Customer Reviews

The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature

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An oddly structured book, a collage of information rather than a single thread (it would make a good basis for a hypertext/multi-media presentation). It covers a lot of ground and some readers may find it lacks depth, though it is very readable and has extensive bibliographical references.

The first chapters each contain a combination of traditional scientific information, artistic views, personnal anecdotes and views from various cultural perspectives of the value of and the human impact upon this planet. Each of the first five chapters uses a classical element (air, water, fire/energy, earth, spirit/life) as a theme.

He goes on to present an opinion of sensible human needs and values; personal liberty, community, diversity and similar ideas that can be attended to in ways that are both humanly satisfying and environmentally beneficial.

His last chapters bring in a profoundly personal note; we are in the midst of and party to the harm being caused to this planet, which can be a crushing realisation. He offers hope that small deeds are better than no deeds, and that moving on to more wholesome lifestyles, even if they're not perfect, is needed and acheivable now. He gives example stories and suggestions that make sense for city living people.

It doesn't require deep, complex thinking. It's not lost in a new age fairyland. It's pragmatic, and sound, engaging both intellect and emotions. For me it offered affirmation of my belief that finding a place in the world that is both emotionally right and rational with a lifetimes long pespective is achievable and important.

It is hard to say whether all Suzuki's facts are absolutely valid or not, especially when his discussion turns to what the Earth's true carrying capacity for humans is - but that is slightly beside the point here. The most important part of environmentalism is to wake people up and make them realize the effects that their everyday actions have on the world around them. Suzuki does this by explaining 1) how everything in this world is connected, 2) pollution of one area will invariably affect another area, and 3) we really do not understand all the elements needed for the proper functioning of the environment. This should make any person reflect on their own actions. The world's environmental problems (which in turn are deeply connected to human problems) will not be solved by governments' imposing regulations and all this Kyoto b.s. (not that Kyoto is bad... it's just a very small step and it is disgusting to see that both USA and Canada are stalling), change will only come when each individual makes sure their OWN actions do not make the situation worse. Buy organic when you can afford it, reduce or cut out meat entirely from your diet (I think 80% of farmland is used to keep livestock alive), buy local products, recycle, compost, reduce energy consumption. This isn't hippy crap - hippies never had that much self-restraint - this is about being a responsible person so that your grandchildren will be able to go outside and play without gas masks. Suzuki's book was what opened my eyes when I was 17... and it should do the same for most reasonable people.

"The Sacred Balance" is the most significant book I've ever read. Before having read it I knew little about the environment and how it's being affected by humans. I'm now in an Environmental Studies major. It is very well written, not hard to read, covers a large area of environmental issues and also goes into human sprituality and human nature. It became disturbing at times because of my previous ignorance and relative indifference towards the environment, but I am all the more enlightened now. This is a life-changing book and I would strongly recommend it to everyone.

This is an excellent and enlightening work about the general state of the planet, humanity as a species, where we belong on the planet and what it means to us in terms of sustaining us as a species for the long run. Well-written and divided into chapters which could be summarized as humanity, air, earth, water, fire, community, love, spirituality and balance, this book paints an accurate state of the world picture with facts as well as metaphors. It always presents its concern about the greater picture without losing sight of the details. A great balance of general science and spirituality, with just enough facts and personal stories of many to make the points convincing, this book also is threaded with impacting and eye-opening quotes and poetry from a variety of sources and people. A superb book, overall, from someone who has seen a lot of what he wrote about. This book should be on the curriculum for senior year high school so that the future generations can get a good grasp of the world as they become contributing adults in that world which they will own and determine, more impacting than ever, for future generations. No matter how much or how little they will get from it, every bit helps at a time when that is truer than ever in the past from every one of us living today. Don't get me wrong, though, it's not the book that's profound. It's what you do with what you learn from it which will be.

Humanity is creating problems of a size and magnitude unprecedented in Earth history. We are razing the forests, causing mass extinctions, and have befouled earth, sky and water with with deadly toxins. While clinging to faith in science and progress, deserts quietly creep in on our venerated civilization. Within the human economy (community sounds too hospitable) as well, we see signs of collapse: some "800 million people go to bed hungry every night; and in wealthy industrialized nations, chronic unemployment, violence, social alienation, drug abuse, crime, unhappiness and the disparity between rich and poor appear to be rising. The sense that something is wrong is pervasive... People seem to feel helpless and pessimistic about the future." All of this, it must be added, in an era that many historians and pundits tout for "unprecedented scientific and technological progress." Suzuki believes that, although abundant with information and technique, we lack a working worldview and have utterly disconnected ourselves from the living planet. "What we need," he says, "is a new kind of science that approaches the traditional knowledge of indigenous communities." What we need is a new story, sense of place, deep connection and meaning - and that's exactly what this book provides. Suzuki's life-affirming narrative explains who we are, where we came from, and our proper place is in this complex, interdependent world. A beautiful blend of ancient wisdom and modern scientific thought, The Sacred Balance provides nothing less than the complete picture.

A MUST READ

j.w.k.

John Muir wrote something like "if you try to isolate one thing in nature, you find that it's connected to everything else." (Sorry for the paraphrase, but I can't find the original quotation.) Suzuki's book puts us back in the natural scheme of things (where we belong) and finds the inevitable threads to physical health, mental health, spiritual wellbeing, and, by inference, a public policy agenda. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Not many science books have been written which are able to captivate its readers and hold their attention like "The Sacred Balance". Almost like a mystery thriller, it compels you to turn each page and keep on discovering amazing facts about the world we live in.

We learn about the origin of the planet and the painstakingly slow but methodical evolution of all the life forms which inhabit it. The atmosphere, the seas, the soil, the plants, the animals and the interdependent web they form, is described in a logical manner such that you think it is so obvious. David Suzuki is clearly not just a brilliant scientist but a very good educator. His description of an ecosystem is "a complex of community of producers, consumers, decomposers and detritivores, which interact within boundaries imposed by their physical surroundings to cycle energy and material through the web of life."

It is surprising to read that the ozone layer is only as thick as a sheet of newspaper. A quick independent check confirmed that it is indeed only about 2-3 mm thick. The diameter of the sun at 1.4 million kilometres wasn't surprising enough for me to rush off and check, but it is pretty awesome. Each second the sun burns 637 million tonnes of hydrogen to create 632 million tonnes of helium while releasing some 386 billion billion megawatts. The sun has been aflame for 5 billion years and is about half way through its own life cycle.

"Sacred Balance" tells us that mankind's technological ability to exhaust the planet of its natural resources at an alarming rate and the associated increase in demand on food, water, trees, the land and the atmosphere threaten to modify the sacred balance to such an extent that our survival is under threat. A frightening picture is painted by conjuring up a time-lapse film taken from space over the last ten thousand years so that each millennium passes in one minute. For the first 7 minutes the movie looks like more like a still photo as nothing changes. Gradually, as time progresses, forests and greenery begin to disappear in parts of Europe, Central America, China and India. 12 seconds from the end, 2 centuries ago, the thinning spreads more intensely until with 6 seconds to go eastern north America is deforested. The action accelerates in the last 10 seconds, 5 seconds, 3 seconds and so on until in the final fractions of a second it looks as if a plague of locusts has descended on the planet. Seen this way the planet's forests are being irrevocably lost in a mere tick of the geological clock. Plotted on a chart this forest devastation leaps almost straight off the page in our own lifetime.

Finally a series of "good news" stories are told which serve to give us hope that even an individual with a will can make a difference. From mangrove planters in Kuwait and Vietnam to the "Clean up Australia Day" campaign which has grown to become "Clean up the World" good things are happening. However, a lot of momentum is going to have to shift if the cycle is to be reversed and the sacred balance of our fragile and wonderful planet preserved.

This is a real wake-up call. Suzuki has quite a knack for describing today's biggest problems in understandable terms and has solutions that every person can incorporate into their lives. It's time to change our ways and this is a great place to start.

There is a wave of change flowing through the scientific community which recognizes the spirit. To that end Dr.David Suzuki has provided us with a literary source of awakening. In the Sacred Balance the Unity of all human beings is addressed. We are made aware of the interconnectedness of man and the universe. Dr.Suzuki embraces willingly that which was long dismissed by science - the spirit and soul of man.

The Sacred Balance is a path that leads to wisdom. This is a book that challenges the mind while caressing the soul. Filled with insightful perspectives , it is a creative vision of great social import. We are given a transformative message that if followed leads one down a path of hope and optimism. This is a living document to our moral evolution.

Dr.Suzuki is a gentle revolutionary breathing new life into the mainstream mindset. With insight and imagination we traverse space and time , all the while being infused with Dr.Suzukis unique perspective. This is a life journey and nature itself is praying for our survival. The spiritual challenges are many and The Sacred Balance has opened a window that we all may see the truth.

This book is a voice of knowledge that speaks to us all. The door to enlightenment has been opened.

Dr. Suzuki is probably one of the best-known Canadian scientists living today and is one of the few who can present science to the non-specialist in an accessible fashion. Dr. Suzuki is probably best known for his long running television series, "The Nature of Things," which airs on Canada's national television network, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).

To start with some introductory remarks, I found the Introduction, Chapter 1, and the last Chapter to be the most fascinating parts in the book. The first chapter discusses the dire state of the environment and how close we are to the point of "no return." The last chapter is a collection of several stories of how individuals (including Suzuki's 12 year old daughter!) have, on their own, started NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) to plant trees, clean harbors and other practical activates to fix some of Earth's environmental problems.

The middle section, comprising little more than 1/3 of the book's content is an introduction to the "Four Elements," (i.e. Air, Water, Earth and Fire). This is the most scientific section in the book and it was somewhat difficult to maintain interest in it. There are descriptions of the composition of air, the layers of soil, the composition of water and so on. I do realize that this sort of information is necessary to properly understand the environmental problems of our day though; in the same way one must understand some biology to understand genetic engineering or cloning.

There were some memorable quotes in the book. However when, Suzuki quotes others authors, he mentions titles, publishers etc but never the page numbers! It is quite annoying if one wanted to look up the context from which a quote came. Suzuki quotes from a wide variety of sources; the Romantic Poets, the Bible, ecologists, Native American spiritual texts etc...

My major problem with Suzuki is that he seems to frequently advocate monism as the way to solve many of the environmental problems facing us. In addition, he stretches the idea of the inter-dependence of life (e.g. food chains or food webs) to the idea of reincarnation. In other places, he incorrectly elevates the status of the created world by saying that the world has spirits in it and is conscious etc (i.e. animism). At one point he quotes Annie Dillard, author of, "Teaching a Stone to Talk," (page 190), "We as a people have moved from pantheism to pan-atheism." It almost seems that he's saying there are only two options: Enlightenment naturalism/atheism or Eastern/Native American pantheism or animism.

He devotes almost a whole chapter to the spiritual/philosophical aspect of environmental issues and doesn't give Christianity a hearing!

To conclude, Suzuki gives a harsh critique of Western consumerism, materialism and other ideas that have contributed to the consumption of Earth rather than the responsible stewardship of Earth. He offers several different ways that individuals can help to reduce environmental problems (e.g. taking public transport or walking/biking when traveling a distance of less than 10 blocks). However, Suzuki is way off in his spiritual answers here!