When he learns of her wish to see a real tree, Ted seeks out the Once-ler, a ruined old businessman ... the land over the protests of the Lorax, Ted is inspired to undo the disaster.

The Lorax character says this to the Once-ler in the book as trees are chopped down. "NOW ... thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, there's not enough Truffula Fruit to go 'round.

The protagonist of this environmental-disaster tale is a creature called the Lorax, who "speaks for the trees" and stands up to the Once-ler. "The tree was not dead at the time it fell ...