Meg Lowman, the real-life Lorax, has a few words from (and about) trees

From National Geographic:

The movie version of the Dr. Seuss’s classic conservation story The Lorax tells the story of Ted, a boy who wanders beyond the walls of Thneedville, a superficial, plastic-loving city, in search of a real tree to impress the artistic Audrey. By the ruins of the once beautiful Truffula-tree forest, he meets the Once-ler, who tells Ted of the tree-loving Lorax, who used to say, “I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” It turns out National Geographic has its own Lorax: Meg Lowman, an NG grantee and director of the Nature Research Center at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. She is currently working to conserve forests in Ethiopia.

You’re widely known as “Canopy Meg” but can we call you a real-life Lorax?
I do speak for the trees.

So what do the trees have to say?
“We will keep you healthy and happy if you just leave us alone.”
The rainforest, while we are asleep, will do all our ecosystem services—all the things that trees do that are essential for humans and animals to stay alive—and they don’t really need anything in return.

Read the full interview