COMMENTARY

COMMENTARY Gaia high priest Lovelock was a prescient genius

by David Suzuki

Pioneering scientist James Lovelock recognized that the forest-biodiversity crisis—Amazon clearcutting (above) is a prime example—was connected to the climate crisis. Photo by Getty.

When scientist James Lovelock suggested more than 50 years ago that Earth regulates itself like a living organism, many in science and academia ridiculed his idea. As he later wrote, “the mainstream view then was the neo-Darwinist one that life adapts to the environment, not that the relationship also works in the other direction, as we argued”.

Lovelock, who died on his 103rd birthday July 26, was correct. As he pointed out, climate disruption and rainforest destruction show that humans are affecting the global environment, which is responding in ways that aim toward some kind of equilibrium—with or without humans. He also understood that a major drawback to western science is reductionism, the tendency to compartmentalize phenomena, often obscuring how components interconnect and interact as part of something larger.

For Lovelock, separating the climate and forest-biodiversity crises “is as much of a mistake as the error made by universities when they teach chemistry in a different class from biology and physics. It is impossible to understand these subjects in isolation because they are interconnected”.

It’s why both Indigenous knowledge and western science are needed to understand how to live better on this small, wonderful planet. While taking things apart and examining how the pieces work is useful and important, we have to look at how those parts interconnect with everything else, to see the whole—as Indigenous Peoples who have lived in place for millennia have done.

This more holistic way of seeing underpins much of climate science today, as it’s clear the climate is connected to all systems that affect Earth and that they all help regulate the whole. Lovelock noted that Earth’s surface temperature is determined mainly by radiant heat from the sun, but temperatures have “remained relatively stable thanks to Gaia: forests, oceans, and other elements in the Earth’s regulating system, which kept the surface temperature fairly constant and near optimal for life”.

We’ve now upset that balance, burning coal, oil, and gas in our automobiles, factories, and homes and pumping massive amounts of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and more into the atmosphere at accelerating rates. At the same time, we’ve hindered Earth’s ability to absorb and sequester excess carbon from the atmosphere by destroying and polluting wetlands, peat bogs, forests, grasslands, waterways, and seas.

Gaia is responding.

Our understanding of the climate crisis and its causes—and solutions—is growing by leaps and bounds, although basic knowledge about greenhouse gases is at least 200 years old.

But mainstream forest ecology has only recently started seeing the forest and the trees. Reductionist, capitalist thinking made many see forests as little more than stands of valuable timber—with a few “weed” species in the way—each individual tree worth more cut into boards or pulped into chips than an interdependent life form playing its role in a forest ecosystem.

As with Lovelock, when forest ecologist Suzanne Simard suggested that forests are more than just their parts, that they’re intricately connected systems that communicate and share and strive toward equilibrium, her ideas were initially derided and mocked.

We now have a much greater understanding of forests and the fungal networks that connect trees. Through intricate mycelial webs, fungi and trees redistribute and share nutrients and water, and they send almost instant recognition and warning signals to each other.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes that Indigenous elders have long spoken of trees communicating. “There is now compelling evidence that our elders were right—the trees are talking to one another.”

Our major crises stem largely from ways of thinking that are limited to parts and immediacy that fail to see how the whole is affected by and affects everything that interacts with and within it. The climate and biodiversity crises, growing mainstream recognition of the importance of Indigenous knowledge, and increasing understanding of ecosystem interconnectedness all point to the necessity of embracing and acting on this increasing awareness quickly if we want to avoid catastrophe.

As Lovelock wrote before he died, “humans must learn to live in partnership with the Earth, otherwise the rest of creation will, as part of Gaia, unconsciously move the Earth to a new state in which humans may no longer be welcome”. g

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and cofounder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from foundation senior writer and editor Ian Hanington. Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.

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TAIWANFEST Silaturahmi reflects lives of migrant fishers in Taiwan

by Charlie Smith

Cultural activist Ting-Kuan Wu and writer Yu-Chen Lan collaborated with Indonesian seafarers in a Taiwanese port town on an installation that will be on Granville Street during TAIWANfest.

For Taiwan-based human-rights researcher and cultural activist Ting-Kuan Wu and writer YuChen Lan, Silaturahmi is a beaution the high seas, including forced labour and human trafficking, have generated a great deal of international attention in recent years. And in Taiwanese ports, he ful Islamic idea.

“It means people taking care and connecting and mending their relationships— the bond of relationship—with each other in daily life,” Lan tells the Straight over Zoom in a joint interview with Wu. “If you go to Indonesia or to any Indonesian community, you will find out this word is beyond the concept of a religious idea. It’s already secularized.”

Silaturahmi takes effort, she adds, something she and Wu have done in forging connections with migrant Indonesian fishers in the Taiwanese port of Tangkáng. That will be on display during the TAIWANfest celebrations in Vancouver in a large installation that they created, called Silaturahmi, with the help of Indonesian fishers in Tangkáng. It will be in the 600 block of Granville Street from September 3 to 5.

“The first thing you will notice is the huge piece of tarpaulin—the white and blue tarpaulin,” Lan says. “You can see it; you can even lie down or walk around on the tarpaulin.”

The installation includes handicrafts, fishing nets, and other aspects of migrant Indonesian fishers’ lives. Because they don’t have permanent spaces on the docks in Taiwan, these fishers lay down tarpaulins when they want to sit together.

Tangkáng is home to Taiwan’s largest Indonesian seafarers’ organization, which includes the word Silaturahmi in its name.

According to Wu, there are about 2,000 Indonesian fishers in Tangkáng and more than 10,000 licensed and unlicensed fishers from Indonesia and the Philippines in Taiwan. He notes that human-rights issues says, there are still not sufficient facilities for the fishers, pointing to a lack of showers as one example. But Wu and Lan have also been touched by the solidarity that Indonesian fishers have demonstrated in Tangkáng as they’ve formed a vibrant community. To these two cultural navigators, it’s Silaturahmi writ large. “They represent their culture in the local festivals and raised funds to build their own mosque there,” Wu says. Wu, who lives in the large southern city of Kaohsiung, met some Indonesian fishers while participating in a festival in Tangkáng in 2015. Four years later, as the coordinator of Trans/Voices Project: Indonesia-Taiwan, he collaborated with Indonesian artists and learned more about the lives of Indonesian migrant workers. More recently, he cocurated a project in the Kaohsiung Museum of Labour on the human rights of migrants in southern Taiwan. “Some fishers from Indonesia don’t join this community because they spend most of their time on the fishing vessels on the sea,” Wu acknowledges. Every year, TAIWANfest highlights important human-rights issues in Asia in addition to celebrating arts and culture. This year’s theme, Stories of Independence, focuses on the bonds between the people of Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. “We all agreed that it’s better that we directly collaborate with the Indonesian fishers,” Lan says. “That’s how this process began.” g

TAIWANfest will present Silaturahmi in the 600 block of Granville from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on September 3 to 5.

ARTS Namesake’s music inspires Cohen’s choreography

by Charlie Smith

In Take This Waltz, which is choreographed by Ne.Sans artistic director Idan Cohen, dancer Ted Littlemore (left) gets equal billing with bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch. Photo by Victoria Bell.

The Chutzpah! Festival presents Ne.Sans Opera & Dance’s Take This Waltz in partnership with Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera at 8 p.m. on September 10 and 11 at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre.

Vancouver dance artist Idan Cohen practically gushes with enthusiasm as he shares his passion for the music and poetry of a deceased Canadian who shares his surname.

“I’ve always loved Leonard Cohen’s work,” Cohen tells the Straight by phone. “How could you not?”

Cohen, the founder and artistic director of Ne.Sans Opera & Dance, goes on to describe the singer-songwriter as “monumental” in the way he injected such sensitivity and wisdom into his songwriting and performances.

“The wonderful lyrics paired with brilliant music is just something you don’t get to experience every day,” Cohen says.

So it’s easy to imagine how delighted Cohen was when he was approached by bassbaritone Daniel Okulitch to collaborate on a project involving the master’s music. By that time, Okulitch had already presented an arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s songs in a concert commissioned by Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera.

“Daniel wanted to create something a bit richer out of this and had the vision of creating choreography and staging that into a concert,” Cohen recalls.

The choreographer says that he has been an admirer of Okulitch’s work since he first saw him singing on-stage in Vancouver Opera’s Dead Man Walking in 2017. So, naturally, he agreed to collaborate. The result will be on display next month in the world premiere of Ne.Sans Opera & Dance’s Take This Waltz, which is billed as “Celebrating the Music of Leonard Cohen”. It’s being presented as a Chutzpah! Festival special event in advance of the annual Jewish arts and cultural fest this November.

Cohen imposed one condition before proceeding with this production. Pacific Opera Victoria’s concert featured “stunningly beautiful” arrangements, he says, but quite a few of the songs were among the singer-songwriter’s least known.

“I kind of insisted to add two songs that I thought were very relevant and important for the piece,” he says. “Those were ‘Everybody Knows’ and ‘Hallelujah’.”

When Okulitch gave this the green light, Cohen was all in.

Cohen describes Take This Waltz as a duet, with Okulitch’s singing being paired with Ted Littlemore’s dance artistry. Littlemore is the first dancer that Cohen worked with when he moved to Vancouver a few years ago.

“One of the many reasons I love working with Ted is because in his background, he’s also a musician,” Cohen says. “We speak the language, and also he’s such a valuable part of my vision for Ne.Sans Opera & Dance.”

That vision, according to Cohen, is to create a new form of hybridity that showcases all the arts as equals. In this regard, Cohen says that Ne.Sans Opera & Dance is following the tradition of opera.

“Ted is such a wonderful collaborator and such a brilliant dancer and beautiful musician,” he explains. “I thought that this would add something very minimal and— at the same time—rich to the production. I wanted both performers to be equal with what they have to offer to the production and to the audience.”

Cohen reveals that later in the piece, Littlemore will join the music ensemble on-stage and play the accordion while dancing.

Nowadays, it disappoints Cohen to see the arts confined to silos. It bothers him when musicians and theatre artists focus only on their art forms rather than taking in more dance shows and when dancers neglect attending the theatre or art galleries.

“I find it’s a real pity because we’re losing so much,” he says. “And when I think of artists that inspired me, I am always thinking of the German choreographer Pina Bausch, who basically reinvented dance theatre in the late ’60s.”

Bausch was certainly an admired dance artist, but according to Cohen, she also gave tremendous thought to costumes, set design, music, and other elements, even working with actors to create profound scenes. Cohen points out that both he and Bausch choreographed Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo et Euridice, demonstrating their shared love of opera. (In Cohen’s 2021 version in partnership with Vancouver Opera, Littlemore played the role of Orfeo.)

“She had such knowledge of classical music,” Cohen states. “And I think she’s a huge inspiration to us all.” g

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September 13 – 14, 2022 BMO Theatre Centre Newmont Stage – 7:30pm

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