The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes
1992 Severn Cullis-Suzuki addresses the UN about environmental issues.
I’ve heard from quite a few adults – some who should really know better – who lament the idea that young people are too apathetic to care about the world. However, as examples like Severn show, passionate socially-conscious young people are out there making a difference every day. Indeed, the Social Citizens project has published a paper detailing the efforts and consciousness of the Millenials (the current generation of 15-to-29 year-olds) and their important social change work. Severn is on the edge of this generation, but she is a great representative of the power young people hold.
There is simply in excuse for the predicament we currently find ourselves in. Whatever happened to all of the hope and optimsim that we felt on New Years Eve 1999? Here we are almost a decade into the New Millennium, it is shocking how things have not changed at all in our world.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born November 30, 1979 in Vancouver, Canada) is an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. Born to writer Tara Elizabeth Cullis and geneticist and environmental activist David Suzuki, she has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility.
Cullis-Suzuki was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. While attending Lord Tennyson Elementary School in French Immersion, at the age of nine, she founded the Environmental Children’s Organization, a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. In 1992, at the age of 12, Cullis-Suzuki raised money with members of ECO, to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Along with group members Michelle Quigg, Vanessa Suttie, and Morgan Geisler, Cullis-Suzuki presented environmental issues from a youth perspective at the summit, where she was applauded for a speech to the delegates. In 1993, she was honoured in the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global 500 Roll of Honour. In 1993, Doubleday published her book Tell the World (ISBN 0-385-25422-9), a 32-page book of environmental steps for families.
Cullis-Suzuki graduated from Yale University in 2002 with a B.Sc. in ecology and evolutionary biology. After Yale, Cullis-Suzuki spent two years traveling. Cullis-Suzuki co-hosted Suzuki’s Nature Quest, a children’s television series that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2002.
In early 2002, she helped launch an Internet-based think tank called The Skyfish Project. As a member of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the Skyfish Project brought their first project, a pledge called the “Recognition of Responsibility”, to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002. The Skyfish Project disbanded in 2004 as Cullis-Suzuki turned her focus back to school and enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Victoria to study ethnobotany under Nancy Turner.
Transcript of the speech
Posted in Steve
March 27th, 2009 at 2:48 am
how inspiring to know that so much is being done and thought about. however in this day and age it is a shame that the people who can make a difference, ie the ones in power do not even blink an eye unless they profit shortens…
if we put in a penny im sure they can find a pound or ten which will make a hugh difference. better still make a self sustainable world in which we profit with happiness to help all others around us and afar in our thoughts. godbless you.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Dear fellow citizen,
I refer you to a recent article by Dr Gideon Polya in the humane and ethical MWC News, Canada entitled “School war crimes tribunals. Can children save the world’s children?“: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/33643/42/ .
In short, “About 0.5 million infants die avoidably each year in the US Occupied Territories, 9.5 million die world-wide annually under Obama and 60 million will die annually through climate genocide. In despair we ask can Children save the World’s children through school genocide and war crimes tribunals? Let us examine these shocking numbers that derive from authoritative sources…Several years ago I was an invited speaker (together with Australian engineer Douglas Wood who had been kidnapped in Occupied Iraq and Dr Tilman Ruff, President of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Australia) at a top boys school in which the boys role-played the UN sitting in judgment on the ultimate instrument of mass murder (in addition to ongoing First World-imposed poverty/deprivation and ongoing First World-imposed climate genocide), namely nuclear weapons. From this very happy and inspiring experience comes a powerful suggestion. Children at all schools around the world should set up School Tribunals to conduct trials of Obama and his war criminal confrères for the past, present and prospective mass murder of children. Indeed the children of mass murderers could be a special part of the process – thus Obama’s daughters, who are no doubt decent children, could usefully participate…Teachers, parents and children reading this – please inform everyone you can. Any trauma children may suffer from participation in Children’s Genocide and War Crimes Tribunals is nothing as compared to the horrendous suffering of the 9.5 million infants who die avoidably each year from First World-imposed war, deprivation and climate change.”
The article is accompanied by video and transcript of the fantastic 1992 Address by Canadian child Severn Suzuki (12 years old) to the Plenary Session, Earth Summit, Rio Centro, Brazil 1992.
Teachers, parents and children reading this – please inform everyone you can.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Gideon Polya
Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria 3085, Australia.
Convenor 300.org: http://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org .
August 31st, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Unfortunately could not read the transcript of the 1992 speech by Severn Suzuki (12 years old) to the Plenary Session, Earth Summit, Rio Centro, Brazil 1992.
due ro some technical fault.I would love to read and download the speech.