Her name is Severn Cullis-Suzuki and she is the daughter of world-renown environmentalist activist David Suzuki.
She was 12 years old when she gave this impassioned speech that silenced a forum at the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit – a forum of international diplomats and power mongers, all brought to tears by the pleas of a child.
I cried as I watched this.
Cried for my nieces, my nephews, and every child who will suffer our careless destruction of their future on this planet.
This child is a woman now, 29 years old. And I wonder…if her child were to speak at the 2012 UN Earth Summit, would her speech be any different?
Would she thank us for the progress we’ve made in repairing her future?
Or would she be forced, by our inaction, to repeat her mother’s 1992 plea for change?
~Sylver Blaque