This is an extract from a speech given by Severn Suzuki, a 13-year-old girl from Canada, on June 11, 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Hello, I’m Severn Suzuki, speaking for ECO, the Environmental Children’s Organisation. We are a group of four 12 and 13-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference—Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg, and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come 6000 miles to tell you adults that you must change your ways.
I am here to speak for all future generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of all 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. I used to go fishing in Vancouver, my home town, 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 every day.
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 things when you were of my age?