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Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for ECO,
The Environmental Children's Organization.
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 to come here ourselves,
to come five thousand miles,
to tell you adults you must change your ways.
Coming up 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 our ozone.
I am afraid to breath the air,
because I don't know what chemicals are in it.
I used to go fishing in Vancouver,
my home with my dad,
until just a few years ago,
we found the fish full of cancers.
And now we hear 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 of these 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 realize, neither do you!
*You don't know how to fix
the holes in our ozone layer.
*You don't know how to bring the salmon
back up a dead stream.
*You don't know how to bring back an animal
now extinct.
* And you can't bring back the forests
that once grew where there is now desert.
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 politicians.
But really, you are mothers and fathers,
sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles,
and all of you are someone'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 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 share,
we are afraid to let go some of our wealth.
In Canada, we live the privileged life,
with plenty of food, water and shelter.
We have watches, bicycles,
computers and television sets.
And Let us go on in two days.
Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked
when we spent time
with some children living on the streets.
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 a children, my own 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 finding environmental answers,
ending poverty, and finding treaties,
what a wonderful place this earth would be!
At school, even in kindergarten,
you teach us to behave in the world.
You teach us:
* to not to fight with others,
* to work things out,
* to respect others,
* to clean up our mess,
* not to hurt other creatures,
* to share, not be greedy.
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 is going to be alright",
"It's not the end of the world",
and "we're doing the best we can".
But I don't think you can say that to us anymore!
Are we even on your list of priorities?
My dad 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.
But I Challenge You, Please...
"Make your actions! Reflect
your words!"
Thank you.