The Story of a Real Life Lorax

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Written by Alana Lea, Changents.com

My name is Alana Lea and I speak for the rainforest. As I shared with the Care2 community a year ago, I’m kind of like The Lorax (in case you’re not up on your Dr. Seuss, this children’s book chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler!) except I’m a work of nonfiction.

Since then, so much has transpired – including the planting of 4,194 new trees back in the rainforest where they belong. Unfortunately, even more trees died in their little plastic bags before finding their homes so I became the representative of a rural association of 13 organic nurseries to ensure this wouldn’t happen again.

As a result of the donations from Care2 members and an AMAZING benefit concert put on by the Kids For Environmental and Social Action in Los Angeles, 2,000 trees were purchased from one of the nurseries by April 2011. By June, thanks to an online crowd-funding effort and a soulful Rainforest Sunday at the Agape International Spiritual Center, another 800 were sent to their homes in the field.

Right before leaving Brazil in January 2011, I met with representatives of The Nature Conservancy hoping they would want to buy thousands of organically grown trees from the small nurseries at a fair trade price to help keep the growers in business, as I had done. They said they liked how grassroots my reforestation project was, and they wanted to go visit the people of Cunha where I’d just given the first truckload of 1,000 trees. But my Brazilian project adviser resisted this meeting, and I only learned why when I got back to the US.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Therese K.

3:43PM PDT on Apr 17, 2012

Blessings to every honest action taker for environment and animal protection.
Thanks for that article.

April 17
send a green star

Sally W.

7:40AM PDT on Apr 14, 2012

I love what this guy and his group is doing, Thank you Thank you Thank you. I believe people like you will he the hero's of this world.

April 14
send a green star

Teddie S.

5:41AM PDT on Apr 14, 2012

If you are not aware enough, or computer savvy, you may not know to whom you are contributing. It is a sad situation, where you think you are doing good and you find out that it isn't necessarily true.
Keep googling.

Alana L.

12:48AM PST on Mar 10, 2012

Does anybody else find it interesting that the Lorax's non-profit partners are also partnered with Monsanto http://www.monsanto.com/ourcommitments/Pages/conserving-biodiversity-with-conservation-international.aspx, and Dow Chemical http://www.dow.com/news/corporate/2008/20080715c.htm, makers of Agent Orange, now being used to deforest the Amazon? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Monsanto's partner is Conservation International, whose partner is Dr Seuss: http://origin-www.seussville.com/loraxproject/ be sure to click through to learn more...

Dow's partner is The Nature Conservancy, whose partner is Universal for The Lorax: http://www.nature.org/aboutus/workingwithcompanies/companies-we-work-with/universal-pictures-the-lorax.xml

I don't think Dr. Seuss would really like that.... do you?

What do you suggest for an effective call to action?