5 Minutes
Severn Cullis-Suzuki gave the speech at the UN Earth Summit of 1992, when she was only 12 years old. E.C.O raised money with members of ECO, to attend the Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki personally wrote the entire speech (below)
Hello, I’m Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Childrens Organisation. We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me.
We raised all the money ourselves to come five thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. 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.
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.
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!
1. You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer
2. You don’t know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream
3. You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct
4. And you can’t bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert
If you don’t know how to fix it,
Severn Cullis-Suzuki personally wrote the entire speech (below)
Hello, I’m Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Childrens Organisation. We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me.
We raised all the money ourselves to come five thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. 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.
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.
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!
1. You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer
2. You don’t know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream
3. You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct
4. And you can’t bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert
If you don’t know how to fix it,