In all honesty we’re surprised we’ve never seen it before.
Why it
hasn’t come up on our friend’s Facebook page posts or why over the past
20 years we’ve never seen it grace the screen of our television sets.
The video is titled “The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes”
and is the filming of a speech made in 1992 by then-12-year-old Severn
Cullis-Suzuki as she addressed the United Nations and a room full of
adults at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
She is the daughter of famous geneticist and environmental activist
David Suzuki and in 1999 she founded the Environmental Children’s
Organization (ECO).
On this occasion she and her three accompanying friends had
self-funded their trip from Canada to make a speech to the international
community and country representatives.
Speaking directly and authoritatively she confidently pronounced she
had come “to speak for all generations to come” as a girl “fighting for
her future”.
She spoke “on behalf of” the world’s starving children and dying
animals. She told of her fears about the world’s suffering eco systems
and devastating changes to the environment and then she added:
“I am only a child and yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world toward one single goal.
“In my country we make so much waste … why are we, who have everything, still so greedy?”
And she concluded with this:
“You are deciding what kind of a world we are growing up in. Parents
should be able to comfort their children by saying “everything’s 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 any more.
“You grown ups say you love us but I challenge you: please make your actions reflect your words.”
Twenty years on it is a message for every one of us, parents predominantly.
Her father’s influences had clearly made an impact on her young life.
We encourage all other parents to educate their little ones, when
they are at the appropriate age, about the importance of nurturing the
earth, consuming less, developing better ethical and environmental
behaviours at home and encouraging them to speak out against suffering
and damaging effects the human family continues to have on this planet.
We must be the change we want to see in the world and we must never
be shy about thinking green. For what state will this planet be in 100
years time if the majority don’t acknowledge we must think about how we
each impact on the planet by our every day choices and by what we buy.
So make your choices count so that one day silencing the world will
not be necessary for the sweet sound of laughter of all children on the
planet will be what we hear most.
You can find more info about Severn, her latest message for parents
and see the video “The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes” on our
playlist at http://www.youtube.com/user/ecopartybox/videos
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