Books

In partnership with Greystone Books, the David Suzuki Foundation has published environment-related books since 1996. The Foundation does not sell these books directly. However, some or all of the profits from their sales support our work. They are listed below in chronological order, and are available through bookstores everywhere.
The Big Picture: Reflections on Science, Humanity, and a Quickly Changing Planet By: Dr. David Suzuki and Dave Robert Taylor David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2009 David Suzuki and co-author Dave Robert Taylor examine current issues facing the natural world such as suburban sprawl, sustainable transportation, food shortages, biodiversity, technology, and public policy. Most importantly, they provide solid, science-based solutions to the environmental challenges of the 21st century.	Read an excerpt Read reviews Read the interview with David Suzuki
Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent By: Andrew Nikiforuk David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2008 Andrew Nikiforuk's Tar Sands is a critical exposé of the World's largest energy project - the Alberta oil sands - that has made Canada one of the worst environmental offenders on earth.	Read an excerpt Watch video Buy this book
David Suzuki's Green Guide By: Dr. David Suzuki and David R. Boyd David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2008 Everyone knows that human actions affect our natural environment. With this indispensable guide, readers will learn to consume fewer resources and become part of the solution as stewards of the planet. This book recommends actions for individuals to be more green in the homes where we live, the way we travel, the food we eat, and the things we buy. It also describes how all of us can ensure that governments support sustainable lifestyles. Suzuki and Boyd provide vital tips for readers to: create a healthy indoor environment, decrease energy and water use, choose eco-friendly transportation, make simple diet changes to eat fresher, healthier food	Here’s a chapter for you to preview! Read the reviews! Watch David Suzuki's interview on CBC's The Hour! (he's clip #9 on the video player) Buy the Green Guide online
There's a Barnyard in My Bedroom By: Dr. David Suzuki Illustrated by: Eugenie Fernandes David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2008 The three chapters in this book, based on previous titles by David Suzuki and Eugenie Fernandes, take Jamie and Megan on an exciting exploration of nature and its secrets. With the help of their parents and their imaginations, they discover that natural magic is all around them. Sheets and pillows, books and pens, fruits and furniture: all come from nature. They also discover that the air is not just empty space but is full of smells, sounds, water, and life-giving gases. And they discover that their backyard contains clues to the past and future: a nail from pioneer times, seeds that will grow into food, and a robin’s nest that will soon hold baby birds.
A Passion for This Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Explore Our Relationship with Nature and the Environment Foreword by: Bill McKibben David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2008 In this powerful collection of original essays, twenty of the world’s most influential journalists, writers, scientists, and environmentalists lend their voices to inform and engage those who are committed to the survival of the Earth and its inhabitants. Personal, practical, political, full of wonder and rage, this book respectfully continues the conversation that the inimitable David Suzuki began more than fifty years ago.
Gardens: A Literary Companion Edited by: Merilyn Simonds David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2008 Like writing, gardening is an act of imagination and faith, and so it should be no surprise that many fine writers have turned their hand to the soil and brought their gardens back to the page. This anthology gathers together the best from around the world and across the centuries. The Roman essayist Pliny muses on “The Smell of Good Ground,” while Katharine S. White, garden columnist for The New Yorker, takes in the fragrance of roses. In Bloomsbury’s Britain, Vita Sackville-West singles out the Transvaal Daisy from her gardens at Sissinghurst, while medieval herbalist John Gerard extolls the potato as the “Marvel of the World” and Bertie Stephens reminisces about being a gardener for Thomas Hardy. The New World pioneer Catharine Parr Traill is here, as well as contemporary writers Germaine Greer, Jamaica Kincaid, and Patrick Lane.
Deserts: A Literary Companion Edited by: Wayne Grady David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2008 Next to rain forests, deserts are the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth: endless expanses of arid sand, or swaths of gravel and thorn, or acres of grassland or dust. All differ in their floral, faunal, and geological assemblages, and all inspire vivid and passionate responses from those who experience them first hand. Whether their experience has been life-threatening or benign, few have emerged from a desert without having had their lives changed forever.
The Hot Topic: What We Can Do About Global Warming By: Sir David King, Gabrielle Walker David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2008 Last year, awareness about global warming reached a tipping point. Now one of the most dynamic writers and one of the most respected scientists in the field of climate change offer the first concise guide to both the problems and the solutions. Guiding us past a blizzard of information and misinformation, Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King explain the science of warming, the most cutting-edge technological solutions from small to large, and the national and international politics that will affect our efforts.
An Enchantment of Birds: Memories from a Birder's Life By: Richard J. Cannings Illustrated by: Donald Gunn David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2007 When Richard Cannings was growing up in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, the songs of the meadowlarks rang through his bedroom window as the morning sky brightened; now meadowlark songs mean home. Cannings describes various aspects of the birds’ natural history, including how they tuck their nests deep into a hollow beside a clump of grass, where they are so completely hidden that he has seen only two in his entire life.
Where the Silence Rings: A Literary Companion to Mountains Edited by: Wayne Grady David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2007 From Edward Whymper’s ascent of the Matterhorn in the 1860s to Jon Krakauer’s vivid profiles of modern mountaineers, this collection offers indelible impressions from writers who experienced the mystery and the grandeur of the mountains — and who lived to tell about it. Highlights include John Muir’s “A Perilous Night on Mount Shasta” and Belmore Browne’s heart-stopping “Conquest of Mt. McKinley.”
Dark Waters Dancing to a Breeze: A Literary Companion to Rivers and Lakes Edited by: Wayne Grady David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2007 Our fascination with water finds full expression in the writings of explorers, adventurers, fly-fishers, natural historians, and even novelists in Dark Waters Dancing to a Breeze. (The title comes from naturalist Henry Walter Bates, writing about the river Tocantins on his way to Amazonia.) Mark Twain marvels at the teeming humanity on the Ganges; Victor Hugo sings the praises of the Rhine; Henry Stanley, searching for Livingston in Africa, discovers Lake Albert Edward, the source of the Albertine Nile; and Theodore Dreiser gives us his impression of the Thames—plus much more. This surprising collection of twenty pieces lures us away from the security of the shore and plunges us into the beauty and mystery of water on the move.
The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region By: Wayne Grady Illustrated by: Emily Damstra Adapted by: National Gallery of Canada David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2007 The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region is the most authoritative, complete, and accessible book to date about the biology and ecology of this vital, ever-changing terrain. Written by one of Canada’s best-known science and nature writers, this essential resource features superb nature photography and numerous sidebars that focus on specific animal, plant and invertebrate species.
Prairie: A Natural History By: Candace Savage David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2006 Over 2 million square miles of North America is covered in prairie, comprising the largest ecosystem on the continent. The prairies are the heartland of the continent, a vast, windswept plain that flows from Alberta south to Texas and from the Rockies east to the Mississippi River. This is big sky country, and until recently, one of the richest and most magnificent natural grasslands in the world. Today, however, the North American prairies are among the most altered environments on Earth. Thorough, detailed, and scientifically up-to-date, Prairie: A Natural History provides a comprehensive, nontechnical guide to the biology and ecology of this fabled environment, offering a view of the past, a vision for the future, and a clear focus on the present.
Salmon Forest By: Sarah Ellis, Dr. David Suzuki Illustrated by: Sheena Lott David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2006 David Suzuki and Sarah Ellis's charming and informative text, accompanied by Sheena Lott's exquisite watercolors, magically evoke the spirit and mystery of the West Coast rain forest. Together, text and illustrations illuminate the interconnectedness of the forest and the sea and of all life.
The Rockies: A Natural History By: Richard J. Cannings David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2005, 2007 This detailed and scientifically up-to-date natural history examines the geology, biology, and ecology of the Rockies from Alaska to the Mexican border, and from their beginnings below the surface of ancient seas to their uncertain future.
Tree: A Life Story By: Wayne Grady, Dr. David Suzuki By (artist): Robert Bateman David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2004, 2007 "Only God can make a tree," wrote Joyce Kilmer in one of the most celebrated of poems. In Tree: A Life Story, authors David Suzuki and Wayne Grady extend that celebration in a "biography" of this extraordinary — and extraordinarily important — organism. A story that spans a millennium and includes a cast of millions but focuses on a single tree, a Douglas fir, Tree describes in poetic detail the organism's modest origins that begin with a dramatic burst of millions of microscopic grains of pollen.
From Naked Ape to Superspecies: Humanity and the Global Eco-Crisis By: Holly Dressel, Dr. David Suzuki David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2004 In this revised and fully up to date edition of From Naked Ape to Superspecies, David Suzuki and Holly Dressel describe how we have evolved beyond our needs, trampling other species in the process. We learn about how human arrogance—demonstrated by our disregard for the small and microscopic species that constitute the Earth’s engine and our reckless use of powerful herbicides or genetically engineered crops—is threatening the health of our children and the safety of our food supply. But it’s not too late to change our course. From Naked Ape to Superspecies shows us that we are at a turning point—we can either push ahead on our path to destruction or we can reshape our place in nature and prosper.
Good News for a Change: How Everyday People Are Helping the Planet By: Holly Dressel, Dr. David Suzuki David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2003 We all know the bad news. Every day, along with all the bulletins on social upheavals and terrorist attacks, we read reports of the damage that industrial development is wreaking on our soil, air and water. We seem intent on continuing to live this way, even though many scientific experts tell us our actions are suicidal. The good news is that thousands of individuals, groups and businesses are already changing their ways. A growing number of companies are still making money while benefiting their local communities. The authors have also uncovered hundreds of working solutions that can help all of us to imagine and achieve a new and happier future. There is a spontaneous, global quest for ways to survive sustainably that is opening up a very different planetary future from the one based on endless economic and industrial demands. And, say Suzuki and Dressel, many of the technologies we need to realize our goals—to save species, to conserve soil, to right social wrongs—are already within our grasp.
The David Suzuki Reader By: Dr. David Suzuki David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2003 Drawing from Suzuki’s published and unpublished writings, this collection reveals the underlying themes that have informed his work over a lifetime. In these incisive and provocative essays, Suzuki looks unflinchingly at the destructive forces of globalization, political short-sightedness, and greed. Suzuki cautions against blind faith in science, technology, politics, and economics, and provides inspiring examples of how and where to make those changes that will matter to all of us and to future generations.
The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, Updated and Expanded By: Dr. David Suzuki Contributions by: Adrienne Mason, Amanda McConnell David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2002, 2007 In this new and extensively revised and amplified edition of his bestselling book, David Suzuki reflects on these changes and examines what they mean for our place in the world. His basic message remains the same: We are creatures of the Earth, utterly dependent on its elements, which are not just external factors, but incorporated into our very essence.
The Sacred Balance (Photo Book): A Visual Celebration of Our Place In Nature By: Maria DeCambra, Amanda McConnell, Dr. David Suzuki David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2002, 2004 This outstanding book is based on David Suzuki and Amanda McConnell’s best-selling The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, a textual exploration of the web of life that unites all living things. This visual feast celebrates that connection in spectacular photographs, beautiful reproductions of artwork, and amazing electron micrographs and satellite photographs.
When the Wild Comes Leaping Up: Personal Encounters with Nature Edited by: Dr. David Suzuki David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2002, 2003 In this eloquent collection of original essays, award-winning writers from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia describe a personal encounter with the natural world that moved them and led to a new level of understanding or awareness. All are beautifully written and deeply felt, and all are testimonies to the transformative power of nature.
Northern Wild Edited by David R. Boyd David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2001 Wilderness is one of the defining features of Canada. It is etched into our collective unconscious, yet we each experience it in unique ways. This beautiful anthology features the work of 20 contemporary Canadian nature writers - from some of Canada’s best-known authors to some promising new talents. The authors explore the intimate relationships between Canadians of differing cultural backgrounds and Canada’s vast natural landscape.
Eco-Fun By David Suzuki and Kathy Vanderlinden David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2001 Television, video games, computers and other technologies are exciting inventions, but today they tend to dominate our lives – especially those of our children. Through interactive games and experiments, this book helps reconnect both children and adults to the natural world. It’s a great opportunity to bring families together, have fun and learn about ourselves and the world around us.
The Last Great Sea: A Voyage through the Human and Natural History of the North Pacific Ocean By Terry Glavin David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 2000 Terry Glavin’s new book is rich with surprising and disparate nuggets of information. Some samples: North Pacific fisheries yield 25 million tons of fish each year, an amount roughly equal to the weight of all the people in North America; and Hawaiians were among the first outsiders to set foot on North America’s Pacific Coast. But the strength of Glavin’s book is how he weaves eclectic tales into a rich story of the life that has been sustained by the North Pacific.
Vanishing Halo By Daniel Gawthrop David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 1999 When we think of vanishing forests, our minds tend to go to rainforests. But the largest forests on Earth are the Russian and North American taiga, or boreal forests. These forests shelter unique ecosystems and help stabilize global climate. Unfortunately, the taiga is under threat from industrial development and global warming. Author Daniel Gawthrop tours Russia, Europe and North America, revealing both the threats and the efforts at solutions in the planet’s “northern halo.”
You Are the Earth By David Suzuki and Kathy Vanderlinden David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 1999 Based on The Sacred Balance, this children’s book explores how the four physical elements - air, water, earth, and fire - contribute to life on Earth. By presenting amazing scientific facts, fun activities, and ancient myths, the authors show how we are all connected to the earth. A colourful, engaging book, You Are the Earth makes a fun and fascinating read for both children and their parents.
Greenhouse: The 200-year Story of Global Warming By Gale E. Christianson David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 1999 Dr. Suzuki calls this a “...magnificent book that elucidates the roots of our modern ecological quandary. Human beings are capable of heroic responses to immediate crises but require insight and understanding to act on slow motion catastrophes like global warming. This book is a unique and powerful contribution to that understanding.”
Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature by David Suzuki with Amanda McConnell David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 1997 This powerful book captures David Suzuki's vision for a world in which we can rediscover our place in nature and live in balance with our surroundings. It offers concrete suggestions for meeting our physical and spiritual needs while creating a way of life that is sustainable, fulfilling and just. It also tells the stories of people who have put their beliefs into action and are helping to create such a way of life.
Delgamuukw: The Supreme Court of Canada Decision on Aboriginal Title With commentary by Stan Persky David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 1998 The 1997 Delgamuukw decision on Native land claims brought down by Canada's Supreme Court was welcomed by Native leaders but unleashed a storm of controversy among Native and non-Native groups. This book presents the entire text of the decision along with background information and analytical commentary by Stan Persky.
Dead Reckoning: Confronting the Crisis in Pacific Fisheries By Terry Glavin David Suzuki Foundation and Greystone Books, 1996 Award-winning journalist Terry Glavin addresses difficult questions about the decline in Pacific fish stocks. In very readable prose, he presents concrete, sustainable alternatives for fishing communities around the globe and introduces some of the fishers, biologists and "average citizens" who are working to conserve and restore the world's great fisheries.