GENERAL

My Uncle John's Honourary Degree Acceptance Speech
University of Western Ontario, October 24, 2003

The University of Western Ontario has played and continues to play a major role in my life. As a child growing up in London I attended football and basketball games at Western, took music examinations here, and looked through the UWO telescope. I spent 4 formative years as an undergraduate at this University, learning from its faculty members and participating in extra-curricular activities. My wife, 4 brothers and 2 sisters have also gained degrees from this University. More recently I have collaborated in research with a large number faculty members (8) in your Faculty of Engineering. Western has truly been of central importance to my family and me, and this makes this honour all the more special. Thank you! I also salute this University as it celebrates its 125th Anniversary.
Preparing a Convocation address is a difficult task, particularly following a Governor-General. On the one hand, I am aware that few will remember a word I say. You are here to receive your degrees or to honour family members who have, by their sustained efforts, succeeded in gaining doctoral, Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in various fields. My remarks will be brief and intended to challenge my fellow graduates.
I have been immensely fortunate since graduating from Western. Among the opportunities that I have had, I have been associated with three other major universities, interacted actively with many bright students, been able to do research that has had some impact, built an academic department and a number of interdisciplinary initiatives, worked closely with industry and government, formed a small company, and travelled in all continents and in every province and territory of Canada. You, the graduates of 2003, will, I am sure, have similar opportunities ahead of you. But you will also face challenges as you go forth from this institution, and it is these challenges that I want to address.
The words of Winston Churchill from a different context are apt here regarding the stage you have reached today:
“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is the end of the beginning.”
Although you are entering a whole new phase in your lives, your education is not over. It is essential that you continue to learn, grow, maintain active minds, and find rewarding aspects in any job or situation, no matter how mundane. You will certainly need to work hard. But you will also need to intersperse hard work with outside interests, and to devote yourself to family and human interaction so that you avoid the trap of being so dedicated and consumed by working hard and making money that life loses it meaning. To paraphrase a recent commentator, we may have conquered outer space, but are commonly incapable of paying attention to our inner space.
Let me make a special plea to those of you who have trained as scientists to develop or sustain interests in the arts. Your lives can be enriched immensely by giving yourself an opportunity to appreciate the marvellous cultural achievements – in music, theatre, visual arts, novels, films etc. – which our colleagues in the arts in this country are now producing. Similarly, those in arts should strive to gain some understanding of the sciences.
Remember also that science, while having the capacity to do enormous good, can, if applied wrongly or thoughtlessly, be the agent of wrong. Good minds spending time developing computer viruses so that other good minds waste their time combating them is an obvious example. Persistent organic pollutants pervade our environment originating from synthetic chemicals. Some years ago, scientists and engineers were given the job of improving the ability of fishermen to harvest the oceans. In one sense they succeeded admirably, by employing tools like sonar and greatly improved nets. These innovations greatly improved the efficiency of fishing fleets. But no one thought about the consequences of literally scouring the ocean floor so efficiently that the very survival and of the fish stock was imperilled. The people on the east and west coasts of Canada are now paying dearly for this oversight. As this example shows, it is essential that those who are graduating with science degrees today think about the consequences of their work, the potential dangers as well as the potential for good.
As you move out into the world, it is important to collaborate with others. In this increasingly complex and inter-dependent world, it is more and more difficult for anyone to master more than the barest corner of knowledge. Most real and interesting problems are inherently interdisciplinary, transcending the bounds of the degrees that you have gained. As an example of a real and pressing problem that must be faced by your generation, let me briefly consider Climate change.
You only have to look at the ice storms in Ontario and Quebec, recent fires and floods in British Columbia, heat waves in Europe and India, and the desertification occurring throughout the world to glimpse the immense climactic changes affecting our planet. Indications are that 2003 is the warmest year on record. The increase in average global temperature over the past century was 0.6°C, whereas the increase in the current century could be as much as 6°C or even more, enough to dry up rivers, devastate agriculture, and make may areas now lived on uninhabitable, not to mention many more extreme weather events. Whole species are being wiped off the face of the earth. Our Northern peoples are experiencing profound changes affecting their very existence and livelihood. And yet this is only the beginning. These outcomes can only be avoided if there are profound changes in the ways in which we as human beings inhabit the planet. These problems are especially critical in Canada’s North, a fragile but fascinating land, totally taken for granted and ignored by all but a few Canadians. As Margaret Atwood writes in a recent Introduction to Farley Mowat’s 2002 book “High Latitudes”, “…It’s a race against time, and time – not just for the north, but for the planet – is running out.”
To address this problem requires multiple inputs: Scientists must understand the global effects of excessive release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Engineers are needed to develop and implement new technologies, which will have less impact on the environment. Education is clearly needed so that children and adults change their habits, reduce their consumption and support initiatives to reduce emissions. Artists must inspire and motivate us to take effective remedial action. Politicians must address the policy issues that can shape new initiatives. We all as citizens must do our part. No one group can, on its own, solve a problem of such global proportions, one in which there are vested and short-term interests in maintaining the status quo. Only concerted and united efforts can achieve sustainability for our planet. It is heartening that students at many universities are now signing a sustainability pledge when they graduate.
As you move forward in your lives and careers, I hope that you will think about the joint needs, on the one hand, of strengthening this great country of Canada, and, on the other, thinking and working on an international level. Let me be more specific, turning first to Canada:
This country has immense advantages of geography, natural resources, social policies, history and human strengths upon which to build. Canadian writers and artists are doing exciting and original work. For all their faults, our health and educational systems have served us well and, with renewed attention, provide a basis for continued prosperity. Our economy has performed better in recent years than virtually all competing economies. While we are far from perfect, our relative tolerance and forward-looking social policies have gained Canada in a recent edition of “The Economist” the label of “rather cool”. Our cities are among the most liveable in the world. There is much of which we can be justifiably proud.
This is not to say that we cannot do better. Poverty, social inequities and regional disparities remain too high. Our collective failure to satisfy the needs of our First Nations is deeply disappointing. Inadequate support for our farmers will have lasting negative impacts. Problems like under-exercise, poor nutrition habits, deteriorating infrastructure (for example in water), and environmental failures persist. Despite the enrichment of different languages and cultural traditions, we have never been able to adequately reconcile our two major language groups.
I urge this group to dedicate itself to fixing such problems. However, voting statistics show very clearly that your generation does not participate adequately in the politics of this country, with, for example, extremely low turn-outs in elections for voters in the 18 to 30 year age bracket. Indeed this participation is so low that Canada’s political parties essentially ignore voters under the age of 30 in establishing their policies. If you do not want to be ignored in this manner, you must participate.
Let me turn finally to the International dimension. As a country, we are strongly dependent on foreign trade. Our population has benefited enormously from the skills and personal qualities brought to our shores by immigrants from many lands.
Wherever possible, I urge you to travel abroad, not just to make brief visits as tourists, though these are certainly better than nothing, but to spend extended periods working with local people in far away lands. During my own undergraduate days at Western, I was fortunate to spend a summer in a work camp in West Africa. This experience was transformative. Not only did I make new friends, learn about a fascinating area of the world with a vastly different culture, but I gained new perspective on my own country. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when talking to one of my current students who had just returned from a 6-month work term in East Timor. One of the comments she made was that she had learned that people there were “just the same” as here, and I knew exactly what she meant. Of course, in many ways the people she had worked with in East Timor, like those I had worked with in West Africa, were anything but the same – different languages, different races, different cultures, vastly different standards of living. And of course no two individuals, even in the same setting and culture, are ever truly the same. But beyond all that, and in a very fundamental way, there is a basic humanity to be discovered by working abroad where the needs, qualities and personalities of human beings transcend superficial differences that, from a limited perspective, can seem so impenetrable.
Change is never easy. As university graduates, there will be many pressures encouraging you to settle into comfortable roles in an affluent country. But change is needed in this world where there are such inequalities between peoples, and where the planet itself is being altered negatively and possibly irreversibly, by over-consumption. You are the future. You can be instrumental in making changes that will make the world a better place. Working together, you can achieve what the Earth Charter calls “global interdependence and universal responsibility.” We need your energy, the education you have gained at this University, and your commitment. Good luck to all of you! May you achieve happiness and have futures which are fulfilling and bright!

John R. Grace, Vancouver