Are We All Dr. Seuss Characters?

Out of all of the scary claims and statistics in the readings for this week, the one that stood out to me the most was this one quote: “the kids of 2100 will simply think that the Adirondacks is just the way it is supposed to be, because they have known nothing else” (Mckibben, 57).  As upsetting as this statement is about our future, it makes me wonder how true this is for me.  I have grown up in a world where short winters are expected and rain on Christmas is normal.  I remember one year there was a big snowstorm on Valentines Day that gifted us two snow days.  It was the biggest storm of my life, but what was so memorable about this storm was my mother’s insistence that this kind of storm had characterized all of her winters as a child.  They are becoming increasingly rare.  What else do I not think to question because it is “normal” to me?  The autumn colors may be duller, but duller is relative.  They are the brightest I can ever remember them.  The composition of the flora and fauna may be different than it was 150 years ago due to logging and development, but the Adirondacks are just as quaint and wild as I can remember.  This makes me think of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.  Because the reader sees the whole transformation it is shocking that anyone would ever exploit the environment in the way the Once-ler does.  Maybe if we had this kind of outside perspective that spanned all of time we too would be jolted by the shock of what we have done to our planet, but as long as we are simply remain characters stuck in the pages of a Dr. Seuss book, we cannot truly understand what we have lost in the past.