David Suzuki's If It Always Cost

Superior Essays
“ If it always costs, we are always ready to afford”

Most people have become fully acquainted with the side effects of science and technology. They know very well that all the technological innovations have serious effects on their health, social lives and the environment. However, all of them have been ready to pay whatever the cost has been. Therefore, I don’t think that greater scientific literacy at all levels of society has had a positive impact on our attitude towards science and technology. In this essay, I will discuss David Suzuki’s views in his essay: “ It Always Costs”. There are certain points that I agree with him, and some others, which I strongly disagree.

Science and technology, just like everything in our lives, have costs. However, almost all people are so enthusiastic to celebrate every new invention regardless of their costs. I cannot imagine asking people to stop using their mobile phones, computers, cars and washing machines…etc. because they have side effects. Patients take medicine according to the doctors’ prescriptions without thinking of the side effects of these medicines.
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However, Suzuki claims that even a ten –year study “could never anticipate all the fluctuation of conditions in this sensitive area”(P.311). He was speaking about the effects of synergistic, which are several components interact to give new or greater effects than the sum of their individual impact. Suzuki gave an example about some of his colleagues who had studied “populations of animals or plants over decades and find nice cycles and patterns that are predictable until suddenly completely unexpected fluctuations occur”. Therefore, time is not capable of giving us reliable conclusions. Suzuki suggested, “we ought to be a lot more humble about how little we know”. I completely agree with him. Neither time, nor assessments could make scientists anticipate the possible

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