Ebenezer Once-ler was a sad, money-grubbing soul who cared little for the world around him.  His sole interest was the market-value of his assets.  What a miserable old coot!

        One chilly winter night he fell into a fitful sleep.  And yup, you guessed it, he was visited by the Lorax of Holidays Past.
“I speak for the trees,” the Lorax proclaimed. “Remember when the grass was still green, and the pond was still wet, and the clouds were still clean?”

        That old Once-ler did remember.  He rolled over and even he, that old grouchy-pants, almost smiled as he thought of the Brown Bar-ba-loots frisking about in their Bar-ba-loot suits as they played in the shade and ate Truffula fruits.  But upon awakening, he shook his head and said, “Back to work!” and his old familiar grimace returned instead.

        The following night as his eyes were just blinking, the fiery Lorax of Holidays Present appeared in the twinkling.  “I still speak for the trees!” he fairly shouted. “NOW…thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, there’s not enough Truffula fruit to go ‘round.  You’re glumping the pond where the humming fish hummed!  No more can they hum for their gills are all gummed.”  Then came a sickening smack of an axe as he watched a tree fall.  It was the very last Truffula tree of them all.
“But…business is business,” the Once-ler said, “and business must grow… doesn’t it?” he murmured, his confidence beginning to slow.

        On the third night, the Once-ler determined not to close his eyes fearing the Lorax of Holidays Future would appear. Nevertheless, the Lorax did so – the old dear.  He showed Ebenezer workers all in their cars, driving away under smog-smuggered stars.  “I see all that is left ‘neath the bad-smelling sky is my big empty factory, the Lorax and I,” cried the Once-ler as a tear fell from his eye.

        “Must it be?” he pleaded.  The Lorax nodded then said, “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”

        So this holiday, think of Earth’s seeds as your gift.  Plant them with care.  Give them clean water.  Feed them fresh air.  You’ll find life springing forth all around!  On this home where we’re forever… Earthbound.

        With apologies to Charles Dickens and Dr. Suess

        “There she is, the old town dump,” sighed Polly. “Just think,” Electra added as a tear slipped down her cracked screen. “So many of our ancestors are all slowly decomposing here.”  The Wayst family members - Polly Styrene-Wayst, Cole Ashe-Wayst, Sol Arre-Wayst, Electra Onick-Wayst, General Lon D’Fill-Wayst and others – had gathered for the holidays and to pay respects to their elders.

        Later, (because everyone was whispering about it anyway) Gen. Lon D’Fill-Wayst felt he just had to acknowledge Sol’s surprisingly teeny size.  So as the formal ceremonies concluded, he stood up, looked right at Sol and asked, “We’re all wondering; how do you do it?  The rest of us are SO bloated! Yet you’re just a wisp of a thing!”  “I’ll say!” Polly Styrene chirped in. “Look at me!  It’s like I can’t help myself from slopping out over everything.”  All the other forms of Wayst nodded in agreement.

        Blushing with embarrassment, Sol’s shattered panels sparkled like a million diamonds as he thanked everyone.  “Well you know,” he continued, “it should be no surprise that I’m so tiny compared to everyone else.” 

        Sol explained that, as a relatively new industry, it’s no wonder humans are concerned about the potential waste caused by solar energy generation. “However, folks sometimes forget that all energy generation and industrial production inevitably create waste materials.  It’s sort of accepted in developed industries.  But actually, compared to ya’ll, I’m just a little bit of a thing.  For example, over the next several decades it’s estimated I’ll likely create less than 1% of the waste that cousin Cole Ashe and Gen. Lon will.  And cousin Electra’s phones and screens and such will likely generate10 times more trash than me.  So you see, I’m just a drop in the bucket.

        “Also, some folks are concerned about a particular element, cadmium, that’s in some of my panels.  But for the panel manufacturers that use it, cadmium is less than 1/1000th percent of the photo-voltaic material.  And responsible manufacturers are finding ways to use a safer, relatively non-toxic form of cadmium.”

        As the Wayst cousins departed for their dumpy homes, they each vowed to sharply reduce their growth.  Because even these unkempt creatures don’t want a trashy planet.  After all, it’s the only home we’ll ever know and where we’re all forever… Earthbound.

         How’s your Latin?  Pope Francis has released “Laudate Diem” (Praise God for all his Creatures) - a message “To All People of Good Will – On the Climate Crisis.”  The following is a very brief collection of his actual sentences.
         “Climate change is one of the principal challenges facing society and the global community.  The world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point. What we are presently experiencing is an unusual acceleration of warming.  In the last fifty years the temperature has risen at an unprecedented speed.  At such a speed, it will take only one generation – not centuries or millennia – in order to verify it.  This change in average surface temperatures cannot be explained except as the result of the increase of (human release of) greenhouse gases.
         “A low, richer percentage of the planet(’s humans) contaminates more than the poorest 50% of the total world population, and per capita emissions of the richer countries are much greater than those of the poorer ones.  (These) effects (are) in the areas of healthcare, sources of employment, access to resources, housing, forced migrations, etc. 
         “Our care for one another and our care for the earth are intimately bound together.  The world that surrounds us is not an object of exploitation, unbridled use and unlimited ambition.  A healthy ecology is the result of interaction between human beings and the environment, as occurs in the indigenous cultures and has occurred for centuries in different regions of the earth.  We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it.  Thus we [do] not look at the world from without but from within.
         “We must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes.  Let us stop thinking, then, of human beings as autonomous, omnipotent and limitless, and begin to think of ourselves differently, in a humbler but more fruitful way.  A broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.”
         Sanctus Bovis! (Holy Cow!)  Pope Francis, is imploring 1.36 billion Catholics worldwide to step up.  Our beautiful planet needs each of us to change our relationship with Mother Earth toward one that nurtures all life.  After all, this is the only home we’ll ever know.  It’s where we’re all forever… Earthbound.