Sunday March 1, 2009
Unknown even in their own country
The Oscars came and went last Sunday. I didn\’t watch them. I used to watch them, once, until I concluded that the ceremonies celebrated egotism more than talent.
How much difference did those performances make to the state of the world? My guess – none.
The same week, 45 British Columbians were recognized at the sixth annual B.C. Community Achievement Awards. Premier Gordon Campbell described the winners as, “those who consistently and honourably create safe, caring, and vital communities.”
The Oscars ran on page one in our regional newspaper; the Community Achievement Awards on page four.
The disparity got me thinking about people who have made a difference.
A few years ago, the CBC ran a contest to determine the Ten Greatest Canadians. Tommy Douglas, commonly considered the Father of Medicare in Canada, topped the list.
Personally, I question any poll that places Don Cherry among the top ten Canadians of all time. And despite my respect for Tommy Douglas, I doubt if he made much difference outside Canada.
Five who changed the world
But there are such Canadians, although Canadians themselves are often unaware of their impact on the world.
For example, Sandford Fleming, the inventor of Standard Time. An engineer and inventor, Fleming first proposed a time-keeping system that divided the world into 24 time zones at a conference of the Royal Canadian Institute on February 8, 1879, 130 years ago last month. By 1929 every country in the world had accepted his concept.
You cannot travel today without being indebted to Fleming\’s genius.
Even less known – although it should matter, in this Internet age – is Fleming\’s tireless advocacy of an underwater telegraph cable across the Atlantic, linking Canada electronically with Great Britain. Later cables connected the entire British Empire.
More Canadians probably know about Frederick Banting and Charles Best, co-discoverers of insulin in 1921-22 at the University of Toronto.
Although it is not a cure for diabetes – researchers are still working on that — insulin remains the only effective treatment for diabetes even today. Until 1922, people diagnosed with diabetes were put on special diets so restrictive that they became human skeletons. It was, in effect, a "starvation" therapy. It merely delayed death by a few months, possibly a year.
No matter where you live, if you\’re afflicted by diabetes, you owe your life to Banting and Best.
The disputed Canadian
Another Canadian who made a huge difference made the news again this last week. On Feb 23, the 100th3\”> anniversary of the first powered flight in Canada, a replica of the Silver Dart lifted off the ice in Baddeck Bay, Cape Breton Island.
Baddeck Bay was, of course, the favourite home of Alexander Graham Bell, the driving force behind the development of the Silver Dart.
Bell\’s inventions have changed life everywhere. He\’s best known for inventing the telephone. But his work also provided a the foundation for hearing aids, marine hydrofoils, metal detectors, tape recorders, the hard disc and floppy disc drive of modern computers, and the ailerons that still control flight in today\’s airlines.
The U.S., Canada, and Scotland all claim Bell.
Although his telephone was patented in the U.S. before Canada, he did his initial research in Brantford, Ontario. And as he grew older, he spent more and more of each year at his summer home in on the shores of Lake Bras d\’Or on Cape Breton Island. The museum there has become almost a shrine to a man who used anything from his Venetian blinds to his wife\’s best sheets for his scientific experiments.
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It\’s also worth pursuing Charlene Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
My last two choices are probably unknown to most of the world, even though most of the world uses their ideas.
Tuzo Wilson is to geology what Charles Darwin is to biology.
When I went to school (shortly after the last ice age) geology struggled to explain the upheaval of mountains, the anomalies of magnetic orientation in ancient rocks.
Wilson suggested that the continents, instead of being fixed in place, were actually islands of lighter rock drifting on currents in underlying molten rock.
His theory of “plate tectonics” – ridiculed at first – is now taken for granted by every geologist, and has enabled us to reconstruct ancient worlds.
The fifth person is UBC professor William Rees. With graduate student Mathis Wackernagel, Rees coined the term "ecological footprint" to evaluate the sustainability of human habitation on this planet.
Wikipedia defines “ecological footprint” as the area of biologically productive land and sea needed to support a human population and to dissipate our wastes.
In 2005, the most recent year for which the UN has figures, each U.S. resident required 9.5 hectares. The Swiss footprint was 5.0 hectares per person. China\’s was 2.1 –close to the worldwide average.
Extrapolated, humanity\’s total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.3 planet Earths. Ecologically, we\’re running a deficit budget.
Probably not more than a few thousand people have heard of Bill Rees. But his concepts influence every government agency and planner.
These five contributions strike me as more deserving of applause than anything at the Oscars.
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Copyright © 2009 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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