature analysis, I chose The Lorax written by Dr.Seuss, first published in 1971. The reason why I chose this book for this assignment is, even thought The Lorax is a children’s book, I believe the book gives messages and warns us about protecting our environment. My topic for my blog is environment protection and conservation. Therefore, I thought this book relates to the topic for my blog and well addresses the environment protection and conservation.

In The Lorax, the plot addresses the ways in which it is very influential to viewers. The plot is about Once-ler tells his story of how his town is ruined because of him. He tells a young boy that he ruined the town by cutting down all the “Truffula trees”. Even thought Lorax, a speaker for the trees, warned Once-ler, not to cut down the trees, he did not listen and cut down the very last Truffula tree to get raw material for him and he led the town to a disaster. The plot in this story is very similar to a real life we live in. We ruin environment for our own goods and ignore the message that environment is giving to warn us. There are messages such as global warming that the environment is giving us but we have not stopped ruining the environment.

The intended audience for this literature is to children since this book is a children’s book. However, the message in the book also applies to not only children but also adults. Moreover, adults are one who needs to protect environment and put into actions. The message this book is giving is effective because by making it into a children’s book, children can learn about how we should protect our environment.

This book has beautiful drawings about our nature along with the story. This form of creative expression create an understanding of environmental experience to children, If it is a novel about environment, children can be hard to understand and feel the message from the book, but by putting drawings it gives children an easy way to understand about environment protection and conservation.

Environment protection and conservation can be dealt with conventional, institutional ways. Creative expression such as books facilitates the expression of the message to the public. There are a lot of institutional ways of this topic already, but it is hard to get people’s attentions who are not interested. Books are one of the ways that can give message to the public who are not interested about environment because even though they are not interested, they can get the message through books.

EPA- Environmental Protection Agency

 

The first time when I knew the existence of EPA was from The Simpsons Movie. I was in middle school, and when I finished the movie, there was only one thought on my mind. What does EPA do exactly? I did some research on it, and found out EPA is an Environmental Protection Agency in the United States. EPA created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress (According to Wikipedia entry). The funny thing is that in The Simpsons Movie, EPA is portrayed as the “bad guys”. They are the antagonists in the film who encloses Springfield in a large glass dome without any permission from people in Springfield. Since I knew about the EPA through The Simpsons Movie, at first, I also thought EPA is bad. However, after I did my research, EPA is not the “bad guys”. However, there are a lot of people who are against EPA but personally, I believe EPA is doing what is saving and protecting environment just like their name. If you go to blog.epa.gov/epaconnect/ , the blog highlights latest events from EPA leadership across the country.

 

50 WAYS TO HELP THE PLANET

http://www.50waystohelp.com

I found a cool website that has a list of 50 ways to help our planet. These are easy ways but very helpful to conserve our environment. Things we can accomplish on a daily basis such as hang dry instead of using dryer machine, recycle glass, do not pre-heat the oven, wrap creatively, and so on. These are very simple ways to help our planet that we can actually put it into action in our lives everyday. We do not have to be an activist to protect our environment. There are just easy ways we can do to help our planet!

ART PROJECT

For my art project, I decided to make an earth globe that represents global cooling. While I was watching The Day After Tomorrow for my environmental film assignment, I thought creating an earth representing global cooling would be a good idea to deliver my message as well as it’s relation of my topic for my blog.

My art is an earth wearing a white fur coat. I wanted to represent global cooling in a fun and cute way. The earth globe is wearing a fur coat. This shows how the earth is feeling cold just like human. On the top of the globe, there is a tree that is frozen. Technically, the top of the globe should be North Pole, and there are no trees in North Pole, but I thought putting frozen trees on the top of the globe would deliver my message of global cooling well.

My topic for my blog is environmental protection and conservation. Global cooling is one of the issues that caused by human’s indifference of environmental protection and conservation. Therefore, I wanted to give a message that if we do not care about environmental protection, someday; global cooling will come into our lives. It is time for us to care about protecting our environment and conserve them before it is too late.

NO IMPACT JACK!

 

For “NO IMPACT”, I chose not to use disposable products for one week. Everyday, I have been using so many disposable products such as disposable cups, plates, take out containers, forks, knives (plastic “silverware”), basically everything relates to food. Even my contact lenses were disposable. Through this project, I realized I have been harming the environment by using disposable products everyday at least using 5-10 disposable items. I could realize a lot better when I start “No impact”, because I became aware of those things. I also realized not using disposable products are a lot harder than it thinks. Sometimes, I cannot choose any options. For example, when I go to school cafeteria, they automatically serve the food in a plastic take-out container without asking me. Therefore, I had hard time to remind myself to hand my lunch box before I order my food. For one week, I brought my drink tumbler to get sodas or coffees at the cafeteria, and lunchbox for taking out my food. Honestly at first, I was kind of embarassed to hand my lunchbox to the server because all the servers looked at me strangely. However, I became more confident about my “No Impact” project and tried to spread this to my friends. It is not too hard to bring my own cup or plate to the cafeteria. Even though a week has passed, I decided to keep not to use disposable products because it just simply good for the environment!

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004)

I chose The Day After Tomorrow for an environmental film that deals with environmental issues with relation to the topic I am addressing in my blog. The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science fiction disaster film. This film is about an effect due to global warming which causes extreme weather of global cooling of earth. I thought this film has a relation to the topic I am addressing in my blog, which is environment protection and conservation because in the film, the disaster is caused by global warming, which is one of the reasons why environment protection and conservation is urgent and we need to take action right now.

There are several points in the film that the film is addressing that are influential to viewers. Since the plot is about global cooling and leading earth to an ice age due to human’s selfishness, the viewers can relate to themselves because the disaster is happening on earth and affecting human’s lives in danger. Also, the film addressed these issues very realistic, therefore, while viewers watching the film; they can actually question themselves about what if this happens in our real lives.

I believe the intended audience of this film is to everyone. I watched this film several times, and when I first watched it, I was in fifth grade. Even though I was really young, I was scared about the fact that what if the disaster happens in real life. The film warns the audience that it is time to care about our environment and conserve environment before it is too late. The message the film is telling to the audience is very effective because by showing the extreme results due to human’s indifference of environment conservation.

The Day After Tomorrow’s creation of an understanding of environmental experiences and values are very creative. By giving the audience the “what If” the human lead the earth to an ice age, audience can feel how environmental experiences and values are vital in our lives and how we were so indifference and selfish when it comes to environment. We often forget how environment is vital and important to us because environment always has been with us. We do not realize how important to protect environment because we never imagine about a life without environment.

I believe addressing environmental issues through films or other forms of art are good ways. Not everyone is interested in environmental issues. However, by addressing the environmental issues through movies, audiences who are not interested in environment can also pay attention to it because it is in form of films. Films are good ways to deliver issues or thoughts to others. This form of creation expression facilitates the expression of the message to the public because films can warn the viewers by showing the result through film. My topic, environmental protection and conservation are an issue that needs more attention to the people. Of course there are a lot of organizations or individuals who are interested and making efforts to protect our environment. However, if more people are involved and care about environmental protection, there will be more changes and better results.

Where The Streets Have No Name – U2

The music I chose this assignment is Where The Street Have No Name by U2. This song originally released in August 4, 1987. I thought this song reflects the environmental theme I chose which is environmental protection and conservation.

The song’s lyrics are very abstract. It does not mention the word environment specifically but the song has environmental message. In lyrics, there are lines that say “I wanna feel sunlight on my face. I see the dust cloud disappear without a trace. I want to take shelter from the poison rain. The city’s a flood, and our love turns to rust. We’re beaten and blown by the wind, trampled in dust. I’ll show you a place high on a desert plain.” The song is talking about environmental pollution and how he wants to see a better world without pollution. In the lyrics, the song points about environmental contamination such as acid rain, mentioned in the lyrics as “poison rain” and climate change due to the environmental pollution.

I believe the intended audience for this music is for everyone. There are no specific people who are in charge of environment protection. We should all make an effort to protect our own environment. I think the message that U2 tries to give to us is very effective because since it’s a song, everyone can pay attention by listening the song and the lyrics.

Since the song’s lyrics is written by Bono and his own experience, this creative expression creates an understanding of environmental experiences to the audience by the artist’s own experience. In this way, audience can empathize to the lyrics of this song.

There are a lot of ways environmental protections and conservation can be dealt with in conventional, institutional ways. Every country has its own law to protect its own environment and campaigns and movements to prevent polluting our environment so as to protect them. I agree that creative expression such as songs or movies facilitate the expression of the message to the public because campaigns and movement drags attention to only people who are interested in environment. However, creative expression such as songs and music can appeal to general audience. Even to people who does not care about environment can show interest through watching movies or listening music that has environmental themes.

About this blog.. (introduction)

This blog will focus on two topics of environmental topics, Environmental protection and conservation. I have been always interested in these two issues and I felt that there are easy ways to help protecting and conserving the environment by taking a small step ahead. My blog will introduces various ways to protect environment and issues relates to environmental protection and conservation.