Memo 1 - 4%

- This story is about a little boy who chances upon the street of the Lifted Lorax, a
gloomy, barren land with a building where the Once-ler lives. The Once-ler explains
to the boy the massive destruction of the once pristine, untouched land.
- Before everything, the Once-ler came upon pristine, untouched nature and found it
beautiful. He liked the clean ponds, clouds, fresh morning breeze and especially the
Truffula Trees, which he has been searching for his whole life. The Truffula Tree here
is a natural resource due to its softness and smell.
- The Once-ler decided to capitalise on this untouched land by settling down, opening
a small shop producing small amounts of Thneeds from the tuft of the trees.
- This is when the Lorax, a creature claiming to represent the rights of the trees, came
to stop him. The Once-ler claims that he is doing no harm and is actually adding
value to society as he is producing Thneeds, a useful commodity that everyone
needs.
- As he makes his first sale, the demand makes the Once-ler realise the business
opportunity/ profitability of making Thneeds and calls over his whole family to help
out with this business.
- We see the likes of industrialisation happening - his small shop expands into a
factory that mass produces Thneeds, together with the mass deforestation of Truffula
trees.
- The use of technological innovation to increase production is seen where the
Once-ler created the Super-Axe-Hacker that cut off 4 trees at once.
- The Lorax shows up again to convince the Once-ler to stop, arguing for the species
who have been affected by mass industrialisation - the Bar-ba-loots who left the area
as they no longer had Trufula Fruits which they depended on for survival.
- However, the Once-ler continues with mass deforestation, driven by the treadmill of
production. Although there were no other competitors, he was driven by the
capitalist pursuit of surplus value and profits made off nature. He says “Business is
business! And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies, you know”
 - The mass production of Thneeds resulted in massive environmental destruction - the
Swomee-Swans were driven out, unable to sing due to air pollution while the
Humming Fish had to leave as they were unable to live in polluted waters
- We see a clear example of lack of ecological rationality - the Lorax is trying to
sacrifice economical gains to achieve ecological protection, yet the Once-ler is
unwilling to do so
- Mass production continued until the last Truffula Tree was fallen - as they ran out of
resources, the Once-ler’s family of workers quickly packed up, leaving behind
destroyed land and an empty factory unable to produce more/
- The Lorax just flew out of the place, leaving a pile of rocks with the word “unless” -
signifying unless someone cared enough, the place would never be restored. Hence,
the once-ler gave the boy the last Truffula tree seed and entrusted restoring the
ecosystem to him.
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- Therefore, this story is a prime example of the Second Contradiction of Capitalism -
where the main goal is to make profits via capitalism by extracting natural resources
and labour. However, as there is inadequate compensation to nature to replace
natural conditions, nature here is threatened - there are no Truffula Trees left, which
works against capitalism itself as the Once-ler is no longer able to produce and sell
Thneeds anymore.
- We also see an example of Jevon’s Paradox - where the improved efficiency of
cutting down Truffula Trees leads to increased resource consumption, speeding up
the second contradiction of capitalism.
- Lacking ecological rationality, the Once-ler was driven by the treadmill of production
to produce without considering the environmental damage. This is because of the
tragedy of the commons - since the Truffula trees can be considered as a common
where everyone is able to access it, individuals are incentivised to make full use of it
for their own benefit, eventually leaving none or destroying it for others.
- Without a conjoint constitution mindset, the Once-ler made no effort to close the
metabolic process, to restore the trees once cut down. Once produced, the Thneed is
not recycled as well and there was no effort to restore the pond back to its original
state after being polluted. Nature here is devalued and not compensated for.
- We also see climate injustice happening, where those who are suffering (the species
kicked out of their homeland) are suffering disproportionately when they are not the
ones producing or polluting.

Approach for environmental restoration suggested here?

- The approach for environmental restoration suggested here would be to handover
the restoration to a third party - the boy here could possibly signify an NGO or the
state to be in charge of regulating the restoration and future use of the Truffula Trees
as a natural resource. The government can also regulate and monitor the level of
emissions (air and water pollutants, amount of Truffula trees cut down) by setting
laws. However, this is against capitalism and the idea of a free market as
government regulations could create distortions. From a free market
environmentalism viewpoint, perhaps once restored, the government could assign
private property rights to the Truffula Trees so that others will take care of it.
- To evaluate its chances of success, this can be measured using the IPAT or ImPACT
model, where I=PACT. Another alternative measure would be ecological footprint.