Dad had become interested in Shinto near the end of his life, and his Shinto beliefs fit well with the First Nations sense of connection with nature. Certainly if the laws of physics apply to our bodies, we are made up of the earth through the air, water, and food we ingest, and when we die, the atoms that comprise our bodies don't vanish but are eventually recycled back through the biosphere. So we return to nature, which gave us life in the first place, and as Dad's obituary said, we will still be everywhere. I like that idea, although it doesn't satisfy — as religion does — that egotistic desire to continue on in some conscious state.
Years after Dad died, an interviewer, knowing how important Dad had been to me, asked whether his death was one of the most painful moments of my life. I had to answer no. How could it be? I miss him and Mom tremendously and think of them every day, but Dad had a rich, full life, had been lucid until hours before his death, and had no pain or fear of death.
THE SENTIMENTS INCLUDED IN Dad's obituary are what I hope will be included in mine. I have had a rich and full life. I've selfishly acted on my priorities and impulses, often when I should have spent some of that time on those I love. I have hurt others, including my own family, but not deliberately out of meanness, and I hope that my life can be summed up as a positive addition to the human family.
Perhaps one or two programs I've done on television or radio will be played again after I'm dead, perhaps a book or two I've written will be read. That would be nice. But the one true legacy of any value is my children and, through them, my grandchildren. My grandchildren may remember something they learned from me or shared with me and, if I'm lucky, they may even pass that snippet on to their grandchildren. So at most, I might be remembered for four generations. My mother was the most decent, self-effacing person I've ever known; it hurts me to realize that when my sisters and I die, she will disappear from memory quickly in the fragments of memory among my children. Why, then, would I wish for any more than she did? My father made a point of leaving trees as gifts, a gesture that ensures that so long as those plants flourish, he will be there in some way.
This is a sad time to depart from this life. I have witnessed the disappearance and destruction of so much of the natural world that I loved. Extinction of a species is natural in the evolutionary scheme of life on Earth—99.9999 percent of all species that have ever existed are extinct. But we are an infant species, arriving very recently, perhaps 150,000 years ago in the plains of Africa, and yet now the once unthinkable, the coming extinction of our own species, is actually conceivable. Our trajectory to dominance of the planet has been spectacular, but we have not fully comprehended the price of that success. It has been my lot to be a Cassandra or Chicken Little, warning about imminent disaster, but it gives me no satisfaction at all to think my concerns may be validated by my grandchildren's generation.
My grandchildren are my stake in the near future, and it is my most fervent hope that they might say one day, “Grandpa was part of a great movement that helped turn things around for us.” I also hope that they might remember my most valuable lesson and be able to say, “Grandpa taught us how to catch and clean a fish. Let's go catch one for dinner.”
for The Nature of Things with David Suzuki
INDEX
Aboriginal Australians, 211–14
Ainu people, 225–26
air pollution, health effects, 77, 242–44
Allder, Michael, 75, 92
Altamira dam protest, 157–67
Amazonia, 134–54, 157–67, 175–88, 190–93, 225, 227
Amherst College, 34–41, 59
Anderson, Ray, 241, 246
Aral Sea, 77–78
Archibald, Nancy, 76, 90, 114, 288–89
Attenborough, David, 79
Australia, 195–216, 314–16, 319–21. See also JUSCANZ countries
Beadle, George, 43
Beban, Frank, 122–23
Bennett, Bill, 114, 120, 121
Bonisteel, Roy, 73
Boyd, David, 263–66
Bronfman, Stephen, 241, 246
Bush, George H.W., 269, 322
Bush, George W., 322, 325, 334–37
Campos, Eduardo, 383–84
Campos, Midori, 384
Campos, Tamo, 384
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), 31, 62, 67, 73, 91, 103, 155–56, 198–99, 218, 365–68. See also Suzuki, David (science broadcaster)
Cavoukian, Raffi, 272, 274
Charles, Prince of Wales, 353–59
Chibber, Ajay, 297, 299
Chomsky, Noam, 219–20, 349–50
Chrétien, Jean, 322
clam gardens, 377–78
Clarkson, Adrienne, 359
Clayoquot Sound, 205
climate change, 209–10, 230–31, 241–47, 305–23
Cockburn, Bruce, 204–5
Conference of Parties (cop), 245–47
Cook, Jonathan, 385–86
Cook, Peter, 385–86
Couchman, Paul, 206–7
Crichton, Michael, 309, 310
Cullis, Freddy, 100–101
Cullis, Harry, 100–101, 169
Cullis, Pieter, 101–2
Cullis, Tara: Amazonia projects, 152, 155–74, 175–88, 190–91;
in Australia, 200–204, 208–10;
celebrity visits, 355– 56, 359–63;
David Suzuki Foundation, 220–32, 238–39, 252–61;
Earth Summit, 270–73, 277–85;
First Nations projects, 252–61;
marriage and family, 97–110;
Stein Valley Festival, 126–29, 130, 132
Cullis-Suzuki, Sarika, 88, 90, 109–10, 175–88, 359–60, 363, 386–87
Cullis-Suzuki, Severn, 108–10, 175–88, 270–73, 277–85, 359–60, 363, 378, 386–87
Daintree forest (Australia), 203–4
Dalai Lama, 359–63
David Suzuki Foundation: Amazonia projects, 191, 225, 227;
climate change and emissions research, 241–47;
Declaration of Interdependence, 274–77;
executives of, 227–32, 238–39;
expertise and communication, 238–39, 240–41;
First Nations projects, 251–61;
fisheries projects, 232–38;
forestry research, 247–51;
Kyoto agreement, 313–14, 316–17, 322;
Lake Pedder restoration, 207–8;
lifestyle advice, 261–63;
objectives, 217–22;
organization and early accomplishments, 222–27;
sustainability analysis, 263–66
Davis, Wade, 274
de la Giroday, Evelyn, 381–82
Denver, John, 129–31
Dick, Simon, 158, 159, 163–66
Doukhobors, 20–21
Drever, Ronnie, 248
Earth Summit (1992), 189, 267–86, 307–8
Easterbrook, Gregg, 270, 309
Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), 270–73, 277–85
environmental movement, history of, 267–70
European Union, at Kyoto, 314–16, 317–18
First Nations, 10–11, 14, 113–24, 170–72, 205, 222, 226, 230, 236–38, 250–61
fisheries. See marine ecosystems
fishing, sport and subsistence, 10–11, 13, 45, 136–37, 177–81, 192–93, 372–73
Fitzpatrick, Catherine, 242–43
Fogg, Nick, 288, 290, 292–93
forest ecosystems: in Amazonia, 135–36, 147–48, 152, 158–59, 181–84, 190–93, 227;