What do you think?
Rate this book
The Sacred Balance: A Visual Celebration of Our Place in Nature
A stunning exploration of the web of life that unites all living things.
Based on David Suzuki and Amanda McConnell’s best-selling "The Sacred Rediscovering Our Place in Nature", a textual exploration of the web of life that unites all living things, this visual feast celebrates that connection in spectacular photographs, beautiful reproductions of artwork, and stunning electronmicrographs and satellite photographs. These images include photographs of dewdrops on a spider web, the Earth from space at night, a field full of wildflowers, vast herds of zebra, Inuit artwork, and more.
The accompanying text presents David Suzuki’s idiosyncratic, bold, and inspiring view of the human place on Earth, drawn from his life as a scientist, environmentalist, writer, and thinker. He identifies seven elements—earth, air, fire, water, biodiversity, love, and spirituality—which all human beings need to lead full, rich lives. The exquisite balance of these elements creates and maintains the web of life on Earth. We too are part of that like all living things, we are the sacred elements. We are made from and sustained by earth and air, fire and water. We are part of the totality of biological diversity that maintains the planet’s life support systems.
Based on David Suzuki and Amanda McConnell’s best-selling "The Sacred Rediscovering Our Place in Nature", a textual exploration of the web of life that unites all living things, this visual feast celebrates that connection in spectacular photographs, beautiful reproductions of artwork, and stunning electronmicrographs and satellite photographs. These images include photographs of dewdrops on a spider web, the Earth from space at night, a field full of wildflowers, vast herds of zebra, Inuit artwork, and more.
The accompanying text presents David Suzuki’s idiosyncratic, bold, and inspiring view of the human place on Earth, drawn from his life as a scientist, environmentalist, writer, and thinker. He identifies seven elements—earth, air, fire, water, biodiversity, love, and spirituality—which all human beings need to lead full, rich lives. The exquisite balance of these elements creates and maintains the web of life on Earth. We too are part of that like all living things, we are the sacred elements. We are made from and sustained by earth and air, fire and water. We are part of the totality of biological diversity that maintains the planet’s life support systems.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
David Suzuki
120 books270 followersDavid Suzuki is a Canadian science broadcaster and environmental activist. A long time activist to reverse global climate change, Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to work "to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that sustains us." The Foundation's priorities are: oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and David Suzuki's Nature Challenge. He also served as a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982-1987.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 123 reviews
August 18, 2009
While I enjoyed reading The Sacred Balance, it didn't really grab me because it was like having someone preach to the choir. I already identify with a lot of the ideas in this book about needing to refocus as a society on what is really important, how to reinvigorate communities and how to recognize that we are as much a part of the environment as is a tree. I was a little put off during the chapter "The Sacred Matter" because I felt that some parts were almost too spiritual & that there was a sense that atheism and/or scepticism is negative. As an atheist myself, I think that one can experience significant awe and wonder in the natural world to hold the same kind of reverence that someone spiritual might hold. Instead of revering a tree because I think it has a soul, I revere it because of the sheer awesomeness of its design, of how it fulfills its needs, of how it is an integral part of the system.
I really like that he ends the book on a positive note with inspiring stories of some environmentalists from around the world. Sometimes when reading environmental books or calls to arms, it's easy to get depressed and lose hope, but his choice of ending helps to demonstrate that we have a choice as individuals. Suzuki also makes great use of quotes to emphasis some of his ideas.
I would recommend this particularly to people who perhaps like nature, but don't consider themselves environmentalists. I think it would be also a potentially useful read for people who see themselves as disconnected from the environment.
I really like that he ends the book on a positive note with inspiring stories of some environmentalists from around the world. Sometimes when reading environmental books or calls to arms, it's easy to get depressed and lose hope, but his choice of ending helps to demonstrate that we have a choice as individuals. Suzuki also makes great use of quotes to emphasis some of his ideas.
I would recommend this particularly to people who perhaps like nature, but don't consider themselves environmentalists. I think it would be also a potentially useful read for people who see themselves as disconnected from the environment.
October 3, 2011
I will preface this statement by stating that I would want David Suzuki as a neighbor, and that his hopes and dreams are very similar to my own in many respects. However, I am left with an overall feeling of disappointment in his canonical work. There is no paradigm shift, no revolution in thought, only his lingering feeling of nostalgia for paradise lost and token suggestions to slightly modify our own behavior.
The Sacred Balance of the earth will not be achieved with individual's considering public transport options, participating in meatless Mondays, and finding the spiritual balance of our distant ancestors. Someone will need to find out how to stop humankind's quest for endless growth that is coupled with finite resources and space; revolutionize transport needs, and create an economic revolution that manages to provides for our needs and wants without destroying everything in our path.
No such solutions exist in this book, nor are any real ideas explored. Instead we have wonderful, simplified science explaining how our natural world works. Here Suzuki excels in reminding us the miracle of life, the subtleties of digestion, rainfall patterns, etc. Beyond that we only have a meandering collection of spiritual thoughts, an incredible reliance on Edward O. Wilson quotes, and the recycled suggestions that recycling your aluminum cans is going to save the world.
The Sacred Balance of the earth will not be achieved with individual's considering public transport options, participating in meatless Mondays, and finding the spiritual balance of our distant ancestors. Someone will need to find out how to stop humankind's quest for endless growth that is coupled with finite resources and space; revolutionize transport needs, and create an economic revolution that manages to provides for our needs and wants without destroying everything in our path.
No such solutions exist in this book, nor are any real ideas explored. Instead we have wonderful, simplified science explaining how our natural world works. Here Suzuki excels in reminding us the miracle of life, the subtleties of digestion, rainfall patterns, etc. Beyond that we only have a meandering collection of spiritual thoughts, an incredible reliance on Edward O. Wilson quotes, and the recycled suggestions that recycling your aluminum cans is going to save the world.
January 22, 2008
The Sacred Balance is a stunning exploration of how our physical bodies are comprised of the four sacred elements -- Air,Fire, Water, and Earth. The author, David Suzuki, does draws from the many indigenous traditions around the world that have preserved the knowledge of the central role of these elements in maintaining the balance of life on this earth. Suzuki positions himself as a storyteller adding something to that world view. As a biogenetist, his contribution is to tell the story of the four sacred elements through explaining the science of how we are each composed of the four elements.
Core chapters are: "Homo Sapiens: Born of the Earth", "The Breath of All Green Things," "The Oceans Flowing through our Veins", "Made from the Soil", "The Divine Fire", "Protected by our Kin", "The Law of Love", "Sacred Matter", "Restoring the Balance."
At the beginning of the book, he quotes from Thomas Berry about the need for human kind to create a new story about how our species has survived and how it will survive. Suzuki believes that an important need for our species to survive is to reinvigorate our stories with a knowledge about how bodies -- nd our kinship patterns -- incorporate the four elements. This knowledge then becomes the root not only for understanding how ecologies work, but also for understanding how vital the human element of love is for ensuring the preservation of life, families, and the larger ecological systems.
PBS had a companion video series -- in which Suzuki takes his grandson around the world to expose the young boy to different traditions related to each of the four elements.
Core chapters are: "Homo Sapiens: Born of the Earth", "The Breath of All Green Things," "The Oceans Flowing through our Veins", "Made from the Soil", "The Divine Fire", "Protected by our Kin", "The Law of Love", "Sacred Matter", "Restoring the Balance."
At the beginning of the book, he quotes from Thomas Berry about the need for human kind to create a new story about how our species has survived and how it will survive. Suzuki believes that an important need for our species to survive is to reinvigorate our stories with a knowledge about how bodies -- nd our kinship patterns -- incorporate the four elements. This knowledge then becomes the root not only for understanding how ecologies work, but also for understanding how vital the human element of love is for ensuring the preservation of life, families, and the larger ecological systems.
PBS had a companion video series -- in which Suzuki takes his grandson around the world to expose the young boy to different traditions related to each of the four elements.
September 22, 2011
"Our stories tell us where we come from and why we are here. In the beginning, these stories say, there was water, and then there was sky and fire, there was Earth, and there was life. We humans crawled out of the womb of the planet, or we were shaped out of clay and water, carved from twigs, compounded of seeds and ashes, or hatched from the cosmic egg. One way or another, we were from the sacred elements that together compose the Earth. We are made from the Earth, we breathe it in with every breath we take, we drink it and eat it, and we share the same spark that animates the whole planet. Our stories tell us this, and so does our science..." pg 264-265.
Our stories tell us this, and so does our science...and that's what makes this book such a humbling journey for me...I only wish that more people get to read this wonderful book. It would be great to have it introduced as a school text, so that younger people can be aware and have a clear understanding of how everything in nature is interconnected, every single thing or element has it's purpose and are all equal. Therefore all should be respected and loved before it's too late.
Our stories tell us this, and so does our science...and that's what makes this book such a humbling journey for me...I only wish that more people get to read this wonderful book. It would be great to have it introduced as a school text, so that younger people can be aware and have a clear understanding of how everything in nature is interconnected, every single thing or element has it's purpose and are all equal. Therefore all should be respected and loved before it's too late.
February 10, 2014
A very detailed perception of mans connections to earth, wind, fire, and water. Not only to the elements, but down to the smallest micro organisms. Suzuki explains detailed relationships of the collective noosphere. Speaks of some dogmas of science and technology and some possible solutions for future generations. Let us understand this message, tell a friend and work to copy nature instead of bludgeoning it into submission.
March 12, 2021
Suzuki tries to bridge many roles, and pull together a vision that can appeal to all. He speaks as a scientist, clan elder, myth-maker, and political activist, and he really can play all these roles well. It's a worthy, passionate effort, that is wisely focused on "balance." He argues that "We know that deprivation of love can kill people. What are the effects of being deprived of a living environment?"
March 4, 2008
This is a well-spoken call to environmental thinking. I argue with environnmental causes, but I usually skip books that scare people into the need for action, or preach to the choir. But I couldn't put this book down. It reiterated old truths in new ways and made fascinated arguments I had never heard. Suzuki has a poetic and impassioned voice, but stays plain-spoken. He even raises the issues of overpopulation, often ignored in discussions of global warming and other environmental problems. Importantly he directly addresses what governments and average people can and should do to help the global environmental problem. Reduce. Stay local. Avoid chemicals. Pressure governments to meet human concerns over those of business. One thing Suzuki does well (albeit slowly) is that he points to the knowledge of traditional cultures without romanticizing them. He does not reject modernism or science entirely for a sappy sort of anti-modern parochialism, but he is willing to point out the limitations of modernism, corporate capitalism, and reductionism.
July 29, 2013
This was not an easy read. There was a lot to ponder on each page, and had to be taken in small doses.
December 22, 2023
We just need to act now
November 8, 2018
David Suzuki and Amanda McConnell weave an impressive tapestry with this one.
It's exactly what it says in the subtitle: Rediscovering our place in nature, and it does a good job overall.
The book uses the four Aristotlean elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) as a structural device to illustrate the myriad of ways in which human beings are part of and wholly dependent upon the interplay of these Earthly elements, and it's fairly effective. Weaving together science, anecdotes, liberal use of quoted prose and poetic material, and a palpable sense of wonder and optimism, the book gives a very interesting paradigm of what it means to be a human being in the environment of planet Earth, not merely as a human being apart from the environment of planet Earth.
I liked it because it does not shy away from the difficulties that humans face in relating ourselves to nature, and it is enjoyable because the book's core message is not misanthropic (which to me is just a lazy cop-out anyway in environmental polemics). Rather, Suzuki and McConnell argue for a shared stewardship and re-framing of how we see ourselves in regards to the Earth, it's creatures, and our fellow human beings.
Now, as a science student, I always do have to exercise a little bit of skepticism at certain claims that lean a little hard on spirituality and the importance of nature to experiences of this nature, but thankfully the book doesn't tip into nature-worship as such, and while it comes right up to the edge of it, the book's core messages and otherwise-sound scientific assertions aren't compromised.
I recommend it, especially if you're feeling a little lost about humanity's unique place in our environment. It is a good reminder that human beings are not necessarily destructive by nature and that we do have remarkable capacities for good, both for each other and for our Earth (and, as this book helpfully reminds us, the two go so very often hand-in-hand). It's a vital message, especially today.
It's exactly what it says in the subtitle: Rediscovering our place in nature, and it does a good job overall.
The book uses the four Aristotlean elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) as a structural device to illustrate the myriad of ways in which human beings are part of and wholly dependent upon the interplay of these Earthly elements, and it's fairly effective. Weaving together science, anecdotes, liberal use of quoted prose and poetic material, and a palpable sense of wonder and optimism, the book gives a very interesting paradigm of what it means to be a human being in the environment of planet Earth, not merely as a human being apart from the environment of planet Earth.
I liked it because it does not shy away from the difficulties that humans face in relating ourselves to nature, and it is enjoyable because the book's core message is not misanthropic (which to me is just a lazy cop-out anyway in environmental polemics). Rather, Suzuki and McConnell argue for a shared stewardship and re-framing of how we see ourselves in regards to the Earth, it's creatures, and our fellow human beings.
Now, as a science student, I always do have to exercise a little bit of skepticism at certain claims that lean a little hard on spirituality and the importance of nature to experiences of this nature, but thankfully the book doesn't tip into nature-worship as such, and while it comes right up to the edge of it, the book's core messages and otherwise-sound scientific assertions aren't compromised.
I recommend it, especially if you're feeling a little lost about humanity's unique place in our environment. It is a good reminder that human beings are not necessarily destructive by nature and that we do have remarkable capacities for good, both for each other and for our Earth (and, as this book helpfully reminds us, the two go so very often hand-in-hand). It's a vital message, especially today.
March 19, 2016
The content of The Sacred Balance is crucial for humans to understand and appreciate, and is told in a storytelling narrative emphasizing that everything is interconnected, humans are whole with our surroundings and our environment, and what we do to it, we do to ourselves.
However, I found his storytelling to be overly wordy, as if he was trying too hard to sound dramatic, his flow often erratic, and his content to be annoyingly repetitive. I guess that's unavoidable when you are talking about the interconnectedness of everything - the same topics and points tend to come up over and over again. I also found half of his referenced quotes to be useless and outdated, further bogging down the flow.
While I would rate his writing style at 2 stars, the content is 5 stars, must-know material. For someone just getting into environmentalism, Suzuki is a wonderful entry point because of is celebrity activist fame. I personally understood most of the heavy content already, which is why it felt annoyingly repetitive for me. If you are already well aware of environmental and economic issues, are deeply connected with nature and are quite spiritual, I would skip this reading, and suggest more stimulating books such as Active Hope by Joanna Macy.
As a side note, I have heard about controversy surrounding David Suzuki's integrity and character, and decided to do some internet research on this. My conclusion is that the varied attacks on his character were of suspicious origin and involve twisted facts, a fate that has befallen many celebrity activists. To me, David Suzuki always was and is still a character of integrity I admire who has fought passionately as an activist and environmentalist all his life using his celebrity status for good. Forgive him for having a few nice homes and being excessively outspoken at times.
However, I found his storytelling to be overly wordy, as if he was trying too hard to sound dramatic, his flow often erratic, and his content to be annoyingly repetitive. I guess that's unavoidable when you are talking about the interconnectedness of everything - the same topics and points tend to come up over and over again. I also found half of his referenced quotes to be useless and outdated, further bogging down the flow.
While I would rate his writing style at 2 stars, the content is 5 stars, must-know material. For someone just getting into environmentalism, Suzuki is a wonderful entry point because of is celebrity activist fame. I personally understood most of the heavy content already, which is why it felt annoyingly repetitive for me. If you are already well aware of environmental and economic issues, are deeply connected with nature and are quite spiritual, I would skip this reading, and suggest more stimulating books such as Active Hope by Joanna Macy.
As a side note, I have heard about controversy surrounding David Suzuki's integrity and character, and decided to do some internet research on this. My conclusion is that the varied attacks on his character were of suspicious origin and involve twisted facts, a fate that has befallen many celebrity activists. To me, David Suzuki always was and is still a character of integrity I admire who has fought passionately as an activist and environmentalist all his life using his celebrity status for good. Forgive him for having a few nice homes and being excessively outspoken at times.
January 23, 2015
A very well-thought-out book explaining man's place in nature. Modern humans have been around for only the very briefest of moments in the geologic or biologic history of the earth. Yet in that short time we have caused huge stresses to the natural world upon which we are all (all 7+ billion of us) completely and 100% dependent. We treat our air and our water as dumping grounds. We poison our soils in order to produce unsustainable amounts of food and minerals. And we are reducing the earth's biodiversity at unprecedented rates (even on the geologic scale). Collectively, we humans do all this all while remaining apathetic or ignorant to the potential or likely consequences. Many people even have the arrogant attitude that whatever humans collectively do to their world must be good or what we are supposed to do, because, after all, we are part of nature.
The book is far from all gloom and doom though. The author presents many ideas and describes many on-going efforts to mitigate or even turn around the harm we are doing to our own home.
The book is far from all gloom and doom though. The author presents many ideas and describes many on-going efforts to mitigate or even turn around the harm we are doing to our own home.
May 20, 2018
I love how Mr. Suzuki links spirituality with proper healthy respect and care of our environment, our Mother Earth. Too often we see recommendations that fall far short of behavior that would truly represent reverence for the place that birthed us and gives us sustenance. Just like ocean travelers who throw their garbage overboard, there are those who profess their enjoyment of nature while thoughtlessly contributing to its decline, all in the same breath.
Where I wanted Mr. Suzuki to go further was in his "Restoring the Balance" section at the end of the book. Instead of recommending eating meat-free meals one day a week, why not become vegan? In addition to supporting alternatives to the car, why not seriously explore the reasons behind our government's lack of support for renewable clean energy? Why aren't our scientists attacking these issues and bringing industry solar homes and geothermally-heated office buildings?
Criticism aside, this book refreshed my connection to my church...the outdoors. Thank you David.
Where I wanted Mr. Suzuki to go further was in his "Restoring the Balance" section at the end of the book. Instead of recommending eating meat-free meals one day a week, why not become vegan? In addition to supporting alternatives to the car, why not seriously explore the reasons behind our government's lack of support for renewable clean energy? Why aren't our scientists attacking these issues and bringing industry solar homes and geothermally-heated office buildings?
Criticism aside, this book refreshed my connection to my church...the outdoors. Thank you David.
August 30, 2013
Well written; scientific information presented in a mystical/poetic style. In "The Sacred Balance," Suzuki invokes the classical elements of life: air, water, earth and fire, to explain Earth's ecological balance. He discusses the ways in which humankind, like all the inhabitants of our planet, is dependent on the building blocks of life and the environment around us. And, he asks each of us to remember how sacred our relationship with all life is. Can our "modern," consumer economies be sustained? The answer, clearly, is "no." Do we need to destroy our communities and our natural world to discover that truth? It's up to us to choose.
November 6, 2008
I had the privilege of seeing David Suzuki present a live lecture a few weeks ago in my home town. I was amazed at the conviction, the energy, and the compassion that he conveyed. Refreshing to hear someone so powerful, so influential, and so important speak live about the pressing environmental issues of our time.
While reading this book I could feel his energy coming right off the pages. This is another book that highlights the need for change and paints the picture all too clear what will happen if we do not. If only we would listen.
A good read, a great book.
While reading this book I could feel his energy coming right off the pages. This is another book that highlights the need for change and paints the picture all too clear what will happen if we do not. If only we would listen.
A good read, a great book.
July 28, 2017
I loved this book. Suzuki shows how everything in our universe is connected, from the microscopic to the universal to the undefinable soul.
He incorporates quotes from the Koran, the Bible, Leonardo da Vinci, scientists, philosophers and poets, and covers everything from the origin of air to how a breath of air travels through our bodies, from the structure of a water molecule to the hydrologic cycle, from the way soil was formed to soil as a source of life, and more.
It’s very dense. I had to leave it for awhile and go back to it a few times.
He incorporates quotes from the Koran, the Bible, Leonardo da Vinci, scientists, philosophers and poets, and covers everything from the origin of air to how a breath of air travels through our bodies, from the structure of a water molecule to the hydrologic cycle, from the way soil was formed to soil as a source of life, and more.
It’s very dense. I had to leave it for awhile and go back to it a few times.
March 13, 2008
Suzuki argues that Environmentalism requires nature-spirituality, that a spiritual connection with nature is the reason and driving force behind Environmentalism. In beautiful descriptive language to follow, he lays out the scientific grounds for inter-connectedness. He understands the physical world well, but falls short when relating it to the metaphysical. The end of the book seemed a little shallow and preachy.
July 21, 2025
a refreshing and reassuring read. stop buying so much stuff. get your clothes at the thrift. buy local. ride a bike. reject plastic. it felt good to be reminded that i’m just a little animal amongst the others that we share this earth with. respect the environment, talk to your neighbours (build that village), remember where you came from and where you’ll return to at the end of it all (or the continuance of it all, nature is cyclical). can’t wait to read more of suzuki’s work. also cried at the part about his daughter’s eco club. little girls taking charge and being awesome makes me emotional.
February 6, 2022
Interesting that the edition with this cover (which is the one I have) here on Goodreads lists the author as Amanda McConnell. I'm sure she deserves it. However, it's a bit strange as the major credit/name on the cover is DAVID SUZUKI and then in small print, "with Amanda McConnell & Adrienne Mason." Be that as it may, these three have put together a tome that beseeches us to pay attention to our only home: nature and this planet Earth. Sadly, in the years since it was published, things have only gotten worse... much worse.
Perhaps my favorite chapters are the first five which offer science-based 'meditations' upon the "five great elements" (Born of the Earth; The Breath of All Green Things; The Oceans Flowing Through Our Veins; Made From Soil; and The Divine Fire). Filled with mind-boggling facts about nature, and written with a poetic sensibility, this could be the basis of a truly naturalistic religious perspective. The over-riding message is that we are all made of and thus part of one reality, and our refusal to accept that and LIVE FROM THAT understanding is what is leading to the ecological crises we are living within.
While the closing chapters attempt to create a more "hopeful" and "positive" picture, there is one segment that belies the optimism in a most heartrending way. He describes the poignant message made by his daughter and four other Canadian twelve-year-old girls gave at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He quotes from her speech: "I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realize that neither do you. You don't know how to fix the holes in the ozone layer. You don't know how to bring the salmon back up a dead stream. You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct....if you don't know who to fix it, please stop breaking it....
She ends with: "You grownups say you love us. I challenge you. Please, make your actions reflect your words."
Suzuki says her words "electrified the conference.... When the Earth Summit ended, Maurice Strong quoted Severn to remind the delegates why they were there." THAT WAS 1992! And some of the same words, and certainly the same message has been shared by other young women such as Greta Thunberg and nothing significant has changed. The political will is simply not there to make the real policy changes that can avert the worst of the effects of climate change.
The weakest chapter in this book is where they go explicitly "spiritual." There is plenty of grist for a real naturalistic spirituality without the non-scientific vitalism that permeates the chapter, "Sacred Matter." If more of us truly took matter seriously, we'd no need for such pablum. We don't need mythic delusions to know what our proper relationship to the Earth is and should be. They unquestioningly write (perhaps to woo religionists?): "Without water, air, energy, food, without other forms of life and other human beings we die. But we are just as crucially dependent on the idea of spirit." I for one do not think we need such an idea at all and that in many ways it leads to a dualism we can not afford! He waxes romantically poetic when he suggests we need "to believe in life beyond death, in spirit... in an animated, inhabited, sacred world surrounding us..." Again, how does such a transcendent belief help us to wake up to the necessity of treating this only world we have with respect? A truly naturalistic understanding knows that the Earth is not even rightly thought of as our "home" but rather as our extended body! THAT is the only religious understanding that prevents the dualism that has led to such alienation and estrangement FROM nature!
Perhaps my favorite chapters are the first five which offer science-based 'meditations' upon the "five great elements" (Born of the Earth; The Breath of All Green Things; The Oceans Flowing Through Our Veins; Made From Soil; and The Divine Fire). Filled with mind-boggling facts about nature, and written with a poetic sensibility, this could be the basis of a truly naturalistic religious perspective. The over-riding message is that we are all made of and thus part of one reality, and our refusal to accept that and LIVE FROM THAT understanding is what is leading to the ecological crises we are living within.
While the closing chapters attempt to create a more "hopeful" and "positive" picture, there is one segment that belies the optimism in a most heartrending way. He describes the poignant message made by his daughter and four other Canadian twelve-year-old girls gave at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He quotes from her speech: "I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realize that neither do you. You don't know how to fix the holes in the ozone layer. You don't know how to bring the salmon back up a dead stream. You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct....if you don't know who to fix it, please stop breaking it....
She ends with: "You grownups say you love us. I challenge you. Please, make your actions reflect your words."
Suzuki says her words "electrified the conference.... When the Earth Summit ended, Maurice Strong quoted Severn to remind the delegates why they were there." THAT WAS 1992! And some of the same words, and certainly the same message has been shared by other young women such as Greta Thunberg and nothing significant has changed. The political will is simply not there to make the real policy changes that can avert the worst of the effects of climate change.
The weakest chapter in this book is where they go explicitly "spiritual." There is plenty of grist for a real naturalistic spirituality without the non-scientific vitalism that permeates the chapter, "Sacred Matter." If more of us truly took matter seriously, we'd no need for such pablum. We don't need mythic delusions to know what our proper relationship to the Earth is and should be. They unquestioningly write (perhaps to woo religionists?): "Without water, air, energy, food, without other forms of life and other human beings we die. But we are just as crucially dependent on the idea of spirit." I for one do not think we need such an idea at all and that in many ways it leads to a dualism we can not afford! He waxes romantically poetic when he suggests we need "to believe in life beyond death, in spirit... in an animated, inhabited, sacred world surrounding us..." Again, how does such a transcendent belief help us to wake up to the necessity of treating this only world we have with respect? A truly naturalistic understanding knows that the Earth is not even rightly thought of as our "home" but rather as our extended body! THAT is the only religious understanding that prevents the dualism that has led to such alienation and estrangement FROM nature!
January 20, 2016
Livre intéressant qui nous force à réfléchir sur la nature, les liens qui y existent, notre rôle, nos actes et leurs conséquences. J'ai trouvé particulièrement incroyable de voir à quel point l'auteur est un visionnaire, beaucoup de choses qui y sont écrites sont plus naturelles aujourd'hui, bien qu'il reste énormément de travail, mais de penser que quelqu'un pensait ainsi en 1997 (date de la première édition) c'est assez stupéfiant. Points négatifs, j'ai trouvé que l'auteur s'y égare un peu parfois, parlant de tout et de rien, d'un sujet à l'autre, passant de l'écologie à la biologie ne passant par la géologie. Je me serais peut-être attendu à apprendre un peu plus, étant déjà assez conscientisé par le sujet, cela explique peut-être le fait que j'ai moins appris. Sinon, très bon livre que je conseillerais à ceux qui n'ont pas de conscience environnementale encore en 2016 (ouvrez-vous les yeux! il n'y a pas que l'économie!) ou pour ceux qui commence à lire et à s'informer sur le sujet. Peut aussi très bien servir à se rafraîchir la mémoire et à se rappeler des concepts de bases, mais que le monde dans lequel on vit nous force parfois à oublier!
August 21, 2019
Most of the book felt like being back in science class. I enjoyed the chapters on love and personal stories of change. The chapter on spirituality was confusing and surprising. I didn't totally agree with it. I do think the main idea of this book is important - we need to start living with less waste and connecting with nature in order to improve it.
November 9, 2023
Similar to Braiding Sweetgrass, a book everyone should read. I think I underlined half of the book… A good mix between super science based chapters and more holistic/otherworldly chapters. Highly recommend for every human being.
June 28, 2024
This book lays out scientifically supported facts that we (& all living things) are quite literally created by air, water, soil and sunlight. What cleanses and renews these fundamental elements of life is the web of living things on the planet.
It’s impressive the way Suzuki blends hard, cold scientific data with a much more holistic understanding of how we humans and all living things are more than just the sum of natural parts. Furthermore, he highlights that as social and spiritual creatures, we need love and spirit, if we are to lead rich, full lives.
He describes how our actions are throwing the Earth’s life support systems off balance and possibly endangering all life forms; that to save ourselves and the planet we must change our wasteful ways and restore the sacred balance. He claims the web of life is a circular one where all things come back to their original source - as opposed to the linear fashion of today’s consume and dispose.
Suzuki tries to beef up his argument with texts and graphics culled from everywhere - from the Bible to Romantic poets to Nobel laureates. There are some real gems, but they steal his thunder: they say what Suzuki is trying to say more effectively and succinctly.
Unfortunately, in his zeal to impart his wonder at nature’s interconnections, he sometimes goes too far, and ventures into sentimentality - and the book loses focus in parts.
So, the only element of The Sacred Balance that I did not enjoy was one of design rather than content.
Throughout the work, it offers various sections of material that are tangentially related to the main text–sort of like sidebars or a hyperlink on a web page. While these are often very interesting, they tend to disrupt the main narrative, since there is no reference to them there. And somewhat less intrusive, but similarly distracting, are the various quotations, that also relate to (and intrude upon) the main text but are not worked into it.
So, it was a difficult book to navigate at times. Which is a shame, as this was driven by his zealous and passionate belief in the subject of the book.
It’s impressive the way Suzuki blends hard, cold scientific data with a much more holistic understanding of how we humans and all living things are more than just the sum of natural parts. Furthermore, he highlights that as social and spiritual creatures, we need love and spirit, if we are to lead rich, full lives.
He describes how our actions are throwing the Earth’s life support systems off balance and possibly endangering all life forms; that to save ourselves and the planet we must change our wasteful ways and restore the sacred balance. He claims the web of life is a circular one where all things come back to their original source - as opposed to the linear fashion of today’s consume and dispose.
Suzuki tries to beef up his argument with texts and graphics culled from everywhere - from the Bible to Romantic poets to Nobel laureates. There are some real gems, but they steal his thunder: they say what Suzuki is trying to say more effectively and succinctly.
Unfortunately, in his zeal to impart his wonder at nature’s interconnections, he sometimes goes too far, and ventures into sentimentality - and the book loses focus in parts.
So, the only element of The Sacred Balance that I did not enjoy was one of design rather than content.
Throughout the work, it offers various sections of material that are tangentially related to the main text–sort of like sidebars or a hyperlink on a web page. While these are often very interesting, they tend to disrupt the main narrative, since there is no reference to them there. And somewhat less intrusive, but similarly distracting, are the various quotations, that also relate to (and intrude upon) the main text but are not worked into it.
So, it was a difficult book to navigate at times. Which is a shame, as this was driven by his zealous and passionate belief in the subject of the book.
August 19, 2024
The first half of the book was insightful and thought-provoking, spinning science until it fits cleanly into a sort of primitive, animist nature-worship perspective, though more hobbyist than as a legitimate structure of belief. The next quarter talks about the importance of community and love, which I'm not here to knock. Then, the last quarter is a lecture about recycling and meatless Mondays.
I already recycle and I'm not going to do meatless Mondays.
Here are the quotes I marked:
"At a certain point, self-organization or unexpected qualities emerge - a collection of molecules into a cell, a collection of sounds into speech, a collection of individual ants into a colony. In essence, an unexpected whole emerges from simple parts."
"The Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once observed that trying to understand nature through science is like trying to figure out the rules of chess as you watch a game being played -- but you can only see two squares at a time."
"So when a nail is driven by a hammer, the energy used to move the muscles of the body to deliver the blow comes from stores in the body, which in turn are recovered from food, which contains energy obtained from photons from the sun. When the nail is struck, energy is transferred to it and dissipated as heat - in the nail and in the wood and air surrounding it."
"Although well-fed and cared for physically, the monkeys exhibited abnormal behavior when they grew up, including a complete lack of interest in raising young. Thus, experiments with primates reveal both the powerful need for love - where the merest hint of a loving parent was chosen in preference to food - as well as the tragic, persistent consequences of deprivation."
I already recycle and I'm not going to do meatless Mondays.
Here are the quotes I marked:
"At a certain point, self-organization or unexpected qualities emerge - a collection of molecules into a cell, a collection of sounds into speech, a collection of individual ants into a colony. In essence, an unexpected whole emerges from simple parts."
"The Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once observed that trying to understand nature through science is like trying to figure out the rules of chess as you watch a game being played -- but you can only see two squares at a time."
"So when a nail is driven by a hammer, the energy used to move the muscles of the body to deliver the blow comes from stores in the body, which in turn are recovered from food, which contains energy obtained from photons from the sun. When the nail is struck, energy is transferred to it and dissipated as heat - in the nail and in the wood and air surrounding it."
"Although well-fed and cared for physically, the monkeys exhibited abnormal behavior when they grew up, including a complete lack of interest in raising young. Thus, experiments with primates reveal both the powerful need for love - where the merest hint of a loving parent was chosen in preference to food - as well as the tragic, persistent consequences of deprivation."
June 27, 2025
4.5. She’s a dense one, but good dense. This was the macro-micro connectivity content I was looking for. The span of creatures and relations covered with smooth transition is appreciated. It discusses the climate/creature crisis but scaled down to how a single person could make a big difference in small ways. Also I just love when a book gives golden nuggets of future reads.
didn-t-finish-yet
October 19, 2024I read a lot but I also skimmed a lot. So while I can't quite say I read it, I feel I got the gist and am on to bigger and better things. I think if I had read this when it first came out I would have learned a lot and been more engaged but at this point it's not giving me what I need or want.
March 28, 2025
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. This is a famous quote from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. This book is hard to get through at times but honestly it should be required reading for everyone.
March 6, 2026
Ugh so good
January 14, 2025
75% of this book is high school science, and the rest is dated and un-nuanced takes about our relationship to climate and nature. I think there are much better books available today to learn about climate change and the problems with our current conception of modernization/progress.
April 12, 2012
the book flows from the smallest matter of how we digest our food to the largest part of how our ecosystem work, giving a clear outline of the intricacies of how our Mother Earth "works". a deeper understanding of the Nature allows one to learn of our smallest action has always a consequence unimaginable. it nourishes our soul and re-affirms our faith in conserving and protecting the environment for a sustainable living future.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 123 reviews