<p>Questions to stimulate discussion:</p><p>1. Decide (as individuals or as a pair) whether you agree or disagree with Suzuki's statement, and why. </p><p>2. What does the statement mean to you?</p><p>3. What do you think Suzuki meant by this statement?</p><p>4. What were some examples or evidence that Suzuki gave about this statement?</p><p>5. Does this statement connect with what you have been studying in Science? Does it connect with any of your other courses? Any other parts of your life?</p><p>“We are now altering the physical features of the planet as no other species has ever done“, due to our numbers, technological power, our hyper-consumerism and our city habitat.</p><p>A First Nations gentleman states, “We're made out of the things we eat, the water that we drink and the experiences that we live.” Suzuki states, “There is no environment out there and we have to interact with it. We ARE the environment because we are the Earth... This is not meant in a poetic way.”</p><p>Suzuki discusses a “whole shift in the way [he] looked at the issues that confront us and the way we live on this planet”. This is called a paradigm shift. What paradigm shift is he suggesting we as a species need to make? </p><p>The argon thought-exercise: Suzuki states that air connects us all into the past and into the future. How does the argon we breathe demonstrate this?</p><p>“Whatever we do to the water, we're doing directly to ourselves.”</p><p>Why does Suzuki question the connotations of the words “dirt” and “soil”?</p><p>“We ARE the Earth because we are created from molecules that plants and animals have absorbed from the soil, and we make it into our own bodies.”</p><p>“We ARE Fire.” Suzuki states that both the energy we use in our bodies and the energy we use outside our bodies was originally sunlight.</p><p>If we travelled back in time 4 million years to before there was life on Earth, we would all die immediately. Even given a supply of fresh air, we could not survive without other living organisms. Why not? Relate this to air, water, earth and fire.</p><p>“We don't like to acknowledge that we are animals.” “Most biologists I talk to believe we're long past the 59th minute.”</p><p>“We are living with the illusion of abundance.”</p><p>“I don't think anyone has got the right to say it's too late.”</p><p>“When we die, we don't disappear; after all, we're made of atoms.” </p>