This weekend I volunteered at the local small cinema during the first few screenings of the documentary by David Suzuki, entitled “Force of Nature”, to generate viewer support for the David Suzuki Foundation. The film is a winner of the People’s Choice Documentary Award in the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, showcasing 339 films from 59 countries. The mission of the David Suzuki Foundation is “to protect the diversity of nature and our quality of life, now and for the future”, and its vision is that “within a generation, Canadians will act on the understanding that we are all interconnected and interdependent with nature”; and hopefully not only Canadians! The Foundation works with the government, businesses and individuals, like their volunteers, to reach its goals.
David Suzuki, who is a Canadian scientist, activist, environmentalist and educator, delivered his legacy lecture in December of 2009 to hundreds of attendees on the 20th anniversary of his Foundation. The lecture was filmed before a live audience, accompanied by a dramatic backdrop of moving images, and partially incorporated into the documentary. His urgent message that we have exhausted the limits of the biosphere and have to re-think our relationship with the natural world is not new, but his intimate connection between science and nature immersed in spirituality offers a fresh perspective and inspires action.
His core messages which I found most inspiring, and some truly scaring:
1. We are connected to all living things; we are ALL THE SAME living things in biological sense; all life-sustaining materials are sacred; in fact, science demonstrates that the cosmic matter operates on the law of attraction between all particles, large and small, and in other words is connected by love. It is so refreshing to hear a scientist speak of spirituality and love!
2. David’s message requires ownership, care, and protection of natural habitats. If we are physically, emotionally and spiritually removed from these natural areas and do not have strong views about their protection, it is very likely that they will be utilised without our knowledge and simply disappear. Living in cities, we need to make extra effort to be aware of and protect these awe-inspiring landscapes of unspoiled wilderness.
3. We are running out of time in the human exponential growth scenario and David’s message of the bacteria in the test tube was very effective in getting this message across. In only in the very last second 50% of the bacteria in the test tube will fill it to a 100% and run out of food! This is exactly where we are today except the test tube is planet Earth.
4. David created a list of items of personal value when offered to upgrade his house to a bigger one. This made me think of other non-negotiables that we simply don’t think about, but we certainly should.
What would be your list of non-negotiables to demand from politicians and decision-makers of your cities and countries? Clean air and water? Healthy food that has not been genetically altered, modified by hormones, or polluted by pesticides? How about meaningful work using sustainable energy and materials? And what about the right to alternative lifestyle encompassing equal purchasing choices of products and services in the global market economy?
It is baffling that we fight for a variety of human rights and yet the most basic right of life-sustaining properties are somehow completely ignored.