Thread by @rebecca_altman

TIL The Lorax was inspired by the state of Lake Erie in the late 1960s.

#eutrophication

Source: @danpatrickegan The Life and Death of the Great Lakes. books.wwnorton.com/books/the-deat… via @wwnorton #lorax

Seuss was, Egan writes, quiet upset about phosphorus burdens on Great Lakes/Lake Erie. Long before Geisel became Suess, he did ad work, including for Flit! pesticides. Of course, by 1960s+, research in Great Lakes basin taught science a lot about wildlife effects+ of DDT.

#envhist

There’s more to the Erie-Lorax story. Seuss, @danpatrickegan notes, revised Lorax, later taking out line re: Erie, a nod to civic/science to address pollution, though the lake was still struggling to recover. See: The Life and Death of the Great Lakes for deets. #envhist

For contribution of Great Lakes basin to body of env science/wisdom, consider reading about #TheoColborn (either her own writings, or Sheldon Krimsky’s Hormonal Chaos.) But also Michael Gilbertson: eea.europa.eu/publications/e… #envhist #POPs

Like The Lorax, sci understanding of endocrine disruption & low-dose toxicity were gifts, too, of the Great Lakes Basin. From studies of its wildlife Colborn puzzled the pattern in research documenting non-cancer effects in chronic organochlorine exposed wildlife. #envhist #lorax

I’ve heard lovely tales about how the scientists at @SilentSpringIns — named for Rachel Carson’s book that brought unexamined overuse of DDT and brethren OC pesticides up for debate in the 1960s — gathers to read the Lorax once a year in a staff meeting. ❤️ —The End—

Source on Seuss and Flit: dartmouth.edu/~library/digit… (Dartmouth being Seuss/Geisel’s alma mater).