Times Advocate, 1992-04-01, Page 26Pape 26 'Times-Advooale, April 1, 1992
Science doesn't hold all
the answers, says Suzuki
y Adrian Harty it for its wealth, and 'ell it when no
GRAND BEND - Science, claims longer needed. Native populations,
Dr. David Suzuki, falls short of our who have lived here for thousands
expectations of what it can do for of years, could never understand
us. how humans could treat the land in
Suzuki brought this message to a such a way.
standing room only audience of The clear cutting of forest is a
more than 250 crowded into the good example of expieiiation.
Grand Bend Public School gymna- "If you see a clear cut, you know
sium Saturday evening. They had in Your heart that it's wrong - that
come to hear the noted environ- this is not the way to treat this
mentalist and author speak about earth," said Suzuki.
his new book Wisdom of the Elders Yet, he said, silviculturalists try
and to meet the man who is predict- to justify the clear cut method and
ing inevitable environmental col- force environmentalists to prow
apse unless mankind changes its why it is wrong, even thump it
ways. obvious to the naked eye.
Suzuki is touring Southwestern Nevertheless, Suzuki said tie does
Ontario promoting his book, and see a change happening, where sci-
Saturday's address and booksigning entists are looking more at the in -
was arranged by Saga Bound terconnection of life and earth.
Books of Grant, Bend. A glance "Without something more, our
around the room confirmed that knowledge of science and technolo-
much of the audience had travelled gy becomes destructive," he said.
a fair distance to be there. The knowledge of something
"Thanks for coming out on a Sat- more has always been a part of the
urday night. I imagine there are cultures of aboriginal people
Netter things to do in Grand on a around the world.
Saturday night," said Suzuki before "We need to have respect for a
he launched into his explanation of tradition that is much, much older
why the 20th century will be seen than ours," insisted Suzuki.
as an era of "unprecedented" He said he does not expect to dis-
change because of how science cover an "aboriginal science", but
brought flight, instant communica- has found that aboriginal people do
don, computers, a walk on the use methods that can affect the sci-
moon, nuclear weapons and power, entitle world - like the need for an
and an understanding of molecular integrated "wholistic" way of see -
biology to decode "the blueprints of ing the world.
life". "Science looks at the world by
Counter to this, he said, is the fragmenting parts of it...to an abo-
fact that the world population has riginal person you cannot separate
gone past five billion, world food a rock, a tree, the sky. They are all
production is dropping, topsoil is one piece," he said.
disappearing and fish stocks are di- Natives typically see a brother-
minishing. hood between man and the animals
"There is no place on this earth that does not exist in western cul -
you can go and escape the toxic de- tare, which usually sees animals as
bris of our industrial might," said lower foams of life "as if putting
Suzuki. animals down somehow raises us
In just 30 years, he continued, up".
there will be no wilderness left on Only two percent of our DNA
earth except for what has been de- makeup separates man from a
liberately set aside for preservation. chimpanzee, said Suzuki.
Our elders, he said, remember a The host of The Nature of Things
very different world with a differ- continued by saying that we do
ent climate, different water quality, need to consider more where our
and more fish in those waters. food and water comes from, and
"Canada is nothing like what it where it goes when we're done with
was when our elders were five or it. He said he visited a grade three
six years old," said Suzuki, saying class in Tokyo and asked them
that time has come to redefine the where fish came from.
meaning of progress. "Those children thought fish
Science, said Suzuki, is only as lived and grew in styrofoam con -
good as its latest experiment. And tainers covered in Saran wrap - but
even 'those experiments encourage don't laugh because I bet your chit -
detachment from .what is being dren do too."
studied, and a way of looking at the People, he said, are coming to
world only one part at a time. recognize we cannot continue our
Science, he said, can explain abuse of the planet forever. We
much, but misses the point. need the same sense of respect for
"It would be like trying to ana- the earth as the elders in the aborig-
lyse a Beethoven symphony as a final tribes have.
variation in wave pressure," ex- He said while we cannot ittmoome
plained Suzuki, quoting Einstein. aboriginals ourselves, we ace time
Immigrants to North America same sense of lv'skip with ilhe land
came without an understanding of in the farmer who refuses to give
the land, and only saw a need to up his land in a bankruptcy - it has
mold it to their needs, or to exploit nothing to do with economics, he
Dr. David Suzuki reads from his latest book "Wisdom of the
Elders" for an audience gathered at Grand Bend Public Schoo
Saturday evening.
just loves the land.
The same applies, said Suzuki, to
the Newfoundland fishermen who
continue a generations -old lifestyle
in old-lhshioned, remote villages.
Suzuki said a foundation has
been created, the David Suzuki
Foundation, which aims to set tip a
board that will Include women, ab-
originals, and children to "create a
vision ofa sustainable future" to
change society from a grassroots
level.
To conclude his speech, Suzuki
read from his Declaration of Inter-
depemdence, which he said will be
presented at the World Earth Sum-
mit in Rio this summer.
"We are but one brief genera-
tion...the future is not ours to
erase," said Suzuki, who received a
landing ovation.
WIth minty of copies of his latest book to go round, Dr.
George 4fcEwan and Ann Marie Mittleholtz, both of Exeter.
David Suzuki signs a few for
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