Lorax - Plastic plants and bottled air
Lorax, the movie which revolved around a city called Thneed-Ville, which was made up of plastic entirely. The roads, trees, plants, and even the grass was made up of plastic. The people living inside that town were oblivious to the fact that all the vegetation and greenery they had was not natural but rather artificial. The main character of the movie was a little boy named Ted. He was in search of a “Real Tree,” not an artificial one, that he wanted to give to a girl that he really liked. Finding a real/natural tree in the city of Thneed-Ville, was almost impossible. The city had been robbed off of its natural vegetation, and it was completely relying upon technology and primarily batteries. Due to this lack of natural vegetation, and large reliance on fossil fuels, Thneed-Ville had bad quality air, which wasn’t at all fresh. This is where the primary antagonist of the movie comes in, Aloysius O'Hare. O’Hare was the major of the city and he also had a company which sold fresh air. He had deliberately deprived the city of natural vegetation, which directly affected the amount of fresh air present. He basically worsened the air quality so that the sales of his canned fresh air go up. During all of this, Ted, the little kid, went out of town in search of a guy named “Once-ler,” who knew what exactly happened and who caused it. This is where the guardian of the forest, The Lorax, comes in. Lorax was a cute little orange guy who had the responsibility of taking care of the forest. He was really upset when Once-ler chopped down one of the trees to make thneeds. With that, the little summary of the movie has come to an end, and now we will investigate the matter with our scientific goggles on.
Moving on, if we carefully analyze the movie and try to connect it to the world that we currently live in, we can most definitely pick up the pattern. With the modern world producing more and more plastic as the time passes, it is slowly degrading the air quality. Our step towards the automation of just about everything has increased the demand for batteries, and now if we look around us, we can see the immense amount of battery powered objects; Almost everything around us runs on a Duracell. If we take EVs as an example, we might say that they are green, but are they actually green? According to Jon Whiteaker:
“While EVs on the road have a net-negative impact on carbon emissions, their production is carbon intensive. Research from Berylls Strategy Advisors found that the manufacture of an electric car battery weighing 500kg emits 74% more carbon dioxide than producing a conventional car in Germany.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research estimates that a mid-range EV car with a 40 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery bought in Germany in 2019 would need to drive 52,000km before its lifetime emissions fell below that of comparative diesel or petrol vehicle. For luxury EVs with large batteries (120kWh) that increases to 230,000km.
The carbon emissions linked to EVs will depend on the energy mix of the country they are manufactured and driven in. If most of that country’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, then the carbon footprint of that vehicle will be larger.” (Whiteaker et al., 2021)
Due to this increased carbon footprint, we are slowly but continuously heading towards destruction. If the air pollution continues to increase like this, there would come a time when we will have to purchase canned air, in the same way as shown in the movie, and we would crave for a breath of fresh air. The movie also hosted artificial plants made from plastic, which we can relate to the current scenario of increased demand of artificial plants and flowers for home decoration. Just because the artificial ones have fancy lights and look cooler as compared to the natural ones, it does not mean that they do the environment any good, unlike the natural ones. According to Tavella:
“Before you replace the contents of your much-toiled over plant corner with a bunch of fakes, though, Tavella cautions that there is one potential drawback. “I worry about it from a sustainability perspective,” she says of the trend. Many fake plants are made from plastic, which pollutes oceans and the environment.” (Munro, 2018)
In conclusion, we must try to control our dependence on technology, as most of the tech that's produced leaves a large carbon footprint. In addition, we must also start working on conservation of the environment, while simultaneously promoting green technology (environmentally-friendly technology). If we do not do all of these necessary steps in time, that day isn't far away when we would be walking around with bottled air for our survival.
References (Text):
1- Whiteaker, J., Gardham, R., Jon Whiteaker Jon Whiteaker is a senior editor at Investment Monitor focusing on FDI in the energy s, & Jon Whiteaker is a senior editor at Investment Monitor focusing on FDI in the energy sector. (2021, November 1). Opinion: Let's be honest, batteries are bad for the environment. Investment Monitor. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.investmentmonitor.ai/insights/batteries-are-bad-for-the-environment.
2- Munro, C. (n.d.). Are fake plants the one thing Grandmas & Millennials have in common? Why Fake Plants & Flowers Are Coming Back To Home Decor. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/fake-artificial-plants-home-decor-trend.
References (Images):
1- https://movies2mate.com/movies/the-lorax/
3- https://www.pluginindia.com/blogs/how-green-are-electric-vehicles
Comments
Post a Comment