Life of a Tree
...But as the lecture moved into the topic of his new book “Tree a life story”. It became very clear how much damage is being done to the planet with each single tree that is removed. Intrigued by a 500-year-old Douglas Fir that was growing from the side of a cliff on his Quadra island property, Suzuki was compelled to look deeper into the life cycle of a tree. What he found out is a good life lesson for all of us. “We are all one, we are all connected” says Suzuki, and this is where the real lecture begins. He points out that because we take trees for granted, we do not apply the idea that trees are living creatures. In trying to answer the question of which issue is the most important, which is the most critical one to the survival of our planet, he wanders through the major focus groups and concludes that it is us, at the bottom of each issue. “We humans are the most crucial component as to whether we manage to save our planet, or whether we crash into the wall of oblivion.” It is the way we look at the world, our values and beliefs that influence the way we behave. No two of us sees the world through the same eyes. We all learn to see the world through our social economic backgrounds, our gender, our genes, and our experiences, race and religion. “The heart of the crisis we face on the planet is what is inside our heads.” A trip to Peru, showed David that some cultures treasure nature, and apply the term God to mountains. The mountain is not a symbol of God; it is God and therefore determines their destiny. It is this thought that conducts the way the children of Peru treat that mountain. He compared that attitude with the attitude we take toward the mountains of B.C. where mountains represent ore and other minerals to dig into for riches. The way we look at the world, shapes the way we behave. If we are taught that a forest is a sacred grove, as our first nations teach their children, then we would be treating our forests with more respect. We would think of rivers as the “veins of the land” rather than just a source of potential energy. “If you are taught that the ground you walk on is a living organism, you will then tread more lightly on it. If you learn that another species is your biological kin, you will treat it with more respect, not just another potential resource to make money from.” The crisis we face today, according to Dr. Suzuki has been in the making in only the last 100 years. Generations of humans before that held more respect for all of nature and were careful to p...