Essay Sample on The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature

Introduction

When it was first published in 1997, David Suzuki's The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature offered a great insightful, heartfelt commentary on the dangers that the humanity faced, as well as those that they were creating as a result for the connection with the natural world. Seemingly, Suzuki's pleas did not go unheard as it emerged as one of the best-selling books during its age. A decade later, Suzuki, together with other authors Amanda McConnell and Adrienne Mason have improved this work to strengthen the case through the use of the recent scientific data. Further, this improvement has been made to tailor the author's argument about the worsening condition of the Earth. In the introduction, for instance, Suzuki writes that the human needs the agreement regarding the nature of the humankind's bottom line and accomplishment such transactions remains the primary goal of this book (p. 1).

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Undeniably, the Sacred translates itself into the most impressive for the masterful pattern Suzuki mixes hard, cold scientific information with a much more holistic understanding regarding how the humanity constitutes to an essential component of the natural world. In p. 7, the author mentions that "the heart of this book is scientifically supported the fact that each of us is quite literally created by air, water, soil and sunlight, and what cleanses and renews these fundamental elements of life is the web of living things on the planet. As such, Suzuki proposes an interdisciplinary approach towards environmentalism and therefore integrates the input by science, arts, economists, ecologists, and grassroots environmentalists. Suzuki recognizes that the scientific endeavor can be severed from its historical and local contexts. It eventually becomes an activity carried out in a complete void (p. 37).

Suzuki's primary goal in his book is to convince us regarding our interconnectedness that exists with the rest of the natural world. To achieve this, Suzuki illustrates that the human being is formed of the four elements that include the air, water, Earth and fire and continually rely upon them for the necessary biological existence. The humans further constitute the fifth element, which implies a spirit that brings the desire for love and spiritual satisfaction. Humans are social animals and inclined to look for deeper meanings as opposed to simple biology.

Throughout the book, Suzuki does not stop to inform us that we are creatures of Earth, even though our eyes lifted the stars, our hearts lost to time while we were demonstrating love. Humanity is out of balance and tune, but Suzuki attempts to ground us to bring us back into the state of mutually supportive existence. In page (260), Suzuki asserts that "When we forget that we are embedded in the natural world, we also forget that what we do to our surroundings we are doing to ourselves." In the year 2008, however, his message that humans are ornamental, earthly entities and beings that are severing themselves from the sacred sustainer is familiar. He closely follows the conventions of academic writing by providing a series of compelling arguments in support of environmental responses. In formulating his logical contentions and maintains a critical and analytical perspective. His writing style is devoid of jargon and appropriately changes between informal and formal language. When expressing complex information on ecology and environmentalism, which may require the incorporation of academic writing and topics, Suzuki presents such ideas in layman's terms with every intricate detail of such information carefully explained. Because his words are tailored to a broader audience, an average reader can easily comprehend his ideas presented in the book.

By concisely addressing the ramifications of human exploitation, Suzuki contends that for nature's continuation and our survival, we must cease our destructive, self-centered behavior that ultimately disrupts nature's balance. As he provides logical reasoning for ending our current practices, Suzuki extends beyond the conventions of academic writing and skillfully highlights the sacredness of nature and its beauty. In doing so, he attributes nature to having a self-attained value, forcefully asserting our duty to protect nature and maintain its balance.

At the beginning of his book, Suzuki puts forth his main contention for environmentalism, where he emphasized our necessitated duty to recognize our deteriorating environment and to act appropriately. Suzuki notes that there is a relationship of survival between the life we live and the Earth we live. Ideally, Echoing similarly concerned intellectuals, Suzuki states that our ecological footprint is becoming increasingly unsustainable for our environment. We have attained an unprecedented level of evolutionary superiority, and this fact warrants our urgent attention to our ever-increasing ecological footprint and nature's diminishing biodiversity. In addressing pressing environmental issues and environmental knowledge, Suzuki maintains an overall logical and concise mode.

As Suzuki closely follows the academic conventions throughout his book, he extends beyond the breadth of such agreements by providing his philosophical reasoning on nature. He first establishes that nature must be viewed holistically, rather than studying its compartments. In the prologue, he thoughtfully reflects on his initial development of the book:

"When I was working on the first draft, I tried writing 'We are made up of molecules from the air, water, and soil,' but this sounded like a scientific treatise and failed to convey the simple truth of our relationship with Earth in a powerful, emotional way. After spending days pondering the lines, I suddenly thought, 'We are the air, we are the water, we are the earth, we are the Sun.'... Indigenous people are correct: we are born of the Earth and constructed from the four sacred elements of Earth, air, fire, and water" (17).

Suzuki concludes that life and nature are an integrated entity because of their interconnectedness. With the book, he intends to bring to light our profound connection with Earth; He expresses his intention of conveying our emotional connection with Earth, rather than strictly following the limitations of writing in an academic tone. From the quotes mentioned above, Suzuki's expressed view on nature mirrors closely to holism. Holism is the philosophy that "... living nature is correctly seen in terms of interacting wholes that are more than the mere sum of elementary particles" ("Holism"). Suzuki utilizes "the holism of nature" as the primary motif of the remaining chapters of the book.

Following his previous expression, Suzuki promptly criticizes holism's different philosophy, reductionism. Reductionism affirms that an entity can be reduced to its composing parts and analyzed. Suzuki observes the science's predisposition to reductionism and its tendency to fragment nature in their studies. He adds, "Scientists focus on parts of nature, attempting to isolate each fragment and control the factors impinging on it. The observations and measurements provide a profound understanding of that bit of nature. But what is ultimately acquired is a fractured mosaic of disconnected bits and pieces, whose parts will never add up to a coherent narrative" (p. 27). He contends that science's predisposition to reductionism is flawed and counterproductive. He indicates:

"... new properties that arise from complexes cannot be predicted from the known properties of their parts. These "emergent properties" only exist within the whole. So we can never learn how whole systems work simply by analyzing each of its components in isolation... In a reductionist view, cause-and-effect is linear: a change at one results in a corresponding change at the other. But most systems are not linear-they are complex and interwoven, dynamic, synergistic and interdependent" (p. 27).

From the quote, it can be determined that he is logical and formal in demonstrating his negation of reductionism and affirmation of a holistic view of nature. Suzuki advances his perspective and unfolds the sophisticated interrelations that exist within the environment.

In chapter six, Suzuki writes about life, one of the outlined domains of nature. He introduces evolutionary biology, specifically going over Darwin's theory, nature's cyclicities, genetic approach, the importance of biodiversity, and its rapid decline due to human activity. Conveying nature's wholeness, Suzuki begins his chapter on life, quoting Lynn Margulis' Five Kingdoms, "... the different forms of life envelop our planet and, over eons, gradually but profoundly change its surface. In a sense, life and Earth become a unity, each working changes on the other" (p. 183). Suzuki conveys Earth's sacredness, supported by its interconnectedness and biological processes. He notes that there is a paradoxical relationship between the life we live and the Earth we live in: Life demands death, and thus, life and death are "conjoined twins." Death is natural and inevitable for all living beings. He continues, "Life and death is a balanced pair, and it is a strange irony that death has been a critical instrument in the persistence of life." From the quotes above, he suggests that death is a critical process of life's continuation, and it allows for "adaptive changes to arise in successive generations," which further improves the species' survivability (p. 185). By indicating that the process of life and death binds to all organisms, Suzuki provides additional evidence for his view.

Suzuki creatively employs analogies, leaving his readers to consider his perspective, and ultimately, stand in affirmation of his positions. In Chapter Seven, "The Law of Love" the postulates the idea that higher needs arise when the base needs are met, based on the Maslow's hierarchy is examined. Research has shown that parental love and affection gestures towards children can promote child development and satisfaction. The child's attunement or even the fetus and mother can be a significant precursor of the things to love. Now, nature and nurture also operate the same way. It is because human needs more than physiological health. Suzuki emphasizes the dependence amongst all life. He describes such dependencies as a web, "one immense web of interconnection." He adds that changes in this web by human activities can regain their form when given time to recover. However, when humans fail to address their negative impact on the environment which causes the changes in the web of interconnectedness, the relationship between organisms and nature decays and leads to deterioration of the situation and extinction of the living species. Suzuki reiterates that humans are part of this intricate system of the interconnected web of relationships and the ripple effect of failing to address the issue of our impact. This is likely to harm our existence on this fragile Earth.

There is a subtle design in the way Suzuki writes his message to point out that this world is not for humans alone. He asks us to be considerate of other creatures, whose unique abilities can surpass to that of human's. We must carefully study the environment before we begin to impose our will on it. There is a supernatural force at work, and we are the only one who is actively ruining the efforts made. These suggestions come from the explanation of the invincible world where Suzuki compares the human ability to other creature inhabiting the Earth. The author indirectly points the finger at the human race, which it thinks it has figured everything out. Suzuki observes his surroundings and is left with admiration for the force of creation at work as it only has the final say on its agenda.

Suzuki further indulges us to the microbial life forms that survive and thri...