Product Description

Based on the authors' best-selling book The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, this visual feast celebrates the forces that unite all living things, in spectacular photographs, beautiful reproductions of artwork, and amazing electron micrographs and satellite photographs. These images — by Galen Rowell, Art Wolfe, and others — lovingly explore dewdrops on a spider web, a field full of wildflowers, vast herds of zebra, rock paintings, Inuit artwork, and much more. The accompanying text presents David Suzuki's inspiring view of the human place on Earth, drawn from his life as a scientist, environmentalist, writer, and thinker. He describes the seven elements — earth, air, fire, water, biodiversity, love, and spirituality — that all human beings need to lead full, rich lives. The exquisite balance of these elements creates and maintains the web of life on Earth. Included are quotations from literary texts and poetry, observations from scientists, retellings of myths, and lines from songs and psalms.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1350497 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This impressive coffee-table book invites readers, through word and image, to experience and reflect on the interconnectedness of all life. It opens with a somewhat overwritten and florid explanation of the evolution of life and then settles into a personal essay by Suzuki, a scientist and environmentalist. In this piece, the highlight of the written text, he describes his own transformation from a young researcher who believed that science could answer every problem to an environmental activist who came to realize that science often created as many problems as it solved. (In one fascinating vignette, he explores na‹ve enthusiasm for science by describing the universal praise in the 1950s for DEET, which his mother used to spray directly on the family's dinner just before serving it.) The book then devotes chapters to seven "elements" that are necessary to sustain life: water, air, fire, earth, biodiversity, love and spirit. "Spirit is beyond science," the authors say in the last chapter; it involves understanding the interdependence of life. The seven chapters are mostly taken up with DeCambra's stunning photographs, interspersed with quotations from various thinkers and excerpts from the sacred texts of the world's religions. Each chapter begins with a few introductory pages about its theme. Although these preambles contain some interesting tidbits ("there are 200 million insects for every human being on Earth") and a few insights into spirituality, the book's most original and memorable contribution is its photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Photographs from around the world
Collaboratively compiled by geneticist David Suzuki, documentary film maker Amanda McConnell, and photo researcher Maria DeCambra, The Sacred Balance: A Visual Celebration Of Our Place In Nature is an inspirational collection of photographs from around the world, supplemented with wise and thoughtful commentary about human beings and their affinity for the natural world. Captivating images and insightful observations balance one another perfectly in this unique presentation which is especially recommended for students of ecology and the diverse and manifold wonders of the natural world.

Sacred Balance
An excellent visual and literary exposition of Suzuki's original seminal work "The Sacred Balance". Satisfying in itself but also quite suitable as a coffee table book to subtly influence conversations to cover individual opinions on living in harmony with nature.