Severn Cullis-Suzuki

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Severn Suzuki
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Cullis-Suzuki speaking at the University of Alberta
Born (1979-11-30) November 30, 1979 (age 33)
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada
Occupation environmental activist, speaker, television host, author, Humanitarian
Citizenship Canadian
Notable work(s) honoured in the United Nations Environment Programme's Global 500 Roll of Honour.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born November 30, 1979 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. 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. She is also the daughter of Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki.

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Biography [edit]

Cullis-Suzuki was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia.[1] Her mother is writer Tara Elizabeth Cullis. Her father, geneticist and environmental activist David Suzuki, is a third-generation Japanese Canadian.[2] While attending Lord Tennyson Elementary School in French Immersion, at age 9, she founded the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other youngsters about environmental issues.[3] In 1992, at age 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.[4][5] The video has since become a viral hit, popularly known as "The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes".[6] In 1993, she was honoured in the United Nations Environment Programme's Global 500 Roll of Honour.[7] In 1993, Doubleday published her book Tell the World, a 32-page book of environmental steps for families.

Cullis-Suzuki graduated from Yale University in 2002 with a B.S. in ecology and evolutionary biology.[3] After Yale, Cullis-Suzuki spent two years travelling. Cullis-Suzuki co-hosted Suzuki's Nature Quest, a children's television series that aired on the Discovery Kids in 2002.

In early 2002, she helped launch an Internet-based think tank called The Skyfish Project.[8][9] 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.[3] The Skyfish Project disbanded in 2004 as Cullis-Suzuki turned her focus back to school and enrolled in a graduate course in the University of Victoria to study ethnobotany under Nancy Turner.[8]

Severn is married and lives with her husband and two children in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki is the main character in the documentary film Severn, the Voice of Our Children, directed by Jean-Paul Jaud and released theatrically in France on November 10, 2010.

Cullis-Suzuki's speech [edit]

Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Children's Organisation. We are a group of twelve and thirteen-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 six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming 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. We cannot afford to not be heard.

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 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 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 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 layer. 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!

Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or politicians - but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles - and all of you are somebody'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 we all share the same air, water and soil - 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 of telling the world how I feel.

In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, 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 of 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. The list could go on for two days.

Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And 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 children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favelas 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 ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!

At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us how to behave in the world. 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? 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 are growing up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying "everything's going to be alright', "we're doing the best we can" and "it's not the end of the world".

But I don't think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father 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. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening.

References [edit]

  1. ^ "BC Author Bank: Cullis-Suzuki, Severn". ABCBookWorld. Retrieved 2008-06-06. 
  2. ^ http://www.collagefoundation.org/people/people-scsuzuki.html
  3. ^ a b c "Severn Cullis-Suzuki". Speakers' Spotlight. Retrieved 2008-06-06. 
  4. ^ Cullis-Suzuki, Severn (June 1992). "Address to the Plenary Session, Earth Summit". The Sloth Club. Retrieved 2008-06-06. 
  5. ^ Cullis-Suzuki, Severn (2002-08-18). "The Young Can't Wait". Time. Retrieved 2008-06-06. 
  6. ^ "The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes". Retrieved 2011-12-05. 
  7. ^ Maybaum, Mary Ann (2004-05-01). "UNEP Global 500 Laureates - Award Winners". United Nations Environment Program. Retrieved 2008-06-06. 
  8. ^ a b Suzuki, David (2006). David Suzuki: The Autobiography. Canada: Greystone Books. ISBN 1-55365-156-1. 
  9. ^ Scott, Julia (2003). "Earth Pioneer". Collage. Archived from the original on 2008-05-23. Retrieved 2008-06-06. 

External links [edit]

Authority control
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