I might be behind on the literature front, but a coworker just pointed me in the direction of a Dr. Seuss book called The Lorax. I picked it up at the Strand, and it’s this environmentally conscious children’s book about a man who chops down all the trees in the land to make some generic product called a “Thneed,” and basically destroys everything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2WDVamI2BA&feature=related

And then the Hardwood Forest Foundation and the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association were annoyed because they thought it made the logging industry look bad, so they came out with a book called The Truax, meant to be a rebuttal to the Lorax.

What do you think of the Lorax as a children’s book? As I was reading it, I was reminded of the movie WALL-E. How else can we educate children on environmental issues without being preachy? The NRDC provides this page with links for kids.

Try the Planet Slayer Game.You are a spaceship guarding the earth, and lots of different objects fly at you that you either have to shoot or let hit the earth. You pick at the beginning whether you want to destroy the planet or save the planet. This determines which objects you want to let hit the planet (if you want to save the planet, you let the solar power, wind power, recycling icons, etc, hit the earth; if you want to destroy the planet, you let the garbage cans and aerosol cans, etc, hit the earth). I wonder which one is easier…?