Beautiful speech from a 12 yr old girl to save Mother Earth |
The following is the transcript of the speech that Severn Suzuki
gave to the Plenary Session at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio Centro,
Brazil. Severn was twelve years old.
Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental
Children's Organisation.
We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying
to make a difference:
Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on
the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.
I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the
world whose cries go unheard.
I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this
planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be
not heard.
I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the
ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what
chemicals are in it.
I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years
ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals
and plants going extinct every day―vanishing
forever.
In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals,
jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I
wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my
age?
All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have
all the time we want and all the solutions. I'm only a child and I
don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realise, neither do
you!
If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!
Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people,
organisers, reporters or poiticians―
but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts
and uncles―and
all of you are somebody's child.
I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five
billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share
the same air, water and soil―borders
and governments will never change that.
I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should
act as one single world towards one single goal.
In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell
the world how I feel.
In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and
throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the
needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose
some of our wealth, afraid to share.
In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water
and shelter―we
have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.
Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time
with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child
told us: "I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the
street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and
affection."
If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why
are we who have everything still so greedy?
I can't stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes
a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of
those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child
starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar
in India.
I'm only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent
on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a
wonderful place this earth would be!
At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the
world. You teach us:
Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?
Do not forget why you're attending these conferences, who you're
doing this for―we
are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will
grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by
saying "everything's going to be alright", "we're doing the best we
can" and "it's not the end of the world".
But I don't think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on
your list of priorities? My father always says "You are what you do,
not what you say."
Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love
us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words.
Thank you for listening. |