Linked with The Skyfish Project, with Youth Action Centre, and with A re-compilation of texts and blogs for indigenous peoples.
She says: « When you are little, it’s not hard to believe you can change the world. I remember my enthusiasm when, at the age of 12, I addressed the delegates at the Rio Earth Summit. « I am only a child, » I told them. « Yet I know that if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this would be. In school you teach us 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? You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words. »
I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I’ve sat through many more conferences, I’m not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual’s voice to reach them has been deeply shaken … (full text).
Listen to her audio and videos: on the green chain podcast; on EramosaInstitute; on the great warming; on speaker’s spotlight; on archives radio Canada; on BC Compassion Club Society; on Google Video; on common ground; on YouTube.
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Severn Cullis-Suzuki – Canada
She works for the Skyfish Project.
She says also: … « In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, 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;
- You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone laye;
- You don’t know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream;
- You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct;
- And you can’t bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert;
- If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it » … (maps google).
At 23, Severn Cullis-Suzuki is one of the world’s most remarkable youth activists. Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn has been working on in environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992’s Rio Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave a powerful speech that deeply affected the leaders who heard it. (collage people).
And she says: « … Here on Quadra everyone in our little posse is involved in the food-collecting and -preparing process this whole weekend, and I notice how quickly ceremony develops–candles are lit, wine is poured, and finally we all sit down together; toasts happen and suddenly taking care and time and enjoyment in celebrating these precious moments is the most important, human thing we could possibly be doing.
This is so enjoyable! I wonder, Why don’t we always sit together, eat together, give thanks together? This kind of event is not something only the wealthy, or the humble, can partake in. It is something innately human and natural to all of us … (full text).
Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born 1979) is an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. Born to writer Dr. Tara Elizabeth Cullis (Ph.D. in comparative literature) and famed Canadian geneticist and environmental activist Dr. David Suzuki(Ph.D. in zoology), Cullis-Suzuki received a B. Sc. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University in 2002. 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. (slothclub).
In 1992, at the age of 12, Cullis-Suzuki raised money with some schoolmates to attend the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, where she received a standing ovation for a speech to the delegates.
In the spring of 2002, Cullis-Suzuki helped launch an Internet based think tank called The Skyfish Project. She is claimed to be a member of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel, and as such she and members of the Skyfish Project brought their first project, a pledge called the ‘Recognition of Responsibility’, to the UN World Summit in Johannesburg in August 2002. However, the domain for The Skyfish Project, was deactivated in April 2007. It is now active again.
Cullis-Suzuki has hosted a number of television programs, including Suzuki’s Nature Quest, a children’s television series that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2002. In 1993, Doubleday published her book Tell the World (ISBN 0-385-25422-9), a 32-page book of environmental steps for families.
According to David Suzuki, The Autobiography (published in 2006), Severn spent 2 years traveling after graduating from Yale University and then enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Victoria to study ethnobotany under Prof. Nancy Turner. Severn and her boyfriend often spends time at the Suzuki property on Quadra Island. (wikipedia).
Read: Severn Speakers Tour in Japan, November 2002.
Read: Building a just society / (and same in french).
Severn Cullis-Suzuki, environmentalist, turns her attention back to the horizon. « This city has changed so much in four years, » she notes, her eyes set on the distance. Or perhaps on the future … (full text).
… She has been a member of Kofi Annan?s Special Advisory Panel. She calls youth to sign the Recognition of Responsibility to pledge their commitment for creating a positive future for all … (PNYV).
Read her also: on earthfocus; on Kestrel’s Nest; on Sierra Activist; on en route; on PNYV; on YouthActionCentre; on fiftyRx3; on Accelerating Future; on G21WorldForum; on CampDojo; on DiscoveryChannel.
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