Dawn Picken: Why we should think about the environment when we think about death 16 Apr, 2021 10:00 PM 4 minutes to read Life plans experience seismic disruptions or deviations, death is certain, writes Dawn Picken. Photo / GettyImages OPINION: Death has been in our faces a lot the past year, thanks to Covid-19. Even in Aotearoa, we can't escape headlines announcing that three million people no longer inhabit the earth, thanks to the novel coronavirus. It's a sobering reminder that putting our affairs in order is not something we should postpone until we're very old, or very sick. We need a death plan as much, or more, than we need a life plan. While our life plans experience seismic disruptions or deviations, death is certain.